A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred

“In baseball, the difference between excellence and mediocrity is usually not the blockbuster signing of this or that free agent. Rather, it is the cumulative effect of management’s attention to scouting, player development, and so on—which—requires time, effort and, always, money. Because Cubs fans fill so many seats no matter what is happening on the field, there is a reduced incentive to pay the expense of organizational excellence.” -- page 136

And that, according to author George Will appears to be the gist of the problem. For baseball fans in the Windy City and for people all across the fruited plain Wrigley Field has become something akin to a shrine. There is a certain mystique about the place that attracts both avid fans and curious tourists, some of whom have little interest in what was once the national pastime. As Wrigley Field turns 100 in 2014 George Will thought it might be an appropriate time to recall its fascinating and sometimes bizarre history. He has scribbled his thoughts into a neat little book he calls “A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred”. This is a book destined to be great summer reading for sports fans, history buffs and general readers alike. Will conjures up a ton of fun facts, interesting tidbits and unforgettable yarns. As a lifetime baseball junkie I must tell you that I had a difficult time putting this one down.

Having been an ardent Cubs fan since 1948 George Will has pretty much seen it all—everything that is except his beloved Cubs playing in a World Series. In “A Nice Little Place on the North Side” Will recalls many of the memorable events and incidents from the sixty plus years he has been following the team. Sometimes the ineptitude is nothing short of stunning—like the time a Cubs player tried to steal third base with the bases loaded! When asked about it after the game the player sheepishly responded “I had such a good jump on the pitcher.” You just can’t make this stuff up folks. Then there was the “College of Coaches” that was dreamed up by owner Phil Wrigley in the early 1960’s. Instead of a manager Wrigley decided that 4 head coaches would rotate throughout the season. You can imagine how that one worked out. I am a lifelong baseball fan and I had never heard of that one! And who will ever forget the notorious Steve Bartman incident during the 2003 National League Championship Series? That poor guy was lucky to get out of that place with his life!

Throughout the pages of “A Nice Little Place on the North Side” George Will also manages to offer up a capsule history of the Cubs franchise. You will discover that Wrigley Field was originally called Weeghman Park and that the Cubs were the first team to give away the rights to broadcast major league baseball games. It was a rousing success! You will also learn the story behind the story of the ivy that has adorned the outfield walls since 1937. Finally, you will meet some of the folks who have made their mark at the fabled ballpark over the years. Hack Wilson knocked in 708 runs in 738 games between 1926 and 1930 and would go on to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Hall of Famer Ernie Banks had a remarkable six year run in the late 1950’s when he hit 248 HR as a shortstop in a pathetically weak Cubs lineup. Banks has the distinction of playing in the most big league games (2528) without ever appearing in the World Series. Other memorable characters at Wrigley include Pat Pieper who served as the Cubs PA announcer from 1916 until his death in 1974 at the age of 88. And did you know that one Jacob Rubenstein (a/k/a Jack Ruby) was a vendor at Wrigley when he was a teenager? Interesting stuff!

I admire writers with great vocabularies and George Will can turn a phrase with the best of them. I found “A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred” to be an exceptionally well-written and endlessly entertaining book. Will quotes liberally from Roberts Ehrgott’s superb 2013 history of the Cubs “Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club: Chicago and the Cubs During the Jazz Age” which I would recommend to you as well. So is Wrigley Field to blame for the Cubs incomprehensible lack of success? It is certainly an interesting theory. I suggest you read the book and draw your own conclusions. Highly recommended!

What we have here is a light little read about Wrigley Field. Well, sort of; it's really not too well focused. It has many diversions, some of them pleasant and some of them tedious, into such wide-ranging fields as history, economics, psychology, neuroscience, architecture, sociology, and urban planning. (The section on the surprising importance of beer to the formation of the first civilizations comes fairly close to being worth the price of admission in and of itself.)

