I was running late yesterday morning, so I drove my truck to the Addison Red Line stop, which is near Wrigley Field. Coincidentally, I parked right in front of the apartment building that Kim lived in when I met her, just a few doors down from Wrigley Field.
I had no trouble finding a spot, as there will be no baseball played there today, or the rest of the year.
Took the above shot in the late afternoon. Wrigley has the last manually-operated scoreboard in the big leagues.
15 comments:
I especially like the scoreboard photo. Nicely done.
Hey Johnny.
Liked the pictures. Daughter Amy made it into about a dozen games this year. I'll have to show them to her.
I think we are lucky we flamed out early in the playoffs. Otherwise it would have just been a bigger disappointment losing to the Rockies. No one is stopping them this year except for maybe the stupid scheduling of playoff games.
Eight days off? Crazy.
Cool, nice pictures!
Tres cool.
Wait 'till next year!
Cool shots, indeed.
When I was a kid, we used to see the White Sox and NW'ern. How strange!
I love Wrigley Field.
I thought Fenway also had a manually-operated scoreboard, but I could be wrong.
for some reason, that 1st photo makes me really sad... i think it's nostalgia sad and not sad sad though... that's my old neighborhood!
Bubs-
Thanks-- it really caught my eye as I walked to my truck-- the evening light really lit it up.
Busterp-
I didn't make it to any games-- it's been a crazy year. I have access to two seats near the field, at the end of the third base line, but they're not cheap.
I had the same thought about the Rockies, but it looks like the Red Sox are on the upswing. I don't think it'll help that the Rockies won so early and had so much time off. It's a tough call. One thing, though, both teams deserve to be in the World Series.
Skyler's Dad and Monkerstein-
Gracias!
Idea of Progress-
I mentioned in a post from this spring that my son first said that, unaware of its long history with the Cubs, when he was like 6. Tragic.
Erik-
That is funny. I've been to dozens of Cubs games; when I was in my twenties, I worked day shifts as a waiter with a guy who had an apartment across the street. We'd grab a six pack on the way home and sit in lawn chairs on his roof and catch the game. I think the building has since been commercialized-- no more free games.
Todd-
You may be right, come to think of it. I was trying to catch the scoreboard while watching the game last night. I'll have to look that up.
Monica-
I lived there in 1988-1989-- when they were installing the lights. I remember being woken up one morning by the sound of a huge helicopter. It was being used to lift the steal supports for the lights up.
It was a really fun neighborhood then. We-- my close friends from college Mark and Dan-- actually chose the place for it's proximity to the Gingerman, which was hands down the coolest, funnest bar in town then.
While Kim and Mel are glad to be living in a more residential (and safer) neighborhood, I'm glad that my stepdaughter has the memory of going out on the back porch of their old apartment and singing "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" along with the crowd from Wrigley Field.
it's interesting to talk to people who lived around there when you did. i just read american skin which is set back then and around the neighborhood and i am really curious about the "real" characters. i lived there in the early 2000s and hung out at the gingerman and smart bar a lot... not so much anymore.
I believe the scoreboard on the Green Monster is manual. I remember my beloved Erin Andrews did a report on it for ESPN.
The first MLB game I went to was at Wrigley - I miss it!
It looks like a cricket score board - long may they keep the manual one. I'm tired of electronica.
What a freaking dump! The Cub will never will anything playing in that dilapidated band box.
Rumor has it that the Tribune are going to sell the club without the ball park. If true, the new owner(s) should make immediate plans to move. The Yankees and even the Red Sox have new ball parks in the works. There is too high a "comfort" level of losing at Wrigley.
The Tribune (in their brillant) wisdom) for years have chosen to market the ballpark while putting together a shite product on the field and a shite organization. It doesn't matter because the "sheep" keep coming to get fleeced. The organization even scalps their own tickets to the flock, and the idiots snap them up - simply outrageous!
If the new ownership chooses to remain in that dump, then look forward to the same crap in perpituity.
If the new ownership has balls they will build a new park. By moving the club to a new locale they will
1. Weed out the Baseball ignorant dipshits who go to the game only to see the ballpark and yack on their cellphones incessantly. The true fans will continue to turn out...
2. Be forced out of their comfort zone and thus be forced to put a winning product on the field. Otherwise the fan base will dwindle. This is the only way they will ever have a chance of reaching
or even winning a World Series.
Anywhere else in the world, an organization with such a 100 year stigma of losing would not have a single fan left (ie Chicago Blackhawks)...Goes to show the caliber of the "typical" Cub Fan...
This from an extremely disinterested baseball fan...I haven't been to a game since the last work stoppage and will not go back.
The Elk Out
I believe the Ballpark in Arlington also has a manual scoreboard, which is the ultimate in retro-baseball-cool. Sorry about your Cubs. At least they got to the playoffs. That's better than the Rangers did (or will ever do).
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