Simply put, Wrigley is smack-dab in the middle of the gayest part of town and day games keeps Mr and Mrs conservative safe from their outrageous nightlife.
[hijack]On Independence Day weekend in 1983, I watched the Cubs pound the Astros in the afternoon at Wrigley, ate a deep dish pizza, then toodled on over to old Comiskey for the evening game (don’t remember who played).
What struck me most was the smell of the grass as we took our seat. As a die-hard Phillies fan, I’m used to smelling superheated plastic and asphalt when I take my seat at Veterans’ Stadium.
NothingMan (braves fan and obviously delusional)
For the history? 55 years without a pennant? Last world series title was 1908 for crying out loud! That’s tradition? That’s history? The Polish air force had better luck in 1939.
Slammin’ Sammy? Yes, he hits a lot of homers, but alas, he has yet to hit the cutoff man. When was the last time a home run he hit actually MEANT something? Alas, heroic Sammy appears to only care about himself, and cash. The rumor mills here in Chicago have him demanding a trade to the Mets or Yankees.
The best announcers of live baseball? What have you been smoking? Chip Carey? Please! The Cubs haven’t had decent television commentators since Harry went senile in the second year he worked for the Cubs. The Pat Hughes/Ron Santo team on radio ain’t any better. The Braves announcers have them over a barrel.
And more “kids” get to come to day games? Considering there is basically no walk-up crowd because local busineses have bought up all the seats, I’d say its nigh impossible for a kid to get in to see the Cubs unless his Dad’s a CEO of a Chicago based fortune 500. Part of the reason the Cubs continue to play day baseball is they sell out day baseball to the suits and other loop denizens who use it as an excuse to leave work early.
Wrigley Field has some awfully bad concession food as well.
To go back in the thread a bit; Omniscient is incorrect in his claim that the Cubs had a home game taken from them in the 1984 NLCS. The fifth game was always supposed to be in San Diego.
Unlike the five-game division series they play now, the five-game League Championship Series (they switched to 7 games in 1985) was always played with the first two games in one city and the last three in another. San Diego got the last three games just because it was the Western Division’s turn to get home field advantage. The year before the last three games had been scheduled in the Eastern Division’s home park (Philadelphia, though they never did get to the fifth game.)
I now wonder how this “Chicago got robbed” myth started. It’d be interesting to trace its origins.
The Cubs did not got robbed of a game in the NLCS. If they had made it to the World Series, they would have as even-numbered years are years that the NL gets the home-field advantage.
Cub fans. God bless them. They are obviously victims of the largest case of mass hypnosis ever. They still think there is a real baseball team playing at Wrigley Field.
RickJay and BobT are correct. The 1984 NLCS was NOT altered; the Western Division champions were to have home-field advantage.
The NL champs get World Series home-field advantage in even-numbered years – which, in those days, meant gmaes 1 and 2 on a Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by games 6 and 7 (if necessary) the following Tuesday and Wednesday. If the Cubs had made it to the Series, it would have meant day games during the week, which the TV boys weren’t going to settle for. So the Commish declared that the Cubs would lose home-filed advantage in the '84 series: games 1 & 2 would be night games in Detroit; game 3 would be played late Friday afternoon at Wrigley; games 4 and 5 weekend day games in Chicago; and games 6 & 7 night games in Detroit.
An outrage. Yet, all moot, for reasons far too painful to repeat here. Because the Cubs lost the playoffs in one of the more dramatic melt-downs in the history of a team KNOWN for blowing it – and because sports fans always need to find someone else to blame, rather than the idols they’ve been worshipping all season – fans had to find something to blame for the tragic collapse. And so this complicated, poorly-understood proposal got transferred in public memory from the World Series to the NLCS, and became in legend the “reason” why the Cubs got “robbed” of a World Series berth. (And the lack of a lefty in the bullpen had nothing to do with it, eh?)
And I was wondering how long it would take before my old friend (and nemeis) SoxFan59 weighed in. Welcome!
HorseloverFat – I wouldn’t say Wrigley is smack-dab in the middle of Boys Town; more on the border. But let’s not split hairs.
In the 1970s, before his defection, Harry was teamed up with Jimmy Piersall as the Sox announcers. While the Sox were losing another boring day game, Jimmy asked, “Harry, why can’t we draw fans to our day games like that northside team?” Harry’s response: “Jimmy, it’s because our fans work.”
There is a playoffs and a world series? As a loyal Cubs fan, the fact there is a playoffs and a world series.
Since this thread has already wandered a little off topic, I don’t feel too bad about another semi-hijack.
As raoulortega pointed out, Harry Carey used to work for the White Sox before he gained his most recent fame as the Biggest Cub pimp…err, announcer and seventh inning stretch singer. As I understood it (and perhaps some veteran Chicagoans and/or White Sox fans can back this up), the White Sox hired Carey at least partly because he was famous for baitng the Cubs when he was the Cardinals announcer. So it’s interesting that he later became the personification of the Cub fan. Kind of like finding out that Barry Goldwater used to be a long haired liberal.
(This is not an anti-Cub rant, but rather a comment about the esteemed Harry Carey. I actually kind of like the Cubs.)
