Share and Follow
CHICAGO — Renowned as the home of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field stands as a cherished neighborhood ballpark and a national historic landmark. Its global recognition stems from its iconic features: the vivid red marquee, lush outfield ivy, and the distinctive hand-operated scoreboard. Yet, when “The Friendly Confines” first opened its gates in 1914, none of these elements were present. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even the home of the Chicago Cubs, nor did it bear the name Wrigley Field.
“Initially, it was known as Weeghman Park, founded by Charlie Weeghman,” explained Cooper Bohn, a knowledgeable tour guide at Wrigley Field. “Weeghman was keen on establishing a baseball team to rival the Cubs, who were playing at the West Side Grounds, while the White Sox were based on the South Side. Thus, he created the Chicago Federals and joined the Federal League.”
Constructed in a mere seven weeks and costing $250,000, Weeghman Park featured a covered grandstand capable of accommodating 14,000 spectators.
However, by 1916, the Federal League had disbanded, paving the way for the Cubs to make a permanent move to this North Side location, subsequently christened “Cubs Park,” in the Lake View neighborhood.
In 1921, the stadium welcomed another professional team. “The Bears relocated here from Decatur, Illinois, in 1921,” Bohn recounted. “The Cubs suggested they adopt the name Chicago Football Cubs. However, George Halas found it unappealing and believed that a team of robust football players shouldn’t be likened to baby bears, hence the compromise was to call them the Bears.”
In 1925, Bears rookie running back, Red Grange played his first professional game at Wrigley Field.
The Bears played at Wrigley field for 50 seasons, before moving to Soldier Field in 1970. The “Monsters of the Midway” established themselves as a football power winning five championships at Wrigley Field.
“That five NFL championships by the way – as much as I hate to admit it – is more than the amount of baseball championships we’ve won out here,” Bohn said.
After the 1922 baseball season, the stadium was expanded.
“They sliced the grandstand into several pieces, put it on log rollers, and in one offseason pulled it back inch by inch 60 feet with horse and buggy, and the funny thing is if you go watch a game in the upper deck you might go ‘home plate doesn’t line up directly with dead center and you go ‘yeah, horse and buggy isn’t exactly and exact science,” Bohn said,.
In December of 1926 the name “Cubs Park” was changed to “Wrigley Field” after the Cubs owner William Wrigley, Jr., whose fortune was built on chewing gum.
That same year, crews began building the upper deck, a project that took two years to complete.
In the early 1930s, the Cubs added the famous marquee at Clark and Addison Streets. At first, it was unpainted green porcelain. The original color – since recreated – is still visible on the backside of the marquee. The front facing side was painted blue, and then finally red in 1960, becoming an iconic symbol of summer ever since.
But Wrigley’s mystique comes from a mixture of the architecture and the athletes.
In perhaps baseball’s most storied moment, Babe Ruth called his shot – a home run — at Wrigley Field in the 1932 world series. “I looked out and center field and I pointed, and I said I’m going to hit the next pitched ball right past the flagpole,” Ruth said at the time. “The good lord must have been with me.”
“Wrigley field’s a landmark because of the great cubs we’ve had here, but it’s also a landmark because of those visitors.” Bohn said. “Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Jackie Robinson.”
Wrigley Field is the last remaining stadium in which Robinson – who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 – played a professional baseball game.
Between 1937 and 1938 some of Wrigley Field’s most famous features began to take shape. It’s when the outfield bleachers were built.
“Eighty-nine years they have been general admission, only time we have assigned seats out there are for all-star games and playoff games,” Bohn said.
The bleachers would become the home of one of the most recognizable fan contingents in sports – the “Bleacher Bums” – celebrated and criticized for watching day baseball instead of working.
“So, the newspaper writers said, ‘well these guys are coming out Monday through Friday at 1:20 p.m., they don’t have jobs, they must be bums,” Bohn said.
Atop the centerfield bleachers is a timeless tradition, the hand operated scoreboard – still in use today.
In 1937 crews also planted ivy on the outfield’s field’s brick wall.