The problem is, the book is very scattered. It's anecdotal; in addition to the above mentioned digressions, it offers stories by the dozen of memorable Wrigley games, memorable Cubs, memorable opponents, etc etc. I managed to shake a handful of baseball trivia questions loose (Who was the only Major League player who was a contemporary of both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron? True or false: Major League teams have never combined for fifty runs in a single game.) Still, while190 pages of potpourri is not an unpleasant way to while away a few hours, I had expected more from Will.

There's something of a thesis to the book, one mentioned now and again in desultory fashion. It has to do with the idea that Wrigley Field's unique position as a stadium where the goal of making game day a pleasant experience regardless of the score has led to decade upon decade of leadership with no incentive to improving the team, thus leading to the poor Cubbies' never-ending futility. It's an interesting point, but it's lost in the general structure of a meandering yarn.

An okay baseball book.

First of all, I am a big fan of George Will. Secondly, I was born less than a mile from Wrigley Field and have been a Cub fan all my life. Thirdly, I work as a professional sports photographer and "ply my trade" at the Friendly Confines a couple dozen times each season. So, I have more than a little familiarity with the team and the venue.

I obtained this little (only 194 pages) book hoping to read an in depth history of the ballpark located on the corner of Clark and Addison, but this was more of an abridged history of the teams that have played there, mostly the Cubs. As such, it was a bit disappointing. I have the excellent McGraw-Hill history of Wrigley that contains some truly wonderful photo's taken by Cubs team photographer, Steve Green, and far prefer this earlier work to Will's book.

Not only is there limited history, but there are very few photo's. Wrigley Field is a beautiful place, and publishing a book with hardly any photo's of the park is a shame.

Maybe the final version of this title will contain more images (the copy I received was a pre-production print, replete with spelling and grammatical errors).

Having said the above, I did enjoy the book, especially the full text of former manager Lee Elia's infamous tirade when asked about Cub Fans ("Don't these people have jobs?"). Of additional note is Will's postulate that, as long as they play at Wrigley, a place so visually stunning that it is, in and of itself, a destination, and one that invariably sells out, independent of the quality of the team that resides there, the ownership of the Cubs will never be incentivized to spend the money required to field a championship caliber team.

The measure of a good book, perhaps a great book, is when I finish the last page, I’m sad to see it end.

This Wrigley Field tribute, lovingly crafted by George Will, is a gem—but I still had five days of vacation left. Surely Will could craft a second book for us hopeless Cub fans. Misery loves company.

Another measure of a great book—I can read numerous paragraphs out loud to my wife, and she’s not annoyed. And no wonder—she converted me into the religion that is Cubs misery in 1968, a year before we married.

“Is 1984 in the book?” she asked, sadly.

I assured her that the heartbreak of 1984 was duly noted—plus other dates and fates: Leon Durham, Steve Bartman, 100 years of Wrigley Field, and dozens and dozens of other Cubs moments to inspire depression.

So why read this? Because the sadness is frequently erased with Will’s dry wit, intelligent analysis, and sidebar wisdom and humor:

--“For most teams, 0 for 30 is called a calamity. For the Cubs it is called April.”

--“What does a female bear taking birth control have in common with the World Series? No Cubs.”

Will quotes sportscaster Red Barber who once said, “baseball is dull only to dull minds.” Exactly. That’s why Cubs fans clearly have higher I.Q.s. We find meaning and solace in the nuanced explanation of win/loss records.

But this is far more than a tribute to Wrigley Field, host to more than 140 million fans since 1913. Will’s wisdom shines in hundreds of one-liners:

--For immigrants, “Learning to talk baseball was part of the catechism of the civic religion.”

--“Chicago was just the place for a man with Cowperwood’s high ratio of energy to scruples.”

--Contrasting the “Wurlitzer jukebox” strobe lights and noise that is the NBA experience with the sanctity of the Wrigley Field organist, Will’s axiom is perfect, “At a baseball park, the loudest noise should be supplied by the spectators.”

