I will miss being at Wrigley Field today. The weather in Las Vegas is not much better. This article is a nice summation about Wrigley and the dump they built on the South Side to replace one of the jewels of baseball in 1991.
There are lessons to be drawn from both ballparks.
First, private ownership is always preferable to public ownership. The Cubs ballpark has evolved over time and the owners of the team followed the market and met demand in order to get fans in the ballpark.
The White Sox ballpark post-1991 is a public/private partnership. It is an example of what happens when political muscle meets private ownership. The Daley’s used political muscle and the owner of the Sox Jerry Reinsdorf used threats to extract a bunch of government money to build a new ballpark rather than remodel old Comiskey. The White Sox fan base is worse for it.
Wrigley is a jewel. I would advocate tearing down the new ballpark on the South Side and starting over. But, I bet if Reinsdorf did that, he’d move the Sox to the suburbs. Here is what the old Comiskey Park looked like. A rehabber would have said, “It has great bones”.
I will leave you with this and why baseball is so beloved in America. It is a uniquely American game. RIP Lin Brehmer, and the others in this video that are no longer with us.
GO CUBS!
My buddy used to live two blocks from Wrigley and we went to the games a few times in the early 2000’s. One time we went with two lady friends in between us and the centerfielder tossed the ball into the bleachers right at my head and he jumped across them to catch the ball and it bounced off his hands and went down in the basket. Thwarted my one chance at glory of getting a baseball from a game. Being from Wisconsin and living for a while in Milwaukee I got to go to a lot of games at Miller park which is a fantastic ballpark Which I think did have some kind of public private partnership aspect to it but it was well done. One time we went to the Sox park and I couldn’t believe how awful it was. A tragedy of design, really.
I don't think the cubs could move from or tear down wrigley. Its just too iconic. Look at all the old timers in flatbush/brooklyn still nostalgic for ebbots field and its feeling of being the best small park