Wild Coyotes At Wrigley Field? Oh My!

via @willbyington 

The list of critter found around Wrigley Field just keeps on getting bigger. A few months back a neighbor found a deer parking in her back yard, and now we've got ourselves a pack of coyotes wandering around The Friendly Confines.

Apparently Internet "friend" - and dandy photographer - Will Byington was documenting a band at Clark and Addison on Friday night. Close to midnight some folks noticed two wild coyotes across the street and Will was able to get the shot. Been the talk of the neighborhood ever since.

The only real questions is: How will the Cubs Marketing Department turn this into a quick buck?

Your Cubs vs your A's

Dear Theo:

Please take note of how the Oakland A's have built their success.  A team that is roughly $33 million cheaper won 94 games, and the AL West.  

If you compare the Cubs to the A's, defensively they were pretty similar.
The Cubs had fewer errors and turned more double plays, but both teams shared the same fielding percentage.
 
On the offense, the A's did have more home runs (195 compared to 137), but the Cubs were slightly better in team batting average and stole more bases.

Now take a gander at pitching. The A's had an ERA of 3.48. The Cubs: 4.51.  

I'm no rocket surgeon, but that there seems like the biggest difference between being 94-68 vs 61-101.

Cubs Cancel Pizza Party After Failing To Sell 3 Million Tickets

Earlier today, the Cubs Marketing Department was informed that their annual pizza party had been cancelled. The announcement came after the Cubs failed to reach 3 million in ticket sales for 2012. This season was the first since 2003 that the team didn't reach the magic number with only 2,882,756 fans paying to see the 61-101 team.

"We're not going to reward failure," said Team Chairman Tom Ricketts. "Maybe they can earn it back next year."

Many in the Marketing Department walked around in shock after the announcement was made.

"Does this come as a surprise? No," said Colin Faulkner, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Services. "Do I like pizza? Yes. Yes, very much so."

Asked why he thought the Cubs didn't reach the 3 million mark, Mr. Faulkner had few answers.

"I have absolutely no idea" he said. "I mean, we have such a simplified system for tickets. Good games are "Gold",  great games are "Platinum"... really, really great games are "Marquee", crappy games are "Silver" and games you can't believe you still have to pay to watch are "Bronze." It's very simple."

Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Wally Hayward didn't have much more to offer.

"Couldn't be the ticket prices," he said. "Plenty of people were willing to hand over up to $160 a ticket to sit in the bleachers, plenty."

"Maybe it was the weather. It did get cold in April, and it did rain a few times a couple of weeks ago," Mr. Hayward said. "Listen, I'm not one to point fingers. If I was, I'd point them directly at the team's play this season, but I'm not going to do that."
 

Cubs To Move Brick Wall Three Feet

Fresh off of suffering through our first 100 loss season since 1966, the Cubs went and announced that they're gonna move in the brick wall behind home plate.

They pulled a similar stunt back in 2004, adding three rows of "premium seating" for folks with money to burn.

Now, I couldn't fathom how much it costs to move a brick wall 3 feet, but based on how much the Cubs tend to charge for those seats, I reckon this move will bring in at least an extra million dollars a year. (56 seats x $200-300/game x 81 games)

I'm certainly not against the Cubs having more money available, but I doubt it'll turn much around come next season. Perhaps the only positive we Cubs fans can count on will be that knuckleheads like this guy will be three feet closer:

Roger Waters Leads Off Weekend of Concerts at Wrigley

The first of back to back concerts will commence tonight with English fella Roger Waters singing about "The Wall".

On Saturday, you've got Country and Western singers Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Chris Young, The Band Perry and Jerrod Niemann. (dang near enough folks to field a team!)

Here are some photos from in and around the old ballpark. We'll try and update this here page over the weekend, so come on back.

and Go Cubs

"The Wall"

via @kellimcshane

via @ajphoto9

Joe Ricketts : Rocket Surgeon

Joe Ricketts is a rich man, and one would assume a smart man, but you know what they say happens when you ass-u-me.

The first inkling that something wasn't right came with this classic video (well worth the watch if you're a Cubs fan)



And listen, going all-in on the Cubs doesn't make you a smarty pants.

The second clue that Joe was a brain surgeon: his dabbling in politics.

Joe has spent a lot of money on the "Ending Spending Action Fund". Say what you will about spending money to end spending, but when your son is looking for government help with Wrigley Field: seems pretty brain surgeoney

Of course the cake came with news that ol Joe has out rocket scientisted himself by somehow associating with a race charged agenda that's only one “extremely literate conservative African-American” away from attacking President Obama out of office.

Hopefully no one will get that agenda confused with the one the other Ricketts' are pushing: The one where they need former Obama chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's help in renovating Wrigley Field.

Rocket Surgeon I tell ya.

Giant Noodle Returns to Wrigley

When a giant noodle shows up in front of Wrigley Field on April Fools Day you hold out hope that this is just some sort of prank. No such luck.

And so it appears that the big noodle will be back to cheer on your Chicago Cubs.  Of course this noodle is much better than the one from 2010. This one is complete with fake bacon on top. (yes you read that correctly)

take a look see:

A First Look at the New Bleacher Videoboard

For those of you hiding under a rock, the Cubs have been doing some off-season work in the bleachers.

What they're doing is raising a section in the Right Field to make some sort of "party patio". By doing this they confidently create a spot just perfect for an "LED video board"

The patio work remains under wraps, but thanks to the good work by one @GoMirrus we now have an actual view of this new fancy new video board.
Have a look see:

images via @GoMirrus (we owe you a beer)

EAMUS CATULI MISSING!

Where the heck is EAMUS CATULI?

