The Wrigley Blog

Wrigley Celebrates Its Organ

70 years ago today, April 26, 1941, Wrigley Field became the first Major League ballpark to install an organ.

Roy Nelson tickled the ivories of the original pipe organ, and did just a dandy job. He was followed by Jack Kerney in the late 60's and the likes of Frank Pellico, Vance Fothergill and John Henzel in the 70's. Good old Ed Vodicka - great name - and Bruce Miles handled the tickling in the early 80's, and our good old pal - and current ivory tickler - Gary Pressey took over in 1987.

Tickle on Mr. Pressey. . . Tickle On.

Seagulls!!!!

Agh! Run For Your Lives!!!

Purdy Shot of the Week IX

Say what you will about Wrigley Field installing lights. She's is a beaut when she hosts a night game.

Happy Anniversary Old Girl

95 years ago today, Weegham Park (or Wrigley Field, as she is known today) became the Home of the Chicago Cubs.

On April 20, 1916, The Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings.

Wrigley Field Ready for the Padres

Well sir, we here in Chicago woke to find snow on the ground, of all things.

But it has since melted away and the Friendly Confines is ready for the boys in blue to return home. The 7-8 Chicago Cubs will host the 7-8 Padres of San Diego for a three game set.

If you're going to this first night game of the season, we suggest you bundle up.

Go Cubs.

Starlin Castro Wins Race To Wrigley

Run Starlin Run

Saturday was the 6th annual Race To Wrigley 5K.

Thousands of runners braved the chilly elements to run the course; which started and ended at historic Wrigley Field. To no ones surprise, this years winner was Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro.

Having the morning off in the middle of a road series against the Colorado Rockies; good old #13 flew in, ran the race (in record time), and flew back before Saturday night's game. While running his record breaking 5K, Starlin was kind enough to stop and sign a number of autographs, helped change an old ladies flat tire and he even rescued a small kitten out of a tree.

Cubs Fan From The Future Spotted At Wrigley Field

DeLorean must be parked down the street

Apparently this guy has visited the future. . . only way I can figure that he snagged himself this sweet Cubs World Series jacket.

Either that or he just visited 1908, but I wasn't going to ask. . . there's NO WAY I'm gonna eff with the Space-Time Continuum.

The Sports Corner is Carny Ready

Cubs Marketing Brain Surgeon Wally Hayward wants to throw "family friendly" street festivals outside of Wrigley Field during the Yankees, Cards and White Sox series this summer. These three day carnivals would take over Sheffield Ave from The Sports Corner on Addison to Murphy's Bleachers over on Waveland. Between fans drinking all day in those two bars and in the bleachers it's going to be very "family friendly" - complete with that drunk uncle no one wants to hang out with.

It looks like The Sports Corner's taking this carny idea seriously with the install of their new sign. This thing is so cartoonishly large, so completely out of scale with the building and the neighborhood, that it's perfect for a carnival.

Step Right Up: Get Yer Beer Here!

Club 162

A new bar opened up here next to Wrigley Field. It's at the old Hi-Tops/Harry Caray's spot over on Sheffield.

Anyone who is a fan of baseball probably can figure out where they got the name - after the 162 games in a regular season.

Anyone with half a brain should also be able to figure out that only playing the minimum 162 games IS A BAD THING!

162 games is a given, not a goal.

Playing 162 means you didn't make the playoffs. It means you failed for Pete's sake!

Clydesdales Trample Goose

Wrigley Field: Attendance History Lesson

There are any number of ways to look at recent Wrigley Field attendance history to appreciate how bad Monday's game was.

