Thursday, July 11, 2013

Wrigley is Amazing Just the Way It Is

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I never thought I would quote Bruno Mars in a sports article, but when I heard the upsetting news that the century old Wrigley Field is subject to modernization and a potential retirement, all I could think of was one of Mars’s hit songs, Just the Way You Are. In the song from his 2010 album, Doo Wops and Hooligans, Mars sings about a girl he finds seemingly perfect and does not need to change when he says, “You’re amazing, just the way you are.”

Much like the girl Mars sings about, here in 2013, 99 years after it opened, Wrigley Field is still amazing, just the way it is.

Everything about Wrigley is beautiful. The ivy walls. The hand operated scoreboard. The seats across the street. The iconic red sign outside the stadium reading Wrigley Field/ Home of Chicago Cubs. The classic renditions of Take Me Out to the Ballgame sung every seventh inning stretch.

To think that the Cubs front office is considering redoing the ballpark is absolutely disheartening. I have never been to The Friendly Confines, nor am I Cubs fan, but I am a baseball fan that appreciates the game’s rich history, which Wrigley has been at the heart of since Woodrow Wilson held office.

There is an adage that says, “Do not fix what is not broken,” and Wrigley is far from broken. There is a reason why Wrigley has lasted since 1914.

It is a classic ballpark.

It is not like fans do not go to Wrigley because it is unpleasant. Despite some of the atrocious Cubs teams over the last 99 years, fans always manage to find their way to Wrigley. Had Wrigley been an unlikable stadium, due to the lack of success in Chicago, it would have closed its doors years ago.

Part of the Wrigley experience, which I have yet to be blest with, is the feeling of watching games without the distracting cartoons and world class dining and shopping options just like our baseball ancestors.

Before 1988, Wrigley Field had been the MLB’s lone stadium without lights or night games. Right now, Wrigley is the only regular season stadium in professional baseball lacking a jumbotron, although the Ricketts announced today a plan to add two.

Other than Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley is our only connection to baseball’s grassroots, giving us a glimpse of the days of the Bambino, Honus, and Cobb.  I am not saying Wrigley Field should not be updated to modern standards or that fans do not deserve to watch a game in convenience and comfort, but there has to be a better way to renovate Wrigley.
One of the new electric scoreboards is supposed to block views of the iconic seats across the street on top of apartment buildings. This already kills one of Wrigley’s best features. By losing these seats, it will only be a matter of time before the ivy is cut down and overpriced dining clubs decorate and dominate the stadium’s interior.

This millennium has already seen the demolitions of Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and The Old Yankee Stadium, and I do not want to see Wrigley join them on that list.

Mars ends the song by saying there is not a thing he would change about the girl, and likewise there is not a thing I would change about Wrigley. I know eventually we will have to say goodbye to Wrigley, but until then, rather than focus on its defects, we should celebrate its beauty and history, as there will never be anything like it, ever.

Wrigley Field has yet to see the Cubs win a World Series and in a perfect world scripted by Walt Disney, the final season played there would be the year the Curse of the Billy Goat is broken.

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