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.