Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales. It was called Cubs Park between 1920 and 1926 before being renamed for then Cubs team owner and chewing gum magnate, William Wrigley, Jr.. Between 1921 and 1970, it was also the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. In addition, it hosted the second annual National Hockey League Winter Classic on January 1, 2009.

Located in the community area of Lakeview, Wrigley Field sits on an irregular block bounded by Clark (west) and Addison (south) Streets and Waveland (north) and Sheffield (east) Avenues. The area surrounding the ballpark contains residential streets, in addition to bars, restaurants and other establishments and is called Wrigleyville. The ballpark's mailing address is 1060 W. Addison Street.

Wrigley Field is nicknamed The Friendly Confines, a phrase popularized by "Mr. Cub", Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. The current capacity is 41,160, making Wrigley Field the 10th-smallest actively used ballpark. It is the oldest National League ballpark and the second oldest active major league ballpark (after Fenway Park on April 20, 1912), and the only remaining Federal League park. Wrigley is known for its ivy covered brick outfield wall, the unusual wind patterns off Lake Michigan, the iconic red marquee over the main entrance, and the hand turned scoreboard.

History


The park was built in six weeks in 1914 at a cost of about $250,000 ($5.3 million in 2011 dollars) by the Chicago lunchroom magnate Charles Weeghman, who owned the Federal League Whales. (The club signed a 55-year lease to use the park for approximately $18,000 per year.) It was designed by the architect Zachary Taylor Davis (who four years earlier had designed Comiskey Park for the Chicago White Sox), incorporating the new "fireproof" building codes recently enacted by the city. According to some sources, when it opened for the 1914 Federal League season, Weeghman Park had a seating capacity of 14,000. According to another source, the original seating capacity was 20,000.

In late 1915 the Federal League folded. The resourceful Weeghman formed a syndicate including the chewing gum manufacturer William Wrigley Jr. to buy the Chicago Cubs from Charles P. Taft for about $500,000. Weeghman immediately moved the Cubs from the dilapidated West Side Grounds to his two-year-old park. In 1918 Wrigley acquired the controlling interest in the club. In November 1926, he renamed the park "Wrigley Field."

In 1927 an upper deck was added, and in 1937, Bill Veeck, the son of the club president, planted ivy vines against the outfield walls.

Although Wrigley Field has been the home of the Cubs since 1916, it has yet to see the Cubs win a World Series, even though it has hosted several (1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945, the last time the Cubs appeared in a World Series), the last World Series win by the Cubs (1908) happened while the Cubs called West Side Park home.

Features
Wrigley Field follows the jewel box design of ballparks that was popular in the early part of the 20th century. The two recessed wall areas, or "wells," located both in left, and right field, give those areas a little more length than if the wall were to follow the contour from center field, it is also in those wells, when cross winds are blowing, that balls have a habit of bouncing in all sorts of interesting directions, there is also a long net running the entire length of the outfield wall, about two foot from the top, the primary use is to keep fans from falling out of the bleacher area and onto the field of play, which is about seven to ten feet below the top of the wall. Called "The basket," by players and fans alike, the rules of the field state that any ball landing within the netting is ruled a home run, making the distance to hit a home run in Wrigley Field actually shorter than the location of the outfield wall.

Ivy-covered outfield walls
The ballpark is famous for its outfield walls which are covered by ivy. In the first weeks of the baseball season, the ivy has not leafed out, and all that is visible are the vines on which it grows. However, as the baseball season progresses further into spring, the ivy grows thick and green, disguising the hard brick surface of the outfield wall.

Many times a ball has been lost in the ivy when hit towards the outfield fences. An outfielder will signal that a ball is lost by raising his hands. When this occurs, the umpires will call time and rule the play a ground-rule double. If instead the outfielder opts to try to find the ball in the ivy, the ball remains live and any baserunners may advance. Although the ivy appears to "pad" the bricks, it is of little practical use as padding. There have been occasions of fielders being injured when slamming into the wall while pursuing a fly ball.

The ivy that covers the outfield wall is a combination of Boston Ivy and Japanese Bittersweet, which can endure the harsh Chicago winters better than its English cousin. The ivy was planted in 1937 by the Cubs General Manager Bill Veeck, as part of Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley's beautification plan for the bleachers, which had been rebuilt during the 1937 season. Veeck reportedly got the idea of ivy on the walls from Donnie Bush Stadium in Indianapolis.

Wrigley is now the only professional ballpark with an ivy covered outfield wall. Several now-demolished ballparks featured ivy in the playing area, including Forbes Field, Wrigley Field's namesake in Los Angeles, and Bush Stadium in Indianapolis. Bush Stadium still stands, however, hasn't hosted baseball in 15 years. After the Indianapolis Indians moved to Victory Field, a race track took its place and the race track owners stripped the ivy off of the walls. Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium, the former home of the College World Series as well as minor league baseball, had an ivy-covered brick wall that was replaced with a padded wall. Some ballparks feature ivy on out-of-play walls, especially as a covering for the batter's eye behind the center field fence.