IT'S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WRIGLEY
Written: Mar 31 '00 (Updated Mar 31 '00)
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Pros: A real ballpark
Cons: Are you kidding?
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| meiste's Full Review: Wrigley Field |
IT'S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WRIGLEY
By meiste
For those of you who, like me, are not from the Middle West and who, like me before I had the chance to find out for myself, believe that the universal praise for Chicago's Wrigley Field must be way overdone, I've got a message: You are wrong, as I once was wrong; the unabashed fans of Wrigley are right.
My first sight of Wrigley -- definitely a baseball park rather than a stadium -- had me damn near puddling up. Wrigley is as cozy as advertised, presenting baseball as it used to be, or at least should have been, and should still be. You really do feel very close to the field and the players, given the relative proximity of the seats to the diamond, including those seats in the homemade bleachers on the roofs of the apartments and flats on Waveland Avenue just beyond the right field fence. Like the bleachers inside the park, the rooftop bleachers are invariably filled to capacity.
Wrigley feels almost like a ballpark in miniature, even though the nearly symmetrical outfield dimensions are not particularly short. One good reason for the cozy feel is the virtual lack of foul territory and, of course, the ivy on the brick outfield walls.
There are some problems, however. For instance: The rows of seats are closer together then those in most other major league parks. It's not all old-timey, either. For though Wrigley apparently is the only other major league stadium -- Boston's revered Fenway Park included -- without one of those damn Jumbotrons, the giant TV scoreboard things that are so distracting, it does have TV monitors hanging down from the overhang throughout the park that show the game as you see it at home on TV, except without sound. The sound comes up between half-innings, when commercials are played, most featuring some lame promotional gimmick.
At least there's no advertising on the fences (although having it would be in keeping with old-time ballparks, come to think of it). There is, however, a big red and white ad across a peaked non-bleacher roof just beyond the left field fence. It's for Budweiser. What else at a baseball park? Also lots of organ playing as in lesser ballparks, and not just between innings but often during innings, between batters and even between pitches.
They've even managed to put in a few luxury boxes and, although few Cub fans are so unCub-like as to try the wave, we actually spotted beach balls being batted around like at some southern California stadium.
But most fans pay close attention to the game. There's very little of that bouncing back and forth between their seats and the concession stands that's so common most other places, little of the loud chattering about non-game matters, not even by kids. We didn't even come across anyone babbling on a cell phone -- something as rare today as grand old Wrigley Field itself.
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Recommended:
Yes
Parking Availability: Busy But Manageable
Seat Location: Mid Level
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Epinions.com ID:
meiste
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Member: dick meister
Location: San Francisco, California
Reviews written: 285
Trusted by: 25 members
About Me:
Journalist Meiste's work has been used by more than 200 print, broadcast and online outlets.
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