Where the heck are the iconic numbers that remind us all how long it's been since our Cubs won it all? AC0366103 (translation: 3 years since we won the Division, 66 years since we won the Pennant, and 103 years since we won a World Series.

Ubi Est Eamus Catuli ?

Either Theo and the boys didn't like the reminder or this is just temporary while they do some off-season work.

Either way, we'd like some dang answers!

No Line - No Virtual Waiting - Cubs Tickets Go On Sale

While plenty of folks spend their Friday waiting in this VIRTUAL line:

There sure the heck aren't folks waiting in the REAL line: 

Can't say if this scene outside of Wrigley Field is due to most folks prefering to do their business on a computer or if it's because not too many folks are willing to overpay to watch a 95 loss team.

 

I reckon it has a bit to do with both.

Want to see the Cubs win the World Series?

 Grab a beer, hit play and prepare to have your emotions toyed with:

Wrigley Field Offseason Update

Today's mild weather and recent activity around the old ballpark have us thinking about the return of baseball. In that vein, here are some updates to the goings on around Wrigley Field:

The "Rink at Wrigley" is coming down

Across the street on Clark, the merchandise tent has gone up.

Across from the Wrigley Marquee they are erecting a Cubs owned merchandise tent. This lot was bought by the Ricketts Family late last year for $20 million. 

 

And under the plastic in Right Field, work on the "Budweiser Patio" continues

So... This Happened

(photograph via @trickholland)

This past weekend while shooting some sort of commercial for PlayStation, they gussied up Wrigley Field with all her flags, turned on all her lights, and at some point they flashed this message.

 

And we missed it!

 

Even though we spend a good part of each day around Wrigley Field we actually missed it when it briefly said World Series Champs. This, in a nutshell, is my greatest fear. You see, someday the Wrigley Marquee will read World Series Champs. Someday we will win it all. And when that day finally comes, I better be alive to see it.

 

Go Cubs Go (hopefully, sometime soon)

 

Wrigley Bleacher Patio Work Begins

Work on the soon to be known "Budweiser Patio" began this week. So far there's been a lot of prep work, a lot of noise and a lot of plastic (The right field bleachers are starting to look like what they did to Elliot's house in E.T.)

Anyway, here are some photos of this week's progress. We can't afford a fancy helicopter view like the Chicago Tribune, but maybe we can talk a neighbor with a rooftop into letting us up to document the work.

New Contest: Predict the Lineup, Win a Beer

Predict the Cubs Opening Day lineup: Win a Beer 

Now that the football season is behind us, it's time to start thinking about baseball (and beer) again.

So here is the contest: leave your prediction below for the Cubs Opening Day lineup - including Starting Pitcher. (make sure you leave a twitter handle or some other way to contact you) If you get it right, we will send you $7.00 cash money so you can buy yourself a cold one after the Cubs return to Wrigley Field on April 5th.

Contest is open until Dale Sveum makes the official call.

Good luck. Go Cubs

New Rendering of Bleacher Patio and LED Videoboard at Wrigley

We've had a few weeks to calm down since seeing the Cubs off-season plan to add a party deck and LED ad board to the bleachers. Sure we were mighty upset by the notion, but we know that Wrigley Field isn't a static place. She's slowly evolved over these years; she's had too. And let me tell ya, we have no doubt Wrigley Field can handle this change and hopefully the next round of changes Mr. Ricketts throws at her.

But next time around, we'd appreciate if they'd cut the bull when selling us the idea. Don't tell us it's "for the fans". This here patio is only for corporate events and bachelor parties. It's just one more place in the park we aren't welcome, and we don't take too kindly to that fact. But more to the point, the reason for the patio is the advertisement money. If that there money turns the Cubs into winners, then and only then could you say it was "for the fans".

Now back to that ad / patio. Two thing struck me when taking a gander at the pretty picture of the patio and strolling around the stadium. For one, there sure isn't much room there for a patio. My hope is that when it's complete most folks reaction will be: "Is that it?"  The second thing that I noticed is that the image only shows that one section of the ballpark. It doesn't show how or if it'll fit in with the rest of Wrigley Field.

I reckon that they don't much care if it does...

But we do care, and I really wanted to know how it'll look so I asked my employment-challenged grandson to draw it up for the blog. He sort of took what they presented and fiddled with it until it went in. Take a gander and let us know what you think.

Purdy Photo of the Week XII

The snow, the sweeper, the marquee message... all elements coming together at just that right moment. What a energetic photograph.

Sloop Purdy

They Are Putting a Jumbotron in Wrigley Field

The day we have dreaded is here.

Today the Cubs "braintrust" announced: THEY ARE PUTTING A JUMBOTRON IN WRIGLEY FIELD.

Are we happy about this turn of events? No sir.

Did we start drinking heavily as soon as we found out? Yessir

We will have to get back to you with some rational thoughts at a later date, but let me tell ya - no matter how much we disagree with the decision, you can count on us to document the construction every step of the way.

Go Cubs

Mid-Offseason Wrigley Upkeep Report

It seems pretty much halfway thru the offseason, so I reckon we should show you some of the goings on at Wrigley Field so far. Besides removing some 1950's concrete panels on the Clark Street side, this years round of upkeep seems to be more about patching and replacing concrete. Now don't get me wrong, they are working away in there and no doubt spending bundles of money, but I'm not too certain most folks will even notice what's been done. I reckon until they do some major renovating this work here will be par for the course.

Here are some photographs:

Removal of the concrete panels from the '50s

Behind the panels: a mess, but they're working on it

Concrete pump truck

Ramp work off of Addison St.

More concrete work by that "Captain Morgan" monstrosity

More concrete

Plenty of scaffolding over there by Waveland Ave.