“They put it up in just three days,” Bohn said. “It was kind of a last-minute decision before the 1938 season to get it installed, and so they got that ivy installed in 3 days. The guy who installed it was a young groundskeeper named Bill Veeck, who went on to own a couple of teams in his time.”
In 1941 Wrigley became the first ballpark to introduce organ music, a baseball staple that continues to entertain fans to this day.
In 1945 curse of the Billy Goat was allegedly placed on the cubs by Billy Goat Tavern owner William “Billy” Sianis. He brought his pet goat to Game 4 of the world series at Wrigley Field
“They had to call Mr. Wrigley and find out what to do,” said Bill Sianis, the current co-owner of the tavern. “He said we’ll let Billy in, but not the goat because the goat smells. He didn’t want it, you know, by the people. So, my great uncle, he got mad and left the stadium and went back to the bar, and the cubs lost the series after that. And my great uncle sent a telegram to Mr. Wrigley, who smells now? He didn’t do any ritual or anything. He told Mr. Wrigley, as long as the goat is not let back in, they’ll never win the World Series, so it became a curse over the years.”
The Cubs’ World Series drought lasted 108 years, until the 2016 team won it all.
In 1962, the new Telstar Communications satellite made it possible to send live pictures around the world. The first images of the United States seen in Europe came from Wrigley Field via the WGN television feed: “All the way from Wrigley Field in Chicago to the Coliseum in Rome,” said Jack Brickhouse, the WGN announcer at the time.
In the 1960s the Cubs fielded one of the best lineups in baseball – with Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Ron Santo forming a trio of eventual hall of famers, all of whom are memorialized in statues outside the ballpark.
In the late 70s, WGN – the Cubs TV home for 72 seasons – became a superstation seen on cable across the country, bringing views of day baseball at Wrigley Field to homes around the country.
In 1982 Harry Caray, the larger-than-life WGN play-by-play announcer, began his legendary 16-year run behind the microphone. He instituted a beloved Wrigley Field tradition … singing “take me out to the ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch.
In 1988, the Cubs became the last major league team to install lights.
The game was eventually rained out. But it technically wasn’t the first night game played at Wrigley thanks to pioneering team executive Margaret Donahue, the first female in a front office in American sports.
“The real first night game ever was the 1942 women all-star game Margaret and a bunch of women on those teams wheeled in temporary lights – so the women actually did it 56 years before the men,” Bohn said.
In the 1990s, as other clubs were building cookie cutter ballparks, the Cubs remained attached to Wrigley Field. “These new stadiums, you can have them,” said Harry Caray in 1993. “You know they say you can’t stop progress, but progress is not necessarily better.”
But the baseball was seldom as great as the ballpark. The cubs became known as the “lovable losers.” And the curse seemed real in 2003. The Cubs were five outs away from advancing to their first world series since 1945, when fan Steve Bartman reached out to catch a foul ball. Outfielder Moises Alou lost his temper, and the team collapsed.
In 2009, the Ricketts family bought the Cubs – and Wrigley Field – from the Tribune Company.
“They invested a ton of money into renovating this place,” Bohn said.
The Ricketts’ spent more than a billion dollars on a privately funded, multi-year renovation known as the 1060 project, for the ballpark’s address: 1060 West Addison Street.
“The 5-year renovation that the Ricketts family was able to do on it has updated it and made it a better venue to last for another 100 years,” said Elanor Esser Gorski, the president and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center.
The original scale model of the Widely acclaimed 1060 Project is on display at the Chicago Architecture Center.
“Preserving a stadium like that is very different from preserving a building because you’re not just preserving the view from outside, you’re also preserving the view as you sit there as a fan,” she said. “The field, and what is important to the fans of baseball.”
Wrigley Field remains the second oldest Major League Baseball Park. Boston’s Fenway Park is two years older, built in 1912.
Wrigley Field’s story mirrors American history through industrial, social, and technological changes, but the “Friendly Confines” embodies something else, too: the charm of tradition, and the joy of another day at the old ballpark.