Wrigley Field is the best place in America to watch a baseball game. Even a Sox fan will concede that no other stadium is a more beautiful, more perfect for baseball than Wrigley.
Look into deep centerfield; there’s no blinding Jumbo-Tronobnoxiously prompting fans to “Cheer!” and “Boo!” Instead, a manual scoreboard–the same one that’s been there since the 1930s–sits atop the centerfield bleachers. Pan across the outfield fence; loathsome advertisements are nowhere in sight, nor are any conveniently placed behind the batter’s box. Only the infamous ivy graces the outfield wall of Wrigley Field.
And, thankfully, Wrigley Field lacks vast amounts of fine food courts and children’s games in the aisles.
Why? Because Wrigley Field was built at a time when going to a baseball game meant just that–watching baseball. At Wrigley, you sit down with a Chicago-style hot dog, relax in an atmosphere free of corporate bombardment and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
That’s the beauty of Wrigley Field. It’s much more than a baseball stadium, much more than the home of the Cubs. In a sense, Wrigley Field is a time capsule, a throwback to the time before baseball became a multimillion-dollar industry.
Going to college nearby in Indiana, I encounter baseball fans from all around the country, and every single one of them wants to see a Cubs game before he graduates. Many aren’t Cubs fans, some probably don’t even care which two teams are playing, but they want to experience a baseball game in Wrigley Field.
Maybe that’s why, season after dismal season, fans continue to pour into Wrigley to watch the Cubs struggle for a .500 record while Comiskey sits half-empty during even the best Sox seasons. Maybe that’s why as executives and owners tore down old ballparks across the country, they came to Wrigley and studied it, hoping to incorporate part of Wrigley Field into their new stadiums.
The aura that surrounds Wrigley, though, the mystique that pulls fans back year after year, cannot be captured.
That’s why Wrigley should never be replaced. Why should Chicagoans settle for a state-of-the-art, surrogate Wrigley Field when we already have the real thing?
To those who lack respect for the game and cannot enjoy baseball without a blaring Jumbo-Tron, numerous gimmicks and games, and a fancy food court, I offer one solution: Go to Comiskey. I hear there are plenty of tickets available.
