Comments on: Peter Gammons and Ozzie Guillen agree: Wrigley is “a dump”

By: schmedley69

schmedley69 — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:17:26 +0000

I made my first trip to Wrigley in 2009 and I thought that it was a pretty awesome experience. They could renovate it as long as they don’t make any drastic changes. Just a great baseball atmosphere. I saw a few players pull up in cabs and walk into the stadium as kids mobbed them for autographs. Where else could you see that? Plenty of places close by to eat and drink before/after the game. I went to Fenway in ’99, so I haven’t been there since they renovated. They are both great, but if I had to choose, I’d take Wrigley. Their fans are a lot less obnoxious.

By: raysfan1

raysfan1 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:26:59 +0000

Absolutely agree with Gator about Giordano’s. BTW, Gator–don’t know how often you get up to Orlando, but there’s a Giordano’s there too.

By: houkss

houkss — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:24:34 +0000

They have to upgrade the stadium to compete. Plain and simple. There are no corporate boxes. The ones they have still have televisions in them that are black and white rca’s that used to be in your parents living rooms. It’s charming, the way the little league park is in cooperstown. But it’s the reason the Cubs will continue to suck until eternity……

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:29:01 +0000

Oh, there’s no elevator to the pressbox. I have no idea what the lingering effects of Gammons’ stroke are, but that could also be an issue with him.

By: royalsfaninfargo

royalsfaninfargo — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:29:51 +0000

Does Peter Gammons like anywhere in this country (or in the world, for that matter) outside of Boston?

By: davidly

davidly — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:24:24 +0000

Well. In that case: Go Cubbies!!
(But I wouldn’t expect a Yankee-like Series streak any time soon.)
Love that Wrigley.

By: salvomania

salvomania — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:16:02 +0000

Compromise? Almost no chance of being a big winner? This isn’t a Kansas City Royals thread!

The Cubs have a 18% higher 2011 payroll than any other NL Central team ($125.0M vs. Cardinals’ $105.4M), and they’ve been to the postseason three times in the last 8 seasons.

By: cur68

cur68 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:08:48 +0000

Love me some ice cream; Cherry Garcia, mmm nice….on cake or pizza, I would marry you Cherry Garcia…or Chunkey Monkey. I’d marry them both. Polygamist ice cream love, here I come…

Pie wishes it were half as good with ice cream as cake is. Ultimately though, ice cream doesn’t need either of them but is so easy it’ll do either for kicks. I love that about ice cream…

By: nfugitt

nfugitt — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:03:07 +0000

Wrigley may be a dump, but Gammons needs to get his face out of Boston’s rectum because Fenway makes games unwatchable. A horrid, wretched stadium.

By: Alex K

Alex K — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:55:22 +0000

Ice cream blows both out of the water. Cake is a ditant second. Pie is about 150th.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:53:35 +0000

Gammons doesn’t like Wrigley because the places where he works are not to his liking. The clubhouses, especially the visitors’ clubhouse, are small. The pressbox is spacious but open. No A/C, no heat, and open to the wind.

If I were an opposing manager, I wouldn’t like the visitors’ clubhouse, either.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:27:59 +0000

Ice cream on cold stuffed pizza makes an excellent breakfast.

By: davidly

davidly — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:42:28 +0000

It’s not a dump. It’s a neighborhood ballpark (the only left that can be realistically called a park) that draws fans from around the city and elsewhere. The compromise is almost no chance at being a big winner, but that’s the compromise. I think a good one. The addition of lights for night games was bad enough.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:40:30 +0000

I will not make that mistake again!!! (I may Lie at times fyi)

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:39:12 +0000

Dude, Ice cream has been seen all over pie, many times. As a matter of fact cake too. Ice cream is just too easy.

By: Alex K

Alex K — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:48:22 +0000

Now if we could only get you to realize that pie sucks. It’s all ice cream all the time, sir.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:32:10 +0000

Alex, I’m very, very much against taxes supporting private business, always have been. Glad to see you are too. Business needs to remove some of the burden the middle class has on it’s shoulders now. I’m far too much of a smarta$$ for my own good I guess.

By: gentbaseball12

gentbaseball12 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:15:50 +0000

Wrigley is a dump because it holds the team back from generating more revenue. No scoreboard, no ads, etc means less revenue coming in, which means the team isn’t able to exploit it’s geographic advantage in a league with no salary cap and where team revenue is dependent on almost entirely local revenue. Thee is no reason that the most popular team in one of the top 5 major media markets gets hampered by bad contracts (soriano fukudome, etc). The cubs should be like the red sox, who can swing and miss on guys like dice k and not miss a beat. Instead the franchise is run by idiots with idiot fans who think maintaining wrigley is more important than winning. I am huge cubs fans and would love nothing more than to blow wrigley field up if it meant the cubs would win a title. Instead the cubs will miss out on significant revenue generating opportunities for the sake of keeping up the historical dump that is wrigley and the team will still suck. Awesome.

By: Alex K

Alex K — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:03:15 +0000

You half got me above. I wasn’t sure on your veiws of using public funds for ballpark building/renovation. The rest I could tell was a joke.

