CHICAGO — Young Hayden Birdsong ran the bases as part of a Wrigley Field postgame promotion for kids and slid headfirst into home plate, creating a cloud of dust and walking off a complete mess.
“It’s funny, I was wearing a Starlin Castro jersey,” said Birdsong, who grew up three hours from Wrigley as a big Cubs fan. “I kept it. Didn’t clean it. I think it’s still like that today with that dirt on it.”
Returning to Wrigley many years later as a Giants pitcher — “this time in my own jersey” – Birdsong is a rookie experiencing big-league ballparks for the first time. He’ll see plenty of them. Because of his elite talent level and high-end repertoire, he’s expected to be a Giant for a long time.
But no ballpark will compare to the one at 1060 West Addison.
“It’s easily the best road stadium I’ll probably ever play at,” Birdsong said.
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I’d imagine he’s right. Major League Baseball has some exceptional ballpark experiences, including Oracle Park. Not all, mind you. I’ve covered games at 55 parks, many no longer MLB operative, such as the Astrodome in Houston, Turner Field in Atlanta, and Stade Olympique in Montreal. Plus some no longer in existence, such as Comiskey Park, Tiger Stadium, and, of course, Candlestick Park.
No. 1 on my list always was Wrigley. Not just because of all the games I attended in my youth on summer trips to visit family. But because of the history and sheer charm and beauty, including the brick-and-ivy ambiance, the manually operated scoreboard, and the intimacy of the outfield bleachers.
As well as the surrounding neighborhood known as Wrigleyville, which ought to be on the bucket list for any Giants fan.
I moseyed around “the Friendly Confines” Monday when the Giants opened their three-game series against the Cubs, with Clark and Addison streets on one end and Waveland and Sheffield avenues on the other, and two thoughts immediately came to mind: It ain’t how I remember it, and it’s still the coolest experience to take in a ballgame, with apologies to the gorgeous venue along the shores of McCovey Cove, where the breathtaking views and homage to the Giants’ past are unparalleled.
From the bars to the restaurants to the ballpark tours to the across-the-street rooftops, Giants fans seemed to be everywhere, appreciating all that Wrigleyville offered, except for the final score: 9-2, Cubs.
Chris Bohny, who flew in from the Bay Area to watch the game, called Wrigley “a park where you feel the spirits. It’s Lambeau-esque.” Dolores and Ben Condon, in from Rohnert Park, were celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary — their daughter Cecilia was going to gift the tickets for whichever ballpark they chose. (“We said Wrigley,” Dolores said.)
Evan Blandino arrived from the Bay Area to sit on a rooftop with his mother, Natalie, who paid for the trip, a 30th birthday gift. He has been to a bunch of ballparks and called Wrigley “No. 1. It’s a living museum.”
Ralph Perola, a Giants season-ticket holder who caught a red-eye to make the game, has been to a third of the major-league parks, and while he cherishes Giants home games, he said, “Wrigley and Fenway might be the top two. They’ve been around more than 100 years.”
Indeed, Wrigley opened in 1914, two years after Boston’s Fenway Park, the oldest venue in the majors. Wrigley is where Babe Ruth supposedly called his shot, gesturing that he would hit a home run in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, then doing so. Where Ernie Banks hit his 500th home run. Where Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters in a game. Where the Cubs clinched the 2016 pennant on their way to their first World Series title since 1908, pre-Wrigley.
I always thought Wrigleyville was fine as is, but it has been modernized, gone corporate, and lost much of its innocence from yesteryear — which isn’t uncommon, of course. The lot across the street, which had little more than a fast-food joint, now is a luxury hotel. The player parking lot is now an open-air plaza bustling with activity, Gallagher Way. There’s a huge sportsbook that seemed pretty much empty when I walked by. And most of the rooftops were purchased by companies associated with the Ricketts family, which owns the Cubs.
Ah, the rooftops. There was a time when the rooftops along Waveland (beyond left field) and Sheffield (beyond right field) were occupied by tenants of the buildings and their buddies who carried up fold-up chairs and coolers. It became apparent in the mid-1980s that the views to games could be a moneymaker, so it became a nice little business for entrepreneurs, especially when Wrigley tickets were at a premium during the great home run chase of 1998, featuring the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa and St. Louis’ Mark McGwire.
Eventually, the Cubs wanted a piece of the action and took on the rooftoppers, even doing ballpark construction to block some of the views, with wind screens and legal action.
In the early 2000s, the Cubs and building owners agreed to contracts that would provide the team a percentage of the revenues. The Ricketts family, which bought the team in 2009, took it to another level and began buying the rooftops in 2015. I counted at least 10 rooftops run by the team and just two that remain independent.
