Wrigley Field

Home of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago, Illinois

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Now, this is a place to watch baseball! I'll admit that my expectations were pretty high. After all, many people claim that Wrigley is the best park -- bar none -- in baseball. I was prepared to be let down. No such thing. Not even close.

Kevin and I saw two games there in June, staying at a hotel about eight blocks from the park. This meant that we got a good walk through a neighborhood which is positively teeming with restaurants and shops and renovated apartment buildings. And while there's plenty of traffic, it wasn't overwhelming in any way -- even as game time approached (though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be out driving in it).

I'm not sure where people park. The train runs pretty close to the ballpark, so I suspect that a fair amount of smart people arrive this way. And there's street parking throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. Maybe that's it. I don't know, but there was no sign of a surface parking lot anywhere near the park. This was so refreshing. (There's a CitySearch site with some info that explains a lot of this.)

Seeing the place as we got closer was a little bit like walking backwards through time. It was exactly as I expected, complete with that famous marquee, little tiny ticket windows and rabid Cubs fans milling about waiting for the gates to open.

But I'll never forget setting foot inside for the first time. The first sight: the field. In fact, you can see the field from almost anywhere in the park. This means that everything is focused on the game. And even the concourses feel close to the action. (I tried to figure out why, but to no avail.)

The place has plenty of modern amenities, including a row of luxury suites tucked discreetly below the upper deck. They do not impact watching the game, and look like they've been there since opening day in 1912! And at the other end of the scale, there were areas specifically set aside for standing room only. This is smart, of course, but also very charming. I wouldn't want to watch a game that way, but most people who bought those tickets didn't. A lot of them ended up in the nosebleed seats with us. I heard a woman behind me say that she was just looking for any five seats together because they only had standing room tickets.

Watching the game from the second-to-last row of the upper deck might sound like some sort of baseball purgatory (which it is at the Metrodome), but at Wrigley, there isn't a bad seat. Occasionally I had to adjust to see around a support pillar,  but it didn't matter. I felt like part of the game from even that far away. (Again, I tried to figure out why, but again I failed.) I suspect that the same is true even in the seats set up on the tops of apartment buildings across the street from the outfield. By game time, almost every one of those auxiliary seats was filled.

These seats across the street really draw in the neighborhood into the park and make it feel like the whole area is devoted exclusively to baseball. I can't imagine what it must be like in the winter (and I choose not to even wonder too much about that). I've read that seats up on those rooftops go for $100 per person or more, and are mostly rented by corporations, making them the Wrigley equivalent of a skybox, I suppose. Clearly, the owners of these properties make a lot of money from their seats, as they did not appear to be makeshift in the least. They appeared to be professionally-installed and maintained bleacher seating. I've also heard that the Cubs make no money from these seats, and are planning to add bleachers which may impact the visibility. Let's hope not.

After the first game (Twins losing 5-3), we headed down into the seats right behind home plate. These seats would be amazing, though I bet they're hard to come by. Feels a bit like watching an American Legion or city baseball game. From there, you could probably hear chatter from the players, and see sweat on a pitcher's forehead. Mostly though, they'd be great because you're sitting essentially on the field -- right at the same level as the players -- with only a short wall between you and the action. That's as close to being in the game that you can get in a major league park.

For the second game (Twins losing 11-4), we sat a little closer -- about eight rows up into the second deck down the first base side. We were in the sun for most of the game, which felt just great.

People talk about the scoreboard, and I expected to be a little disappointed or distracted by its manual nature. But I got used to it pretty quickly. The only thing I never figured out was how they indicate when a play has been scored as an error. I'm sure it's there, but I never found it. I also wished I could have seen the pitch speed, though I know that's not a very retro thing. I guess I've gotten a little spoiled, and think that makes a nice bit of information to have. (Again, maybe that feature is there, but I never found it.) One thing I did notice was how fast the count was updated. There are many places where, after the pitch, you glance up for the count only to see that it hasn't changed. At Wrigley, by the time my eyes went from the hitter to the scoreboard, the count was updated. Amazing.

I also thought it was cool that the scoreboard operators could peer out through windows where scores would soon be (on the photo, the window can be seen in place of the Cincinnati 9th inning). I suspect that scoreboard operator at Wrigley is every bit as desirable a job as bat boy.

From where we sat in the upper deck, we could see some TV monitors. But they were pretty small, and never seemed to show anything interesting. Much of the time it was just the view you would get if you were watching at home. With monitors that small, this was pretty pointless. Occasionally there was a useful replay, but only a couple of times. From our seats out on the terrace, we could not see monitors at all -- which was just fine by me.

The sound system was terrible. It sounded a bit like original equipment, like the same sort of thing which would have been installed in a train depot of the same era. The organ came through nice and clear, but spoken words were almost always incomprehensible.

In fact, the organ provided a great moment just after we sat down for the first game. At both games, the organist started his playing with the Minnesota Rouser, segueing into "We're Gonna Win Twins." This is such a classy thing -- I can't begin to describe the feeling as I realized what I was hearing. Let's just say that it made me feel like a very welcome guest.

After each game, the streets outside the park were swamped with fans who didn't seem to want to leave. (This is so contrary to the Minnesota experience that it felt like some sort of mass psychosis.) Teams of drumming teens set up and large groups of people stayed to listen. Bars and restaurants overflowed into the streets. People could be overheard actually talking about the game (imagine that!) and just enjoying the beautiful surroundings and weather.

The fans were a mixed bag. Certainly there were some people out for an afternoon's entertainment (drunk guy and blue dress girl included), who didn't really care if it was baseball or something else. The fellows sitting next to me during the second game were business partners, long-time Cubs fans (although not exactly die-hard), doing something they'd obviously done together many times before. Neither was keeping score, so they asked me several times for info. I was cheering loudly for the Twins, but they didn't seem to mind. That's what baseball is about.

At the first game, a drunken old-timer was telling stories and jokes with a pretty girl he sat down next to. He was obviously a die-hard Cubs fan, and even told some stories about coming out to this park as a kid.

* Sigh *

The park I went to as a kid is long gone. In its place is hermetically sealed, baseball-flavored entertainment (out of which it is possible to extract some real baseball -- mostly thanks to Twins manager Tom Kelly).

What I wouldn't give to cheer for the Twins at home in a park like this.