War On the Rooftops

It seems like a lot of my favorite teams have interesting quirks that make them unique compared to any other franchise in sports. For Green Bay, it's the fact that they're publicly owned. More relevantly, for the Cubs, it's that they're a team with neighborhood ballpark and a tough contract with some of the neighbors.

Last week, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts decided that he'd had enough shenanigans with the city and the neighborhood, and decided to file his proposal for the much-needed renovations of Wrigley Field. Problem is, he opted to file the original plans for the ballpark, involving the jumbotron and ad signage for the outfield. And as anyone who's been paying attention knows, this means the owners of the rooftops on Waveland and Sheffield are going to fight.

I've never been to a game on one of the rooftops, and sure, it provides a unique experience and adds something different to the area around the park that others don't have. And up until 2004, the rooftops admitted people and paid nothing to the Cubs for the rights to the view. Finally the old administration decided to allow the rooftops to operate without any blockages to views in exchange for 17 percent of their revenue. At the time, I didn't really have much of an opinion one way or the other, other than noting that proposed "wind screens" to obstruct their view was a stupid idea, and thankfully that didn't pass. But it didn't really hurt the Cubs. At least, not until talk of renovation and modernization came up.

Today, I saw some proposed plans for how the ballpark would look after the renovation. I'm not super crazy about some of the signs there (the green Cubs logos are just kind of meh), but the jumbotron ideas look good. It's something I think the ballpark needs to get to the 21st century. I saw someone on Twitter who laughed about one fact with the signs though: all of the rooftop views are now to some degree obstructed. It's like the ultimate middle finger to the people that have held up the renovation plans.

It's all but a certainty that the rooftop owners will sue over this for a breach of contract. They may have a case, as the deal runs through 2023. But Comcast SportsNet's David Kaplan got to see the contract, and the case comes down to one provision.

"6.6: The Cubs shall not erect windscreens or other barriers to obstruct the views of the Rooftops, provided however that temporary items such as banners, flags and decorations for special occasions, shall not be considered as having been erected to obstruct views of the Rooftops. Any expansion of Wrigley Field approved by governmental authorities shall not be a violation of this agreement, including this section."

Would you consider this project an expansion of Wrigley? Since it's not just advertising but also a video screen that can be used for in-game purposes, I think it would be. And if a judge agrees, there go the rooftops.

I had no problem with them for years, even though until 2004, it could have been argued that they were thieves. Even with the deal, I didn't really have anything against them. It wasn't until they meddled in the affairs of ballpark renovations that I had issues. The Cubs are a Major League Baseball club that has the right to fix up its home park as it pleases, with approval of the city of Chicago. No other Major League team has to bow to the pressure of neighbors over what they can and can't do to their ballpark. And the Cubs shouldn't have to either. I understand that the rooftops are businesses and they're trying to protect their "product", but their "product" involves someone else's business, and they don't have the right to dictate terms like that to a sports franchise. Call me vindictive if you will, but I hope they get shafted. Wrigley has needed fixing up. This will finally put an end to the interference of allowing that to happen.

Game Notes: Milwaukee Brewers @ Chicago Cubs (5/16/14)

Final Score
Brewers 4, Cubs 3

Game Summary
About a year ago, Kristen kidnapped me to take me to a Cubs game. I said then that I needed to be more suspicious. Today, instead of participating in a round table with Senator Dick Durbin about student loans, I was kidnapped... again... and made the all-familiar trek to the Friendly Confines. Kristen put together a plan for a month that included buying tickets, getting my dad in on making sure I was home, and informing the people in charge of the aforementioned round table that I wasn't going to be able to make it. I stand by my decision, and my future bride.

On a cold afternoon, the Brewers (27-15) jumped to an early lead in the first with a pair of unearned runs (though honestly, one should have been earned, but whatever) thanks to some poor defense. They added another pair in the second before the Cubs (13-27) responded in kind with a Darwin Barney two run shot. The Cubs would add another run in the third on a solo blast by Junior Lake. After that, the Brewers settled in and didn't allow any more shenanigans. The Cubs got into and out of a couple jams, and couldn't string together another rally late to finish it off.

