Wrigley Field: 10 things to know
1. There was a bear on the field
Chicago Cubs baseball player George Pierce petting a bear cub at Weeghman Park in Chicago, later to be named Wrigley Field, Aug. 25, 1916.
Joa, a live cub, greeted fans at the first National League game at the stadium in 1916. Local zookeeper Cy Devry led Joa around the park and even to home plate for photographers.
It is one of the memorable moments in Wrigley Field history as the iconic ballpark approaches its 100th anniversary.
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2. It's not just for baseball
Wrigley has hosted everything from a circus to a rodeo to boxing matches, college and pro football and, yes, ski jumping. The ballpark has also taken center stage, in films such as "A League of Their Own" and "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off."
The friendly confines opening its arms to entertainment beyond baseball is one of the unforgettable aspects of Wrigley Field history.
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Philadelphia Phillies manager Kaiser Wilhelm and Chicago Cubs manager Bill Killefer at Weeghman Park in Chicago, Aug. 25, 1922.
The two teams played the highest scoring game in Major League Baseball history that day at the park that would become Wrigley Field in 1927.
The Cubs defeated the Phillies 26-23. The Phillies only used two pitchers the entire game.
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4. The ivy wall is used as a hiding place
Cincinnati Reds center fielder Willy Taveras is almost lost in the ivy after catching a long fly ball during a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, July 24, 2009.
One ball flies into Wrigley Field’s ivy-covered wall and two pop out? It’s happened a few times over the years, the result, some say, of balls being hit there during batting practice and remaining there until something, an outfielder, maybe, slams into the wall to dislodge it.
But there are also stories that players hid balls there in case they needed to find one quickly to throw a runner out.
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5. Lou Gehrig hits homer - at age 17
New York Yankees' Lou Gehrig scores the first run of the 1938 World Series against the Chicago Cubs as he crosses home plate in the second inning of Game 1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Oct. 5, 1938.
A dozen years before Babe Ruth’s famed "Called Shot" at Wrigley Field, teammate Lou Gehrig hit an equally dramatic homer.
Gehrig was 17 when his high school team traveled to Chicago to take on a Chicago team. In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and his team down 8-6, Gehrig hit a ball over wall and onto Sheffield Avenue to win the game.
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6. Classic touches came later
Ben Martin, from St. Louis, has his picture taken by friend Stephanie Martin before a baseball game and Cubs' home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field in Chicago, April 12, 2013.
The famed marquee, scoreboard and ivy were not original parts of the ballpark.
The marquee went up in 1934 and was more of a bluish color at the time. The ivy was installed three years later. The scoreboard originally was a reddish brown with a white clock and was painted its familiar dark green in 1944.
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7. There was a time when it was tough to find a crowd
Fans sing, "Take Me Out to Ballpark," during the 7th inning stretch of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Aug. 4, 2013.
Year after year, the Cubs have been one of the biggest draws in all of baseball. Eight years in a row, until 2011, attendance topped the three million mark.
But the Cubs drew tiny crowds for years, with one game in 1966 played before fewer than 600 fans. For a 15-year stretch ending in 1967, the Cubs never drew as many as 1 million fans and drew as few as 609,000.
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8. It pioneered firsts
Baseball fans in Wrigley Field's left field bleachers scramble for a batted ball during a Chicago Cubs baseball game in Chicago, Sept. 4, 2013. Wrigley was the first ballpark where fans could keep foul balls. The first permanent concession stands? They were at Wrigley. The first stadium with organ music? That was Wrigley, too.
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9. The field has changed over time
The Wrigley Field grandstand is one of the most familiar sites in all of baseball.
What isn't widely known is that the grandstand once stood about where the pitcher's mound is today. In the 1920s, the grandstand was sliced into 11 pieces, put on rollers and rolled back to where it is today and reassembled.
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10. No one has (really) hit the scoreboard
A member of the Wrigley Field live scoreboard staff looks out in an opening of the scoreboard during a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates in Chicago, Sept. 25, 2013.
About that famed scoreboard: No one's hit it. Actually no one's hit it with a batted ball, but Sam Snead did with a golf ball. Teeing off from home plate, he drove one off the scoreboard and sent one over it before the 1951 opener against the Reds.