Wrigley Field, Cursed since 1916

by Joe Persinger
@Brew_Mastr_Joe on Twitter


Before the 1922 renovation and the addition of the upper decks, Wrigley Field was cursed.   

Way before Babe Ruth "called" his shot in 1932, Wrigley Field was cursed.   

Long before the billy-goat incident in 1945, Wrigley Field was cursed.  

Way before the construction of the bleachers and the Ivy in 1937, the Cubs were just fucking cursed.

To understand this curse, we must go back to the late nineteenth century.  The Cub's are starting their fifth season in the new National League. 

Lake Park, constructed on Michigan and Randolph, Millennium Park now sits here today

The Chicago White Stockings (Now known as the Cub's) played on the lakefront in downtown Chicago on a small field called Lake Park.  In their new home, they won three National League Pennants from 1880-1882.  

They missed the World Series by four games in 1883 and at the end of the 1884 season the White Stocking's finished 62-50, twenty-two games behind the Providence Grays.  


To add to the declining team's misery, they were forced to leave their lakefront home.

The White Stocking's had to play as a road team for the first five weeks of the 1885 season while waiting for construction to finish on their new ballpark. 


The new West Side Park sat on a long rectangular plot of land giving the new ballpark a bathtub like shape with foul poles as close as 216 feet.  A bicycle track was also added that circled the entire playing field in the climax of the new bicycling craze.  

West Side Park, now the home of the Andrew Jackson building.

The White Stockings came to their new home June 6, 1885 on the Lower West Side of Chicago with an 18-6 record. 

The White Stockings were 43-14 at West Side Park in 1885--finishing in first place by two games ahead of the New York Giants making them National League Champions for the fifth time in six years.

The White Stocking's squared off against the St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals) in the World Series the following season. 

Game one of the series was called after eight innings due to darkness and game two was awarded to the White Stocking's after the Browns left the field because they didn't agree with the umpire's decision.  Both teams walked away from the series claiming they were victorious.  

That was the first of many disputes and the beginning of a long rivalry. 


The successful ball club posted a 346-177 record in the eight seasons they played in the "Bathtub".


In an era where ballparks were mainly built of wood, West Side Park started to see itself become outdated. The White Stocking's (now called the 'Colts') started feeling the pressure, caved in and decided to build a new ballpark. 

After eight seasons at West Side Park.  The Colt's were on the move, again.

The new "West Side Grounds" opened in May of 1893, and it would be thirteen years before the ball club became relevant again.


Then the first ever Major League Dynasty was born.  And I'm not talking about the Yankees.

From 1906 to 1910 the White Stockings (who were now officially dubbed the Cubs) won 4 National League Pennants, had 4 World Series appearances in 5 seasons (1906-1910), and won back to back World Series titles ('06, '07). 


They were the first MLB team to win back to back World Series. 

West Side Grounds

In the early twentieth century, immigrants who lived on the West Side of Chicago had no clue what this sport called baseball was.  


Attendance at the West Side Grounds started to suffer.


The Cub's were now feeling the pinch once again. 

With most fans leaving the West Side Grounds to go to the new modern Comiskey Park, it was time to respond.  

Another modern ballpark was being built on the corner of Clark and Addision in 1914 for the new Federal League. With the White Sox on the South Side, the Cubs on the west side, there was a new league and team on the north-side, the Chicago Whales. 

The league folded in 1915 and the Whales were no more.


Charles Weegham, former owner of the Chicago Whales, and nine other investors purchased the Cub's from Cincinnati Times-Star owner Charles Taft and moved the team to the north side of Chicago.

At the start of the 1916 season, the Cub's started calling Weegham Park (Wrigley Field) home.

Weegham Park

It wasn't long before the Cub's found themselves in the 1918 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. 

At the time, Wrigley Field would only hold a crowd of 14,000 patrons.  But Comiskey Park held a capacity of 28,000 people and the owners felt that Wrigley Field lacked the capacity, and wanted to sell more tickets. 

Money obviously played a role in that decision. 

They sent the Cub's to the South Side to play at Comiskey Park and gave away their home field advantage, and the World Series in six games.

This is where everything would go wrong for the Cubs.


In 1922, instead of knocking down what was then called Weegham Park, and building a new ballpark, the Cub's decided to renovate the ballpark.  

MISTAKE!!  And I can prove it.  

Other than going 1-3 at Comiskey Park against the Red Sox, in 1918, the Cubs have a dismal 
2-11 World Series record at Wrigley Field dating back to the '29 World Series.  They are 8-24 in the World Series they have appeared in, and are winless at Wrigley Field in '29, '32, and the '38 World Series. 

1945 seemed to be the only World Series the Cub's showed up for.  They won two games on the road in Detroit, and won game six (in 12 Innings) at Wrigley to force a game seven, which they lost.


In 2003, the Cub's played the Atlanta Braves in all 5 games in the NLDS winning game five and the NLDS three games to two.  

It was the franchise's first post season win since 1908 and their third National League Championship Series appearance since the start of the "divisional era" in 1969.   


The Florida Marlins came to Chicago for game one of the NLCS and were victorious.  The Cubs won the next three games in the series, but in game five Josh Beckett pitched a two hit, one walk gem that shut the Cubs out, bringing the series back to Wrigley Field for games six and seven.

D'oh! 

In game six, the Cub's were only five outs away from their first pennant in 58 years, but all that changed on a foul ball hit to left field.  Ushering the Cub's into the Steve Bartman era.  

What a load of crap.