Pitchers of Record
Win: Kyle Lohse (5-1)- 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 K. While he wasn't dominant in terms of stuff, he minimized the damage to those two home runs and worked out of a couple jams early, then retired the final 13 batters he faced. Despite only two strikeouts, when you can keep any lineup from doing any damage for that long, you earned the win.
Loss: Jeff Samardzija (0-4)- 5 IP, 4 R (2 ER), 6 H, 3 BB, 6 K. Shark got roughed up a bit early, but wasn't helped after errors by Junior Lake and Starlin Castro enabled two runs to come across. The other two runs were more so his fault, but a passed ball by Welington Castillo didn't really help either. His pitch count was really high after two innings, so while he settled down, that meant the bullpen had to take over early.
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (17)- 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K. K-Rod looked awful on his first two pitches, missing badly and prompting a visit from Jonathan Lucroy. He then gave up a solid single to Starlin Castro to lead off. He proceeded to get a fielder's choice on a bunt by Chris Coghlan, got Castillo to fly out, then saw Schierholtz line out to end the game. Honestly, it wasn't that great an outing, but he got some help from his defense and a bad bunt by Coghlan. Still counts.

Key Stats

• Starlin Castro/Anthony Rizzo (CHC): 3-7, BB. This was the big question for the Cubs coming into this season: how well would these guys rebound? They have fairly well. Castro had two hits and Rizzo had one, though neither one came in a major spot or resulted in any damage being done. Still, it's a good omen on an otherwise dreary day.
• Jean Segura (MIL): 3-5, R, 2 RBI. Segura proved to have the game-winning hit when he singled in a pair of runs in the top of the second. It's a different game if Welington Castillo doesn't allow the passed ball before said knock, as if the rest of the game played out that way, it's 3-3 going into extras. Then again, both Ryan Braun and Carlos Gomez were off today.
• Cubs: 3 errors. This was what ultimately killed the Cubs I think, aside from not getting a hit between the third and ninth innings. The first error was a bobble in the outfield by Junior Lake on a Jonathan Lucroy base hit that Segura scored on. Segura probably would have scored without the error, but it went down as an unearned run. The following play, Castro threw a ball hit by Lyle Overbay too low over to first, and it allowed Lucroy, who had been at second thanks to Lake's error, to score and make it 2-0 at the time. In the third, Samardzija made a beautiful move to pick off Mark Reynolds, but on the ensuing rundown, Anthony Rizzo threw over Castro's head and allowed Reynolds to advance a base. While it didn't come back to bite the Cubs, it defined the "#Cubes" meme that has become prevalent in the past season or two to come to light.

Final Thoughts

Yes, it was cold. Sure, there was some rain, but we were under cover the whole game. Was it worth the trip? You bet. I was completely floored that we were going. Kristen orchestrated the perfect surprise that I didn't even have an inkling about. Guys who are reading this: if your girlfriend/fiancee/wife does this sort of thing for you, keep her. I'm not giving up mine.

I wasn't sure when this year I'd make it to Wrigley, given the chaos of a wedding and the ensuing honeymoon, but I'm glad we made it, even with the weather. It was a nice throwback weekend, and we got Babe Ruth "Called Shot" bobbleheads, which was cool. The game itself went... pretty much as expected, but there are some silver linings to take out of it. And at the end of the day, if you get to spend a day with the person you love in one of your favorite places, you take it every time.

Happy Birthday Wrigley!

If you read my MLB previews, and in particular the NL Central preview, you know that for the third year in a row, I have absolutely no faith in the Cubs this season. I think I've already tweeted out something to the effect of "#Cubes" about half a dozen times so far this year, which seems light given how bad the Cubs have been so far unless they're facing the somehow worse Arizona Diamondbacks. But today is a special day.

A lot has changed since April 23, 1914. My grandparents weren't alive yet, the World Series drought was at a whopping five, going on six years, and Weeghman Park was a single-tier stadium that held fewer than 20,000 fans. The Chicago Tribune has a great interactive graphic on how the park has changed in the last 100 years and what's to come.

Photo from April 13, 2009 game vs. Colorado

Wrigley was not my first Major League ballpark; that distinction belongs to the Metrodome when I was about three or four and Kirby Puckett was still doing Kirby Puckett things (RIP Kirby). I didn't want to stay for the whole game though; we left in about the seventh inning. My first full game though was a trip to Wrigley in the summer of 1998 when Sammy Sosa was on the juice baseball was undergoing a rebirth following the '94 lockout. Sosa would hit his 38th of 66 home runs that year and the Cubs would win.

Since then, I've been to Wrigley at least once every season. And despite most of those years ranging from mediocre to abysmal, the Cubs have had a minimum of a .500 record when I've been there every season except, weirdly enough, 2008.