By: Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward

Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:59:21 +0000

It’s a lot easier when you down a couple “beers” (i.e. trough piss) before entering the bathrooms at all. I usually sit in the bleachers, arrive 90 mins early, and hold off on pissing until the third (about 3-4 beers deep). By then, I could take a leak in CF with 40,000 cheering me on w/o being distracted or get a hint of stage fright. By then you high five the guy your peeing toward b/c you simply have a hand free.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:52:04 +0000

My dear Homo canadensis, you must – I repeat, must – sample the stuffed pizza at Giordano’s. So crammed with goodies is it that it looks like a cheesecake with a pizza on top. Various varieties (which come from the same Old Indo-European root) but my favorite is the healthful stuffed spinach special with a bunch of extras (at a slight charge) like green peppers, onions, mushrooms and broccoli. If you order a small one you may need to ask the beav…er, waitress…to help you finish it. I’ll leave that to your imagination. Giordano’s (which I have always thought of as my culinary G-spot) has expanded and has lots of branches but the original one I always went to up on Lincoln Avenue is still there.

I would also recommend you go to Carson’s Ribs or Leon’s BBQ. Leon’s has the meatier bones but Carson’s BBQ sauce is so good that you could fill your hot tub with it and drown yourself.

Hackney’s hamburgers….ah, what’s the use. It’s an unBuddhaly great eating down. >urrp<

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:50:19 +0000

As a Cards fan it would be easy for me to take a cheap shot at Piggley Wrigley, but I will refrain, cause it is a grand old place. I will make one criticism though and it has little to do with the park in general. I just wish people who attend the games would sit the F**k down. I understand that sitting for 9 innings observing the current product is difficult, but I paid for the seats, and would appreciate being able to actually watch a play or two on the field.

By: kopy

kopy — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:49:44 +0000

As a (yet another) Minneapolitan, I am used to pissing in troughs. The fun part about Wrigley is that they have troughs back-to-back in the bathrooms with about a 4 ft. high hall separating them so that you actually stare into the face of another man while you both urinate, and you would be urinating on each other if it wasn’t for the objects in the way. Obviously, man code prevails and everyone keeps their eyes on the road, but it’s still awkward.

By: yankeesfanlen

yankeesfanlen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:47:25 +0000

You go to see the Cubs play, unlike a certain other team that you go to see win. Wrigley is……quaint. It does not equate in terror to the Old Old Yankee Stadium in the early 70s.
Please review Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to practice for the experience.

Jonny, I guess you know by now to Leave Chicago Alone!

By: cur68

cur68 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:38:35 +0000

As a hockey fan I deal with ‘simple’ in my sports arena real well. The notion of ‘Chicago cold’ does not bother me; after a winter when a warm day is around 15 below centigrade there is nothing Chicago can do to me that will ever resemble frostbite. I laugh at your weather thusly; ha!

Gator I am so pleased to hear that my national rat is doing as wonderfully in Chicago as here; Castor canadensis is hardy, furry and cuddly but it’s been a while since I travelled to visit their diaspora. I shall take notes. I plan to give all mescaline a miss but I will give the local food and drink establishments a hammering. The Cubs better be winning by this time next year.

By: Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward

Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:31:42 +0000

To be clear to the non-Wrigley/non-Chicagoan attendees and to those taking anything J5 says seriously: Wrigley is a dump mainly to the players, staff and journalists. Those are the areas of the facility which are hurting most for renovations and improved amenities. As a fan or patron of the park, you will not see these issues and the only thing negative to fan experience are the less-than-awesome-but-really-who-cares? troughs the men must pee in. The structure itself likely needs some aesthetic work and perhaps some reinforcement (see falling debris from mid-2000′s). The rest of the park is in good shape, granted there are some sight-line issues due to the many support beams holding the upper deck. Can’t change that w/o demolishing and rebuilding (no way that’s happening) Otherwise, the bleachers are all redone and are the best place on earth to watch baseball. The only problem is the Cubs stopped playing baseball there a couple of seasons ago and starting playing tiddlywinks, instead.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:30:46 +0000

There are worse things to spend your time on. Surely there are…

By: kopy

kopy — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:30:38 +0000

P.S. The wind off the lake is real. Bring a hooded sweatshirt/light jacket if you’re in the upper deck along the left field line or you’ll freeze, even on seemingly gorgeous days. If you’re in the outfield, you’ll be baking and probably take your shirt off (or at least that’s what the college kids do).

By: kopy

kopy — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:27:47 +0000

Short answer: no. It’s not so much “bad” as it is simple. People think of it as a dump because there’s no electronic scoreboard, jumbotron, or sound system pumping walk-up music. It’s not like seats are broken and the toilets don’t flush. I was there last year, and had a great time. It’s just a great place to watch a baseball game. The surrounding neighborhood is also, in my opinion, the best in Chicago for sports bar/drinking outings.

By: Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward

Mr. Jason "El Bravo" Heyward — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:23:26 +0000

I believe it’s a sad thing that I can read into your comments so easily. The implication is that I spend way too much time here on HBT.