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| Wrigley, the way almost everybody envisions it |
As
in it’s a day game – one in which they have figured out a way to skip out of
work (or school). The idea that it is 2 o’clock in the afternoon and 85 percent
(according to Lee Elia) of the world is working for a living while they’re sitting
in the stands watching the beginning of the third inning of a ballgame in which
the Cardinals/Giants/Pirates/Reds, etc. are kicking the Cubs' behinds is
kind of the whole point.
SO
I FIND it kind of humorous that among the changes that the Chicago Cubs are
demanding in their desires to renovate Wrigley Field to ensure that it remains
a usable structure for their ballgames for the next few decades is that they
want to play less day baseball.
If
the Cubs get their way, just over two-thirds of the 81 home games played at
Wrigley Field each year would NOT be the traditional 1:20 p.m. starting time. That's according to a deal between the ball club and Mayor Rahm Emanuel; along with Alderman Thomas Tunney, whose ward will be impacted by all the out-of-towners traipsing through Lake View after dark as a result.
It
also seems that the Cubs even want city permission to be able to reschedule
ballgames at the last minute from day to night – which is done usually whenever
Major League Baseball decides it wants the game broadcast nationally during prime
time hours.
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| What would Mr. Cub say w/ so much day ball? |
So
the very thing that the Chicago Cubs were famed for and what made them unique
(day baseball) is something they’re on the verge of giving up.
ACTUALLY, I GET it. People have to work for a living. You will get bigger crowds at ballgames played in the evening hours.
And
bigger crowds means more food sold at the concessions stands, along with more
souvenir programs and toy bats and foam fingers and all the other sidelines
that people can make money off of – rather than the actual operation of a
ballclub, which usually is a money-loser that the owners can turn into a nice
tax write-off.
It
also could be the key to helping bolster the Cubs’ on-field accomplishments –
since the playing of Major League-level baseball is a night-game event.
Ballplayers work the night shift, with an occasional day game thrown into the
mix.
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| An athlete? Or a Cub?!? |
One
of the reasons that the Cubs may have fallen short of winning anything in
recent decades is because they are the exception. They are the team whose
players work a day shift one week, then go on the night shift the following
week, then return to Chicago for a day shift, then back to nights on the road.
THE
WEAR AND tear, both physical and mental, that such a work-routine does to
anybody will have an effect. For one who makes their level at athletic
accomplishments (yes, one-time Cubs pitcher Paul Reuschel was athletic – even if
he didn’t look it), it could be the reason the ball club is tired out by season’s
end.
But
still, there is the fact that so much of the appeal of the Cubs playing ball in
their 99-year-old ballpark is that it’s supposed to be a bright, sunshiny day –
with the ivy on the walls in all its green glory. The only night-related image
of Wrigley Field is that gag poster from a couple of decades ago – the one with
everybody in the stands wearing lamps on their batting helmets to illuminate
the field!
Unless
it’s early in the season and the weeds are dead and the ivy is a dull brown.
That only inspires Cubby-dom to talk about wait ‘til next month, when it will
be green again. Just like they talk about next year (or these days, two years
from now) when the Cubs will allegedly be a competent ball club.
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| Scott Mutter came up with about the only Wrigley night image that doesn't seem wrong |
Turning
on the lights more often, along with having a more expensive stadium club and
all the other amenities the Cubs want will ultimately do one thing to the team –
it will erase all the excuses for the losses. We’ll just have to accept it as
fact that, “Cubs stink!”
-30-
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