22-May-2024 Wrigley Field

Play ball!

Although i’m not a huge baseball fan, I couldn’t resist taking a bike ride to Wrigley Field for a tour of this historic icon. And I’ll be honest – I wasn’t disappointed! The stadium was built in 1914, and is the second oldest baseball park in the country (only Fenway Park in Boston is older). It’s located in a suburb of Chicago about 3 miles north of downtown and his home to the Chicago Cubs.

I had a great tour guide who told us lots of stories not only about the structure but about the fans and their traditions. A couple of cool facts is that they still have kept the hand operated scoreboard so each time there is a change, a human lifts a 5 pound 11 x 14 metal plate out of its position and replaces it with a new one (from behind - I can only imagine that it must be rather claustrophobic and hot to be inside a scoreboard!). Wrigley is also known for the Ivy that grows on its outfield brick wall; if you’re an outfielder and the ball is hit towards the ivy you can wave it off and get a do over - but if you go after the ball and it gets lost in the ivy it’s a live ball and good luck trying to find it!

Another really cool feature is that many of the buildings surrounding Wrigley Field have put bleachers on their rooftops and sell seats to watch the games. The proceed of these sales is given to the Cubs who donate it to charity.

After the tour, I headed down the street to Wrigleyville (the name of the neighborhood where the stadium is located) and treated myself to a Chicago dog. Sadly I am leaving Chicago today and driving 5 hours south to Louisville, Kentucky. I really loved Chicago!