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.


5 comments:

  1. I guess the question for the judge is what does he consider an "unobstructed view?" Because you can still see the field and the ballpark. Its not a perfect view, but its still a view. The only perfect view is from inside the ballpark itself (well as long as you're not behind a beam).

    To make things more complicated, this sign won't be hung from 2 cranes, it will have large steal beams holding it in place and further ruining the view from across the street. Maybe the city allows the rooftops to build higher, again.

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  2. Hi Jeremy,
    I'm hoping you can help me out. Dear Al,

    I've written a book (HarperCollins is publishing it late next year) on the great designers Dorothy and Otis Shepard, who, from the 1930s to the 1960s, did everything for the Wrigley Company and The Cubs, including a ton of stuff for Wrigley Field itself. My designer and I have tons of artwork (all the program covers and yearbooks, the uniform redesign, etc.) but very few photographs of Wrigley Field in the 1940s and 50s, and the Cubs themselves from that time. In particular we're looking for a good shot of the Wrigley Field flag system, which Otis designed, the Ivy-covered back wall of the park, and the entrance way with his logo on it.

    I wondered if you knew a local Cubs historian who might have a cache of that kind of material. Any thoughts?

    Thanks so much.

    Best,
    Dan Nadel



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    Replies
    1. Dan,

      I am the author of "Wrigley Field Year By Year: A Century at the Friendly Confines", a 100-year history of the ballpark being released by Sports Publishing in February 2014. Many 1940s photos of Wrigley that I use in the book are from www.argentaimages.com. They bought the rights to the old George Brace photo collection. They have many photos of the outfield wall and scoreboard from the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Cubs scorecards of the mid to late 1940s have nice drawings of the scoreboard flag system (I have a 1947 scorecard). I hope this helps.

      Sam Pathy

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