Oh, and about those playoffs in 1984: In Lee Smith’s last few years, he became known for that lllooonnnggg leisurely stroll from the bullpen when he entered the game. (As I recall, Sportscenter once timed him to illustrate how slow he was)
Apparently, one day in San Diego, to the surprise of many, he sprinted in from the bullpen. When asked why, he commented: “Because I didn’t want them to show that damned replay of Garvey hitting that home run off me to win that playoff game.”
Guess he has a long memory.
Harry Caray announced baseball games for the Cardinals, A’s, White Sox, and Cubs in varying states of inebriation for about 50 years.
He tended to lose his jobs because he had a fondness for pissing off his employers: like having an affair with the owner’s wife while working for the Cardinals, just being in the presence of Charles O. Finley in Oakland, and being too critical of the players while on the South Side.
I never have figured out why Chicago took to a guy who wasn’t very good at telling you what was going on. This didn’t hurt much on TV, but he must have been hell to listen to on the radio.
As long as we’re talking about announcers, I think Steve Stone is one of the more astute commentators on TV. He really has a lot of interesting things to say, and brings a wealth of information to any game he covers. He knows baseball inside and out, and is not afraid to give an opinion on controversial matters.
This is rare in the age of “That was a super play, wasn’t it Sam?” “Yeah Ralph, a great play.” “He really hit that ball hard, Sam.” “Yeah, and the team that scores the most runs should win this game, Ralph” blah blah blah
Chip Carey is not that bad for play-by-play, certainly better than his dad.
I’ve only been to Wrigley Field once, but it seems on TV that there are a lot of casual fans and kids in the seats, not just a bunch of businessmen. They must be in disguise.
I’m racking my brain trying to remember – who were the Cubs’ radio announcers in the late '60s through the '70s, to the early ‘80s? Lou Bourdreau was one; the other was a guy named Vince. What was his last name? They will always be the standard in my mind – largely because I grew up with them. Just two old guys, talkin’ baseball.
Don’t know who Vince might be, but Chief Cubs Cheerleader on WGN in the '60s and '70s was Jack Brickhouse.
Vince Lloyd, I think. (And I agree about Steve Stone. It’s uncanny the way he can predict exactly where the next pitch is going.)
And on the corporate/regular guy issue. Yeah, most of the best seats seem to owned by corporations or professional firms. Doesn’t means they’re always used that way, though. I’ll be sitting in seats owned by a large corporation (that I won’t name) tomorrow that a friend was able to get. (She works there, and they were available.)
I guarantee that suits will not be worn, lots of beer will be consumed, and business will not be discussed.
The fan who precipitated the scuffle with the Dodgers earlier this year was a Tribune employee and sitting in Tribune owned seats, according to published reports.
…and no caps will be stolen.
Just to add to the who-gets-home-field confusion, in 1984 the National League got World Series home field advantage in even years, the AL in odd years. That has reversed, since there was no Series in 1994. In '93, as per the old system, Toronto (AL) had the advantage, but the next Series in 1995 gave the advantage to the NL champion, the Braves, and has followed that system ever since; it was Yankees in '96, Marlins in '97, etc. So it WAS NL-even AL-odd, but now it’s AL-even NL-odd.
Harry Carray was never fired by the White Sox. He was lured away by a better offer from the Cubs, and wanted to be on “free” tv at a time the White Sox were moving to a balleyhooed but failed pre-cable attempt at pay tv.
In his prime (when he was with the Cards and the White Sox) Harry may have been annoying with his chatter, but I don’t recall anyone better at calling a game. One thing he had over everyone else (again, this was before age caused his mind to wander) was describing the unfolding action (of course, this was when he was on RADIO). You always knew the score, inning, count, runners position, oufielder shading, etc. He was the best.
Radio announcers today talk about everything but the action on the field.
Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau were indeed a great radio play by play team. The current Cub radio team (Pat Hughes and Ron Santo) are pretty lame. Santo is better than most ex-players when it comes to commentary and analysis, but he is such an unabashed “homer” that its irritating and distracting. WGN radio should put together a “greatest hits” album or Ron’s memorable calls. When Brant Brown dropped that fly ball against Milwaukee with the Wild Card slot on the line, you’d have thought someone had stabbed Ronnie. I thought he was literally weeping.
As for your “suits” commentary, the business use of the seats does not involve suit and tied men making deals at the ball park. It is usually what you describe, corporate owned seats used by corporate bigwigs/employees and their friends and family. That still keeps us non-corporate guys and those little kids who supposedly have the opportunity to hop on the “L” and see a day game from getting into the park. The Cubs try and paint this “family friendly” view of Wrigley Field. Its a load of crap, unless you have access to those corporate seats or are independently wealthy yourself.
SoxFan59
Thanks for the info on Harry Caray’s Sox days. I only got to hear Harry in his buffoonish Cub days. My late mother was a Cardinal Knothole gang member and listened to Caray call games on the radio with Gabby Street. She didn’t care for him, but I believe she disliked him personally.
Harry used to sign off by saying “Good night, Skip.” My mom got pissed because she felt that Harry was slighting his other children, who were all girls.