One is run by Murphy’s Bleachers, a popular pub that has ownership of four buildings beyond the center-field bleachers and the Harry Caray statue, including one with an independent rooftop. The establishment initially was run by Jim Murphy, then his wife, Beth, and now his two kids. Years ago, Beth Murphy was praised by small Wrigleyville business owners for how she stood up to the Cubs in the rooftop rights battles.
That battle no longer exists at Murphy’s.
“It’s a great relationship,” said Freddy Gagenholz, Murphy’s general manager. “We work great with the Cubs. If we’re sold out, I tell fans to call the Cubs. So it’s all good.”
On the other hand, the other independent rooftop on Waveland adjacent to a historic fire house has no public pub and depends heavily on rooftop sales. Proprietor Aiden Dunican had a 20-year deal with previous Cubs ownership that expired in December 2023 and hasn’t been able to strike a new revenue-sharing deal with the current owners; a source familiar with the negotiations said Dunican gave 17% to the Cubs in the last deal, and the team now wants 40%.
The Cubs sued Dunican last June, alleging his business was engaging in unlawful activities by providing access to Cubs games. Dunican denied any wrongdoing and wanted the case to go to arbitration, but a judge last month ruled against it. The case is in litigation.
“Wrigley has changed a lot in the last 10 years,” said Dunican, a 63-year-old builder who was born in Ireland and settled in Chicago in 1983. “You should have the right to the top of your rooftop, right? We paid the Cubs for 20 years, then they gave us an unfair contract offer. I don’t think it’s right.”
Dunican’s rooftop is an ultra-cool environment, and he sets the tone as he welcomes guests into his clubhouse and seating area with a smile, a meal, and a full bar, all included in the price.
There’s no use in counting all the bars in Wrigleyville. They seem endless. A few stand out, including Slugger’s, with an upstairs batting cage; Bernie’s, a hangout in the ’90s for Giants players and staff; and the Cubby Bear, which Mike Krukow can tell you all about.
The legendary Giants broadcaster played his first six big-league seasons at Wrigley, starting in 1976, and remembers the experience like it was yesterday.
“The whole ambiance of Wrigleyville for me was the field itself. To walk in there as a big-leaguer is something I’ll never forget,” Krukow said.
“My first day in the big leagues, Sept. 6, 1976, my wife’s birthday, we were playing the Mets, and our starter, Steve Stone, finished his warmup and told me, ‘You better get loose, kid, ‘cuz I’ve got nothing.’ First guy I faced was Dave Kingman, and he swung at a pitch on the hands and popped it up.
“After the game, Bruce Sutter brought me across the street to the Cubby Bear for a celebratory beer, Old Style, which is all we ever had in the clubhouse. It was magical.”
Because it’s Krukow and the Giants and Wrigleyville, we must tell the story of General Sheridan’s horse. On the way from the hotel, the team bus always turned from Lake Shore Drive onto Belmont and passed a statue of Sheridan mounted on his horse. Well, some veterans spun a tale about a so-called baseball tradition in which rookies went out to the horse the night before with a can of spray paint and painted its, um, privates so that a spec of orange could be seen on the next day’s bus ride.
Sure enough, every year Giants rookies followed the “tradition.” As part of the gag, the veterans worked a deal with Chicago police to barge into the visitors’ clubhouse and act as if they’re arresting the guilty parties.
“Yeah, it started when we were telling the young guys that rookies today have no heart and don’t understand the importance of tradition, that all the players used to do this,” Krukow said. “They bought in. We were making it up. We go back the next day, and the rookies all have orange paint on their fingers.
“Well, Chicago PD got into the act, some of the hardest-ass detectives you’ll ever see. They came in, took over the clubhouse and said they were arresting the rookies, and these young guys were peeing in their pants. Afterward, everyone laughed.”
For the record, it’s a true story; I witnessed the clubhouse drama many times, back when media access was a bit freer.
Everyone who visits Wrigleyville leaves with a story, some more innocent than others, such as Birdsong’s. Growing up in Mattoon, Ill., he attended many games, especially on weekends, with his parents, Stacey and Paula. Even Hayden, 23, has seen change since he was a kid a few years back.
“Growing up, Wrigleyville wasn’t like it is now,” he said. “They really built it up a lot more. We would always come to town to go to the shops and eat and then go to the game. My whole family was big Chicago fans. Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears. It’s just part of me.”
So much so that when Hayden was younger, the family bought a brick outside Wrigley.
Birdsong’s parents were in the house Monday. Unfortunately, their son had a rough game, as did the team. Third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Willy Adames each made two errors that led to six unearned runs, four on Birdsong’s watch. Just one of the five runs he yielded was earned, the leadoff homer by Carson Kelly.
There will be better days for Birdsong. Including in Wrigleyville.