Luis Castillo ends up walking, and two batters later Alex Gonzalez bobbles a double play that could have ended the inning. It was a defensive error that costs the Cub's game six.  Bartman did not help the sitchuation.


Just like Bob Stanley of the Red Sox.  Had he not given up that wild pitch in game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Buckner would not be an adjective.  

After taking a 3-1 series lead, I never thought I'd see so many people hanging their heads low.  Even if we lost game six, the Cub's still could come back and win game seven!!  But everyone had the same cold bitter feeling I had.  The "curse" loomed.  

I never believed a curse existed. 

I attended Game 2 of the 2008 NLDS.  As the game went on, I felt a bitter cold feeling.  It wasn't the cold breeze coming off the lake, or frigid air that surrounded my body.  

It was the same feeling I had at game six of the 2003 NLCS.  What I witnessed next changed a lot for me.


Four consecutive fielding errors by Mark DeRosa, Derrek Lee, Ryan Theroit, and Aramis Ramirez led to a 5 run inning which sucked the life out of the Wrigley Field crowd.  

The good vibes were fading fast and the so was the crowd.  For the next five innings it was nothing but sloppy pitching and spotty hitting.  I was stunned.  

Arriving home, I turned on Sportscenter to watch that evenings highlights.  Instead I was treated to a collage of the Cub's five post-seasons collapse of '84, '89, getting swept in '98, Bartman, and then the "four" errors.  

Something I personally got to witness. 

Steve Bartman stops Moises Alou from catching that fateful fould ball, Alex Gonzalez's dropped double play cost the Cub's 2003 NLCS game six , and these four errors did the same for this ball club as well.  


The Cub's can't play postseason baseball.  A 2-11 World Series record at Wrigley Field and an abysmal .333 winning percentage in the World Series is all the proof you need.  Need more proof?

Eight consecutive post-season losses dating back to the 2003 NLCS. 

D'oh!

Wrigley Field sits on what used to be known as the Chicago Theological Lutheran Seminary grounds.  

If I had to guess, this would be the root of the problem, ahem, I mean curse.



There really hasn't been much to brag about in the last 102 years and it's not looking like it's going to get any better.  

Well, there always next year.

Babe Ruth and "The Called Shot"

by Joe Persiner
@Brew_Mastr_Joe on Twitter


The debate rages on to this day.  Did Babe Ruth call his shot??  Most people (Yankee fan's especially) like to think so. I know Babe Ruth was a legend, but this event is clearly a myth.

In 1932, bleachers were pulled from the walls that ran the perimeter of the outfield and it was normal back then for patrons to stand on the same field the players were on.  To allow 50,000 people into Wrigley Field, they had built temporary bleachers on Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. This was before they built the brick wall, and the ivy that covered it (neither was built/planted until 1937).

It was game three of the 1932 World Series.  

Taking the mound for the Cub's was Charlie Root with legendary catcher, Gabby Hartnet behind the plate. Root, who was 15-10 in the regular season with 3.58 ERA, struggled in the first inning giving up two base hits to the first Yankee hitters. 

1932 World Series @ Wrigley Field

When Ruth came up to bat, he hit a home run into the right-center bleachers putting the Yanks up 3-0.  Two innings later, at the top of the third inning, Lou Gehrig hit a home run making the score 4-1. 

The Cub's ended up battling back with two runs in the bottom of the third inning and one in the fourth inning, tying the game at four runs a piece. At the top of the fifth inning is where the myth begins...... 


As Ruth walks up to the plate, he is verbally assaulted as people start throwing fruits and vegetables at him from the stands.  He takes his first strike. 

The Babe then watches strike two whiz right by him. This is where stories conflict. Some say this is where he pointed to the stands, a few have said that he was putting one finger in the air to show he still had one strike left. 
 
The Babe is batting left-handed and is still in his batting stance (feet shoulder width apart pointing toward the plate). If he was pointing to centerfield his elbow and arm would be at a much higher angle. Plus, if he really was pointing to centerfield, based on where this camera shot is, you wouldn't see him pointing because his fat head would be blocking his hand. 

The next pitch was a curve ball, which was blasted 440 feet into centerfield, all the way to the temporary bleachers built on Waveland and Sheffield.  

After the game, Charlie Root scoffed at the fact that the Babe called his shot saying, "If he pointed to the bleachers, I would have put one in his ear and knocked him on his ass."  

Ruth "pointing" to the Cub's bench

When the press asked Ruth if he called his shot, he said that he "wasn't pointing to any particular part of the ball park, just looking to give the ball a good ride." 

Over the years, the media-savvy Ruth began to change the story. 

In one interview he claims he "dreamt" of hitting that home run the night before." Another version of his story has him pointing at centerfield saying to Root "I'm going to hit the next pitch past the flag pole." 

The Cub's made it back to the World Series in '35,'38 and '45 and haven't won a pennant since.  

Since this mythical day, the Cub's are 5-13 in the World Series, winning their last World Series home game at Wrigley Field on October 8, 1945 against the Detroit Tigers.

Babe Ruth's (alleged) "Called Shot" has become folk lore in today's American culture.  It's every little league kid's dream to hold their bat in the air, and point to the very spot they plan on sending the ball.  We have Babe Ruth to thank for this.  

But I laugh.

It's all a lie.  Something created to make a man's legend (and ego) grow even further. He isn't known for his womenizing, over eating, showing up to games drunk. He is only known for one thing.

Hitting home runs.  

And he definitely solidified that with a 490 foot home run just pass the flag pole in where else, but Wrigley Field!

Comment · · Share

• 
  
• Write a comment...