We've decided to look at the nice even number of 30,000 paid fans, and how many times over the last 14 seasons it has dipped below that number. To be clear, by "attendance" they mean the number of paid customers; which including season ticket holders. They are part of the total even if they don't go attend. Now, back 10 years ago, the number of season ticket holders was less than 18,000, and the number of games that dipped below 30K was directly linked to the weather and winning. When either went south so did the totals. Take a gander:

Games With and Attendance Below 30,000

1998 - 28 (all earlier in the year, before Sammy and the Cubs got hot)
1999 - 12 (bad team, but Sammy still hitting homers)
2000 - 17 (more homers)
2001 - 15 (an decent, 88 win season)
2002 - 18 (not a great team, but Prior joins Wood and Sammy)
2003 - 5 (all from first cold homestand, then came winning, and filled seats)
2004 - 0
2005 - 0

After the 2005 season two things happened: The bleachers were renovated - adding 1,800 seats, and the number of season ticket holders climbed to beyond 25,000. From that point on, the only thing that prevented 30,000 fans from paying for a ticket was a horrible team.

2006 - 1 (in September, with the Cubs 28 games under .500)
2007 - 0
2008 - 0
2009 - 0
2010 - 1 (in August, with the Cubs 20 games under .500)

That brings us to this year. Only 4 games into the season, we had ourselves the first sub-30K game, and it was a doozy. Monday's attendance was 26,292; the lowest total since 2002. But, like we said - in 2011, Wrigley Field has 1,800 more bleacher seats available and 8,000 more guarenteed paid season ticket holders than in 2002. That's what makes this total so dang disturbing, and unless this team starts playing lights-out, we reckon it's gonna start happening a lot more often.

Wrigley Remembers Ron Santo

The Cubs had a dandy tribute to Ronnie Santo before the Opener, with a moment of silence for old number 10, who passed in December. They followed that up by letting Ronnie's two kids sing the 7th inning stretch.

This season the Cubs are gonna be wearing a # 10 patch on their jersey's and on August 10th they are going to unveil a new statue for our old pal.

We miss you Ronnie.

Matt Garza Loves That Chicken From Popeye's

1600 West Irving Park Road

When the Cubbies traded for Matt Garza a few months back I read that the dude loves himself some chicken, and that he has a superstition of having to eat Popeye's Chicken before every start.

The day he joined the team he had already done his research saying "I found one near the park".

Well, we here at The Wrigley Blog thought it was our duty to find out what Popeye's Chicken he was talking about. Is this a complete waste of everyone's time: probably. But we did it anyway:

Two Dude's Epic Quest to Find a Beer After a Cubs Game

Because after you've drank beer for many, many hours - while watching the Cubs suck it up - the first thing you need after leaving Wrigley: another beer.

Tex and I found ourselves stumbling down Clark, literally down the middle of the street; looking for a bar, any bar without a line. But, unfortunately . . . the 20,000 other Cubs fans that just left Wrigley were looking for the same thing: another beer.

Clark St. - post-game

To add to the drama; both Tex and I really, really had to pee, and there was just no way we were going to survive a wait in a line. . . no matter how short it might be.

SOMEHOW we found a bar on the right just before Newport; no clue what the place was called. Thank God it had the three things we were looking for: no line, a pisser, and most importantly: another beer.

It was Epic, I tell you!

A shot from whatever bar we were at, post-game.

The Cubs Opener Recap: In 4 Photos

Opening Ceremony

The Cubs Take the Field!

It's Freaking Cold

Most fans book it out of there before the end of the 6-3 loss

Robert Redford, huh?

The Chicago Cubs rolled out Hollywood star Robert Redford yesterday to throw out the opening day first pitch.

For some reason I keep reading that the reason they decided on Mr. Redford is because he played a baseball player in a movie once and that in that movie he hit a home run at Wrigley Field. Well let me set the facts straight here kiddies: Movies are not real. Robert Redford didn't play for the Cubs, and in the movie Wrigley Field was actually a different stadium in Buffalo, New York.

The REAL reason they picked Robert Redford is because he's in town to promote his new movie. That movie just so happens to be produced by The American Film Company. And that company just so happens to be owned by Joe Ricketts. And Joe Ricketts just so happens to be Cubs Owner, Tom Ricketts' dad (and the reason Tom and his family had the money to purchase Cubs in the first place)

Now that we got that straight - here are some photos of Mr. Redford. In case you were wondering, he did get the throw to the plate (after doing a fake pitch for some reason). In fact, he darn near threw it over Kerry Wood's head.

Oh, and the Cubs lost 6 -3