And then this:
--“Perhaps Wrigley Field [home plate gates] should be decorated with a large warning akin to those that appear on packages of, and advertisements for, cigarettes: ‘The Surgeon General has determined that this is a gateway to neurological difficulties.’”

There’s something here for everyman: pastors, professors, pitchmen, policy-makers and perfectionists.

Like the ubiquitous signs on opening day at Wrigley Field, “Wait ‘Til Next Year,” I hope there’s a sequel.

Will is of course an accomplished writer, but this short book on the history of Wrigley Field is too disjointed and scattered throughout. At one point in the book, he spends almost 10 pages writing about the history of beer in America. Later on he spends a few pages writing about brain activity.

The trivia and baseball facts are interesting, such as: The Cubs were the first National Leauge team to draw more than a million fans for a season, and they spent Spring Training on Catalina Island from 1921-1951.

Lovers of baseball will probably enjoy A NICE LITTLE PLACE, but just be aware that it's not all baseball throughout the book.

George Will is slipping. This book provided very little insight into Wrigley Field and is way heavy on pretentious blather. It seems he insists on reminding us just how smart he is. This is not a baseball book, this is a bouquet to himself. Just terrible.

If you like 'the master of the pretentious quote' buy this book. I used used to like and admire George Will, but what a sell-out. Do not waste your money on this Fox News shill.

