The Wrigley Blog

Right Field Sign Mocked Up At Wrigley - Lawsuits To Follow

The Cubs mocked up their "Wrigley Field" sign briefly yesterday - just long enough to get the talk of lawsuits going.

I guess the point of the exercise was to show rooftop owners that this new sign wouldn't block their precious view. I couldn't tell that from the street, but I do know a few things: 1) It's giant. B) It sticks out into the street a ton and 3) It isn't going to say "Wrigley Field". Come on, we all know it's gonna say Budweiser.

The plan is to extend the bleachers out so the sign will hover this far over Sheffield

Later on, I saw this image via @DNAinfoCHI...
This is the view the rooftop owners want everyone to see.

via @DNAinfoCHI

Who knows if this was actually taken from the top of the roof, and who knows if it was shot before the letters were where they are going to go. All I know is: lawsuits are a-comin and this is the photo the roofies are going to use to prove their point.

An Open Apology to Steve Bartman

10 years ago tonight, I was sitting in the center field bleachers at Wrigley Field. It was game 6 of the NLCS and the Cubs were 5 outs away from going to the World Series.

For the 40,000 of us lucky enough to have a ticket, it was just unbelievable. We were about to witness history - to see the Cubs win the pennant for the first time in forever. With a fresh beer in my hand and Mark Prior dealing, we cruised into the 8th inning up 3-0.

After that 1st out, everyone began to chant: "Five More Outs! Five More Outs!..." I gladly joined in.

We all know what happened next, but from the bleachers it was difficult to see. I saw Moises jump, and I saw his reaction, but other than that I didn't really know.

Soon a new chant began: "Asshole! Asshole!..." and I gladly joined in.

Then came the rest of that 8th inning. A double, wild pitch and an RBI single. Alex Gonzalez booting an inning ending double play. A double, Kyle Farnsworth, walks, Sac flies, more doubles, on and on. We all just stood there in disbelief as our dreams of witnessing history disappeared. In what seemed like an instant, all hope was lost and the stadium fell silent. I think most of us were just in shock (I know I was) but sitting there as another Cubs reliever came in, I quickly went from the denial phase to the anger phase. I was looking for someone to blame.

But I didn't blame Alex Gonzalez or Moises or Dusty or Mark Prior or Kyle frickin Farnsworth. Nope, I decided to blame whoever that guy was over there on by the left field wall. I figured that everybody was screaming at him before so screw it, why not now?! So I stood up and started to yell:

"Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!..." and to my disbelief - the entire stadium soon joined in.

Collectively, we all decided to lay the blame on that guy - whoever he was. That guy had taken away our chance to win. That guy had ruined our once in a lifetime opportunity.

That guy: Steve Bartman... that's the guy I want to apologize to today. I'm sorry for what small part I played in sealing your fate 10 years ago. I was part of that mob that looked for an scapegoat after that terrible inning. No one knows if Moises would have made that catch, and no one knows if the Cubs would have won had they made it to Four More Outs! or 3 or 2 or 1. All I know is that you deserve better than to live a life in infamy for doing what I'm certain I would have done had our seats been switched that night.

Sorry Steve.

BREAKING: The Chicago Cubs Are Bad At Baseball

The Chicago Cubs are terrible, historically terrible at the game of baseball.

Now this here team has been around for awhile. We've called Wrigley Field our home for 97 seasons, and for those there 97 seasons we've had some good teams and... well, hell mostly bad teams. But never, and I mean never have we been this bad.

Even in our darkest days, we never suffered more than 49 losses at Wrigley Field - not ever.

Well sir, after losing 2 outta 3 to the playoff-bound Pittsburg frickin' Pirates we have now established a new low. Our final home record for 2013 is as follows:

31 wins and 50 losses. Terrible.

I reckon there's not much more one can say, except for that old adage:

There's always next year.

Old Style OUT - Budweiser IN Next Season At Wrigley Field

Your Chicago Cubs announced that they signed a deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev to make that company the "exclusive marketing partner" for all beer sold at Wrigley Field. Now, that there deal will mean a couple of big changes starting next season.

1. It means no more Old Style

These InBev folks own a quarter of all beers in the world, and I reckon you'll see many of them at Wrigley next season. They own Corona, "Stella Artois", Becks - heck they even own Goose Island - as well as every lousy beer brewed down there in stinkin St. Louis. Unfortunately they do not own Old Style, the official beer of Wrigley Field for the past 62 seasons. So drink em while you can kids, cause that tradition is being stopped at season's end.

2. It also means a big ol' Budweiser sign in Right Field.

We knew this one was coming. Earlier this season the Cubs put out their pretty renderings showing a giant jumbotron in left and a big sign in right. Now, you didn't have to be some kind of whiz kid to predict that they weren't going to put up a "Wrigley Field" sign. Below is a what you'll see next Spring.

Jumbotron Mocked-Up at Wrigley Field (PHOTOS)

With all the bigwigs looking down from the rooftops (Owner - Tom Ricketts, President of Business Operation - Crane Kenny and (strangely) former head of marketing - Wally Hayward), the Cubs mocked up their proposed Jumbotron at Wrigley Field.

It's difficult to get a true handle on exactly how big this thing will be (they only had tarps hanging on opposite ends of a pole) but I can tell you that it will be very, very large and very much out of scale with the rest of the park.

Please take a gander: