What would Ozzie Guillen have thought of the West Side Grounds -- the ball park the Cubs dumped because Wrigley Field was a step up? Photograph provided by the Library of Congress collection.It is becoming ever so predictable. Every summer when the Chicago White Sox make their annual trip to the “alien” land otherwise known as the Lake View neighborhood, reporter-types will make a point of doing stories about how much White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen despises Wrigley Field.
It is getting to the point where Ozzie trashing the Chicago Cubs’ stadium is as much a Chicago cliché as the notion that all Second City residents spend their time eating deep-dish pizza while dodging bullets from mob guys.
SURE ENOUGH, IT happened again this year. On the eve of the White Sox taking a bus ride north to Lake View (I refuse to call it “Wrigleyville,” and most long-time residents of the neighborhood whom I have met feel the same way), we got stories from every news outlet.
This year, Ozzie says that Wrigley Field makes him ill. Or, as he so “eloquently” put it, “I puke every time I go there.”
In reading this year’s version of the “Ozzie disses Wrigley” stories, it comes off that Guillen won’t pick on Cubs players or manager Lou Piniella. He even manages to give some praise to those misguided Chicagoans who spend their time rooting for a ball club that hasn’t won a National League championship in 64 years (or a World Series title in 101).
It’s the building.
OF COURSE, WHEN one considers that so much of the Chicago Cubs’ aura and mystique is built around the fact that the building the team plays its games in is old and antiquated.
They bill the concept of playing ball games in a building that is lacking in so many of the amenities that most fans have come to expect when going to professional sports events as being a historic experience – watching a game under the same conditions that your great-grandfather watched a game.
In fact, if you’re not careful, that stain you’re stepping in could be the remnants of where your grandfather spit his tobacco chaw so many decades ago.
So there are people who consider themselves Cubs fans whose whole point in backing that ball club is the building. To them, speaking out against Wrigley Field is sacrilege. So such stories will help stoke some anger.
WHAT OTHER TEAM has fans who make a point of wearing special jerseys that tout the stadium, rather than the team? I’ve never seen anyone wear a “Yankee Stadium” jersey – even though the building in the Bronx that finally turned to rubble after 2008 saw more sports and cultural history than Wrigley Field could ever dream of.
So if it reads like I think the “Ozzie hates Wrigley” stories are getting overbearing, you would be comprehending me correctly. We know he doesn’t like the building that much. It’s not really news anymore.
Quite frankly, anyone who’s willing to be honest about the conditions at Wrigley Field would have to admit that Ozzie is merely stating the truth.
I agree with Ozzie in large part because of the occasions during my two decades as a reporter-type in and around Chicago that I got into Wrigley Field. I was never a full-time sportswriter, but I have had occasional assignments that got me temporary credentials that allowed me to be in places (such as the team clubhouses, dugouts and playing field) that some Cubs fans would consider to be a fantasy-come-true.
OF COURSE, MY memory of walking from the Cubs clubhouse to the dugout was not seeing a step and taking a tumble onto the decades-old concrete in the tunnel that connects the two. I have to wonder how many Cubs players throughout the decades injured themselves from making that same tumble?
And I can also remember interviewing ballplayers in a “media room” that was little more than a one-time storage room barely bigger than a walk-in closet. The ballplayer in question has his back up against the wall literally (he’s stuck in the corner) with television cameras stuck just a couple of feet away from his face.
Behind those cameras are the reporter-types, all jammed into a room with pipes popping out of the ceiling and walls at all odd points.
Compared to other sports stadiums, these are downright primitive. Many minor league teams in cities that have spent the money to build new stadiums in recent years have nicer facilities than the Chicago Cubs.
NOT THAT I blame the Cubs for any of this. I can see how they’re taking a building that was designed in 1914 to be little more than a grandstand with seats for about 14,000 people and trying to squeeze in many of the amenities now expected in sports stadiums within a limited amount of space.
The same small confines of one square city block that make the stands so intimate and close to the playing field also leave little room for facilities for the people who actually work in the building.
In past years, Ozzie has ragged on Wrigley for having rats. I never saw any there. But I would be surprised if a building open to the public for more than nine decades did not have some vermin roaming around.
So is Wrigley less than pristine? Yes.
IS IT GETTING old to have Ozzie Guillen dump on Wrigley Field every year? Double yes.
Is the bottom line that most sports fans this week are going to be more interested in the action on the playing field, rather than the decrepit conditions of the building as a whole? Most likely!
And insofar as this week is concerned, I fully expect the White Sox to blow two ballgames to the Cubs. The built our hopes up a couple of weeks ago during that 10-3 stretch, but have lost so many games since then that the whole thing sort of balances out as a ball club built to fall short.
I don’t even think that Chicago Cubs’ style ineptness can give the Sox this series.
-30-
It is getting to the point where Ozzie trashing the Chicago Cubs’ stadium is as much a Chicago cliché as the notion that all Second City residents spend their time eating deep-dish pizza while dodging bullets from mob guys.
SURE ENOUGH, IT happened again this year. On the eve of the White Sox taking a bus ride north to Lake View (I refuse to call it “Wrigleyville,” and most long-time residents of the neighborhood whom I have met feel the same way), we got stories from every news outlet.
This year, Ozzie says that Wrigley Field makes him ill. Or, as he so “eloquently” put it, “I puke every time I go there.”
In reading this year’s version of the “Ozzie disses Wrigley” stories, it comes off that Guillen won’t pick on Cubs players or manager Lou Piniella. He even manages to give some praise to those misguided Chicagoans who spend their time rooting for a ball club that hasn’t won a National League championship in 64 years (or a World Series title in 101).
It’s the building.
OF COURSE, WHEN one considers that so much of the Chicago Cubs’ aura and mystique is built around the fact that the building the team plays its games in is old and antiquated.
They bill the concept of playing ball games in a building that is lacking in so many of the amenities that most fans have come to expect when going to professional sports events as being a historic experience – watching a game under the same conditions that your great-grandfather watched a game.
In fact, if you’re not careful, that stain you’re stepping in could be the remnants of where your grandfather spit his tobacco chaw so many decades ago.
So there are people who consider themselves Cubs fans whose whole point in backing that ball club is the building. To them, speaking out against Wrigley Field is sacrilege. So such stories will help stoke some anger.
WHAT OTHER TEAM has fans who make a point of wearing special jerseys that tout the stadium, rather than the team? I’ve never seen anyone wear a “Yankee Stadium” jersey – even though the building in the Bronx that finally turned to rubble after 2008 saw more sports and cultural history than Wrigley Field could ever dream of.
So if it reads like I think the “Ozzie hates Wrigley” stories are getting overbearing, you would be comprehending me correctly. We know he doesn’t like the building that much. It’s not really news anymore.
Quite frankly, anyone who’s willing to be honest about the conditions at Wrigley Field would have to admit that Ozzie is merely stating the truth.
I agree with Ozzie in large part because of the occasions during my two decades as a reporter-type in and around Chicago that I got into Wrigley Field. I was never a full-time sportswriter, but I have had occasional assignments that got me temporary credentials that allowed me to be in places (such as the team clubhouses, dugouts and playing field) that some Cubs fans would consider to be a fantasy-come-true.
OF COURSE, MY memory of walking from the Cubs clubhouse to the dugout was not seeing a step and taking a tumble onto the decades-old concrete in the tunnel that connects the two. I have to wonder how many Cubs players throughout the decades injured themselves from making that same tumble?
And I can also remember interviewing ballplayers in a “media room” that was little more than a one-time storage room barely bigger than a walk-in closet. The ballplayer in question has his back up against the wall literally (he’s stuck in the corner) with television cameras stuck just a couple of feet away from his face.
Behind those cameras are the reporter-types, all jammed into a room with pipes popping out of the ceiling and walls at all odd points.
Compared to other sports stadiums, these are downright primitive. Many minor league teams in cities that have spent the money to build new stadiums in recent years have nicer facilities than the Chicago Cubs.
NOT THAT I blame the Cubs for any of this. I can see how they’re taking a building that was designed in 1914 to be little more than a grandstand with seats for about 14,000 people and trying to squeeze in many of the amenities now expected in sports stadiums within a limited amount of space.
The same small confines of one square city block that make the stands so intimate and close to the playing field also leave little room for facilities for the people who actually work in the building.
In past years, Ozzie has ragged on Wrigley for having rats. I never saw any there. But I would be surprised if a building open to the public for more than nine decades did not have some vermin roaming around.
So is Wrigley less than pristine? Yes.
IS IT GETTING old to have Ozzie Guillen dump on Wrigley Field every year? Double yes.
Is the bottom line that most sports fans this week are going to be more interested in the action on the playing field, rather than the decrepit conditions of the building as a whole? Most likely!
And insofar as this week is concerned, I fully expect the White Sox to blow two ballgames to the Cubs. The built our hopes up a couple of weeks ago during that 10-3 stretch, but have lost so many games since then that the whole thing sort of balances out as a ball club built to fall short.
I don’t even think that Chicago Cubs’ style ineptness can give the Sox this series.
-30-
EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't plan to work my way out to Wrigley Field this week for the latest matchup (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090615&content_id=5340198&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) of Sox vs. Cubs. But many thousands of Chicagoans will this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment