{"id":21858,"date":"2025-03-22T03:41:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T09:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=21858"},"modified":"2024-12-14T16:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T22:32:56","slug":"ballpark-tour-cubs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/ballpark-tour-cubs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballpark Tour: Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With spring training wrapping up this week and Opening Day just days away, we wind down our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I\u2019ve been to over the years. This week, we have our penultimate entry from the north side of Chicago. So, without further ado, let\u2019s take a deeper look at my history with Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stadium Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Wrigley Field<\/p>\n

Years in Service:<\/strong>\u00a01914 \u2013 Present<\/p>\n

Visits:<\/b> 388 (that I\u2019m aware of)<\/p>\n

Weeghman Park, home of the Chicago Chifeds of the Federal League, opened on April 23, 1914.\u00a0 When the Federal League folded in December of 1915, team owner Charles Weeghman was allowed to buy the rival Chicago Cubs and immediately moved them from\u00a0the dilapidated West Side Park and into his stadium for the 1916 season. \u00a0The Cubs played their first game at Weeghman Park on April 20, 1916, besting the Cincinnati Reds 7\u20136 in eleven innings.<\/p>\n

That year, Weeghman sold a minority interest in the Cubs to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley. \u00a0As Weeghman\u2019s financial fortunes started to decline, Wrigley acquired an increasing number of shares in the club and took on a growing role in the team\u2019s affairs until November 1918, when Weeghman gave up his remaining interest to Wrigley, resigned as president, and left baseball for good. Wrigley would acquire complete control of the Cubs by 1921, and, prior to the start of the 1927 season, the park was officially renamed Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

William\u2019s son, Philip K. Wrigley, had intended to install lights at Wrigley Field prior to the 1942 season. \u00a0However, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and the US entered World War II, Wrigley donated the materials for the lights to the war effort. \u00a0The Cubs eventually became the only team without lights, continuing to play day games at home exclusively until 1988, when lights were finally installed. \u00a0To this day, the Cubs are still limited in the number of night games they may schedule per season, though that number has increased significantly since the late 80s.<\/p>\n

As Wrigley Field continues in its second century, renovations to the stadium to make it economically viable for the 21st century are nearly complete.\u00a0 Expanded clubhouses and new training facilities have been put in place for the players, both home and away.\u00a0 New scoreboards, rebuilt bleachers, new clubs, and expanded concourses have been put in place for the fans.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve managed to identify 388 games I\u2019ve attended at Wrigley Field, most of them since 2002, when I became a season ticket holder.\u00a0 After years of futility with the occasional bit of success tossed in, the Cubs saw sustained success for the first time in decades to close out the 2010s but have struggled to repeat it since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With spring training wrapping up this week and Opening Day just days away, we wind down our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I\u2019ve been to over the years. This week, we have our penultimate entry from the north side of Chicago. So, without further ado, let\u2019s take a deeper look at my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4097,120,2970,1469,4100,53,4096,4098,4099,4101,595],"class_list":["post-21858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-charles-weeghman","tag-cubs","tag-federal-league","tag-pearl-harbor","tag-philip-k-wrigley","tag-reds","tag-weeghman-park","tag-west-side-park","tag-william-wrigley","tag-world-war-ii","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22246,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21858\/revisions\/22246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}