Watching a baseball game at Wrigley’s Field is a delight. In 2011, I took the train from Michigan to Chicago, then took the Red Line out to Wrigley Field to watch the Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs. I was rooting for the Cubs and would have liked to have seen them win, but those who go to watch baseball at Wrigley’s attend mostly for the experience. “People go to museums of fine art to see the paintings, not the frames that display them,” Will writes. “Many people do, however, decide to go to Chicago Cubs games because they are played within this lovely frame… It is frequently noted that Wrigley’s Field is lovelier than the baseball that is played on the field.” (13). This leads to all kinds of jokes about the Cubs: “What does a female bear taking birth control pills have in common with the World Series,” someone will ask. “No Cubs.” Or, “for most teams, 0-30 is called a calamity. For the Cubs, it is called April. (29) The old ballpark turned 100 years old in 2014 and George Will, who grew up in Illinois and is a Cub fan, wrote a history of the park to celebrate the event and to explore why people love the Cubs and Wrigley’s Field. As Will notes early in the book, "Reason rarely regulates love." (11) And with the Cubs, it’s all about love as their attendance is the least sensitive to performance in all baseball. (134) People come whether or not they are winning. Ironically, their attendance is four times more sensitive to beer prices than performance which is why only two teams (the Pirates and Diamondbacks) have cheaper beer. (136)
The Cubs are an old organization and at one time (pre-Wrigley’s Field) they were a powerhouse. In the 1880s, with Cap Anson, they had many championships. It’s just that they’ve had a bad century, winning their last World Series in 1908. Will gives the history of the team that was first known as the Chicago White Stockings and under the leadership of Albert Goodwill Spaulding (baseball’s first entrepreneur) helped invent Major League Baseball. (31). Goodyear published yearly “Spalding Guides” to Major League Baseball. In his 1908 edition, Goodyear (who Will noted “was not always fastidious about facts”) created the myth of Abner Doubleday inventing baseball in the summer of 1939 in Farmer Finney’s pasture in Cooperstown, NY. (33) After being known as the White Stockings, the team went by a number of names (Colts, Orphans and Spuds). In 1902, after the creation of the American League, there was another team in Chicago that was using the name “White Sox’s,” so they looked for a new name and decided on Cubs as it represented bear-like strength with a playful disposition. (36) Another interesting fact that Will provides: The American League was founded in 1882 and its main difference at the time was it allowed beer sale at ball games. (34)
In 1914, the Cubs built their new stadium with the home plate at the corner of Addison and Clark Streets at the site of a former Lutheran Seminary. (20) Ironically, Addison Street was named for Dr. Thomas Addison, who identified "Addison anemia," providing more comic material for the Cubs. (15) Two years later, William Wrigley, who had made his fortune with chewing gum, brought into the Cub organization. (45). Wrigley was a promoter who was fond of saying, "Baseball is too much of a sport to be a business and too much of a business to be a sport. (46) His was the first club to allow people to keep balls that were hit into the stands and unlike other teams, who saw radio broadcast as a threat, he allowed stations to broadcast the games free of charge. (47-48). He reached out to women and built a strong female fan base. Under his family leadership, the motto was if the team was bad, “strive mightily to improve the ballpark.” (87) The Wrigley’s tried to create a ballpark for the whole family and would advertise for people to come out and have a picnic. The joke was that the other team often did. (83)
Will goes into detail about the Cub’s 1932 World Series loss to the Yankees and the game when Babe Ruth “called the shot” before he hit a home run over center field. As he notes, it probably didn’t happen the way it has been portrayed. Ruth, and the Yankees, were upset with the Cubs over a player (Mark Koenig) they’d traded from the Yankees late in the season. The team decided that Koenig would only get ½ of a share of the World’s Series proceeds for the team since he didn’t play all year for them. This increased the tension between the teams and most likely Ruth’s pointing the bat at the Cub’s dugout. The game was also interesting because of who were in the stands. Franklin Roosevelt was there (just 38 days before being elected President along with a 12 year old boy (John Paul Stevens) who would go on to be a Supreme Court Justice. (55-6)
Will tells many other stories about the Cubs and the field. This includes providing the background to the book and movie, The Natural. (65-67); how Jack Ruby was a vendor at Wrigley’s before moving to Texas where he shot Lee Harvey Oswald (90); of Ray Kroc selling paper cups to Wrigley’s before starting McDonalds (91); and Ronald Reagan broadcasting Cub games in Iowa via teletype. (93).
Wrigley’s field was the last major league ballpark to install lights. Will notes that one of the reason was the local bars, who liked day games so that the fans would stop off at the bar for drinks and food after the game was over. It is also one of the few stadiums to hold on to the organ and to shun more electronic means of music and scoreboards. Other topics that Will covered included race relations and baseball in Chicago. Some of the earlier leaders of the team were racists, which is ironic since the most famous Cub was Ernie Banks, an African-American. Another famous Cub was Manager Leo Durocher, known for saying “nice guys finish last.” This is another myth that Will shatters, noting that Durocher was speaking of the Giants and said, “All nice guys. They’ll finish last” and journals “improved on his quote.” (108) He also noted that Durocher didn’t like Ernie Banks. “You could say about Ernie that he never remembered a sign or forgot a newspaperman’s name,” Durocher said. (112)
The last part of the book is mostly philosophical as Will explores the role tribalism plays into our love of sports, the beauty of which “is its absence of meaning.” (188)

I don’t always agree with George Will’s politics, but I share a love of baseball and enjoyed reading this book. If you don’t mind Will’s myth-busting, you’ll find this book to be a gem.

On the one hand, this book is, itself, as “nice {a} little place” to spend some time as the title promises of a day at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. George Will, a Cub fan from age 7, compiles an altogether pleasant -- funny, optimistic, smart -- collection of stories and statistics about the history of baseball, its players and its playing fields.

I recommend it ... as long as you go in knowing what is my “on the other hand”: that much of the content is about baseball in general, not the Cubs or Wrigley Field specifically. Also on the other hand, is a wholly frustrating lack of organization to the book’s content -- the narrative jumps all over the place in time and topic. Still, over the 200 pages, a bit of Cubs/Wrigley history does accumulate. I especially appreciated the look at the business side of baseball and attendance; the lack of standardized field specifications and how teams use their fields to their advantages; and how antiquated Wrigley has become in light of the amenities that fans (and players) expect at a ballpark (its newest owners are beginning to remedy that).

In the end, I was disappointed that this is not a satisfying history of Wrigley Field ... and I was entertained and informed by what it is.

Did not this this was a good read. Some of the facts weren't exactly correct.