Sports Illustrated has a special edition on the news stands. It is devoted to Wrigley Field. It shows the history in photographs and features for the past 99 years. 2014 will mark the centennial of the ball park. It has been the venue for baseball, football (the Bears and college), soccer and other events like concerts.
Wrigley Field is a iconic place. It has the old architectural charm of brick and mortar craftsman's age of America around World War I. It has the retro-look of a manual scoreboard and ivy covered brick outfield walls. The seats are close to the field, giving it a cozy feeling as compared to the concrete and steel mushroom stadiums built in the 1970s.
But as much as Wrigley has a fantastic history, this special magazine edition marks the end of its era.
If you read it carefully, it is the new business plan for the Ricketts family. Ricketts wants to change Wrigley from a "baseball venue" to an all-purpose entertainment complex like the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, or United Center in Chicago. The views of the neighborhood past the outfield walls will now be blocked by large advertising signs and an electronic scoreboard. The old charm of an old ball park is being made over into a gaudy street walker. How many 100 year old painted ladies do you find wandering the streets for money?
As one of the largest tourist sites in Illinois, Wrigley Field draws people to games not because of the team but because it is a place that fathers can take their children as their fathers took them decades earlier. It is the tradition. It is the last Field of Dreams space in professional baseball. It is a place where a grandparent could tell their grand child about the Babe Ruth home run call; and fans can quickly imagine what it was like to be at that game.
For some fans, the ball park is the bigger connection to the site than the Cubs. And that connection, to the architecture, the sight lines, and the living history of the place will soon be over run by commercialization. Sure, some fans will come to see what changes were made to their ball park; but after that, there is no guarantee that they will return to their Wrigley Field.