Photo from April 22, 2009 game vs. Cincinnati

I have a lot of great memories of times at Wrigley Field. I skipped school one day in April of my sophomore year of high school to freeze my butt off for a double header. I've had seats right behind home plate thanks to connections with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. North Central has had alumni outings here every year towards the beginning of the season, and I was for all intents and purposes kidnapped into going last season by my wonderful fiancee. I was out in the bleachers the day Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux had their numbers retired in 2009, and again last year when Joel Quenneville brought the Stanley Cup with him to throw out the first pitch. I've heard multiple insults thrown at opposing outfielders and laughed at the chorus of boos directed at a guy wearing a Cardinals shirt at a Cubs-Orioles game (and the call in the ninth inning from a probably drunk guy that "It's not too late to throw him onto the field!"). It's where I saw my first two walkoff wins in person, including one from the bleachers after a phenomenal pitcher's duel between Ryan Dempster and Tim Lincecum. It's also the site of my favorite game I've attended in person back in 2003 when the Cubs blew out the Brewers behind a wealth of home runs; Kerry Wood was part of a set of back-to-back-to-back jacks, and Sammy Sosa hit a pair of bombs, including one that went at least 520 feet (I can still see that ball sailing well past me out over Waveland and onto Kenmore Avenue).

Photo from May 3, 2013 game vs. Cincinnati

My dad has been going to games at Wrigley since he first moved to Chicagoland in 1984, and he's the one who introduced me to this cathedral of baseball. He'll be the first to tell you that "Wrigley is a pit", and even said so in a project I did during my senior year at North Central for my Writing Across Media class. But he and I can both attest to the magical feeling that you get when you're on the Red Line approaching the Addison stop when you can first see the lights atop the ballpark, and the atmosphere you get when you first step out of the station and into the neighborhood. Just being among that throng of people and seeing the history in and around the ballpark... you can't really put it into words. If you haven't been yet, you need to.

I'm not sure yet when I'm going to make it to Wrigley this season. Planning a wedding while working on a new home, plus a honeymoon takes up a lot of your time. Hopefully I'll be able to make it there after all the excitement is past and I can celebrate the Party of the Century with the Birthday Park itself.

Moving the Friendly Confines?

Photo from a game I went to in 2009.

As an 8 year old I made my first pilgrimage to Wrigley Field. It was 1998, and I remember kind of being in awe of the entire trip there. The ride on the L was something special especially once we were above ground on the Red Line and saw the ballpark in the distance. Even with the troughs in the men's bathrooms, the concrete that wasn't quite as bad as it is now, and the posts blocking view of the game, Wrigley and the area around it has a certain charm you can't really get anywhere else. It's part of what has kept me coming back at least once every year since, along with my love for the Cubs.

And yet even with all that, I'm starting to find myself more in favor with ideas of relocation to a nearby town than I would have guessed. Monday saw a Comcast Sportsnet report about Rosemont mayor Brad Stephens offering a tract of land for the Cubs to use if they wanted to make the move. Right now no one seems to be taking the offer very seriously, but a Tribune writer did entertain the thought in an editorial.

The biggest obstacle I see here obviously lies with cost. Right now owner Tom Ricketts has a $500 million plan to renovate the park, including a complex built across the street on Clark. A brand new one is probably going to cost a lot more than that (probably in the neighborhood of a billion) and I understand and agree with the reluctance of taxpayers to want to foot the bill for a new stadium despite owners nationwide pulling the same fast one over on their neighbors (random biased note that is semi-related: this is why more teams should have similar ownerships to those of the Green Bay Packers, but legally we can't. This should change).

If the cost of a new place is not an issue (and since the land wouldn't cost anything), then I think it's worth it to at least publicly flirt with the idea and see if you can force the city's hand. The Cubs are the only team in the bigs with the issues of needing to cooperate with rooftop vendors across the street as well as having landmark restrictions limiting advertising. As much as I like not being bombarded by advertising everywhere, I'm also not actively looking for it as I'm usually paying attention to the game, so it's not really an issue for me there. That's more of a TV revenue thing, and would allow for more money to stream in.

The trickiest part is with some of the fans who go to Cubs games for the experience of going to Wrigley Field or for the "yuppies" as a lot of people call them who go just to get drunk (which is a waste of money... just saying). Just the prospect of a new ballpark is usually enough to get people to come. Putting it in a decent spot like Rosemont where you have O'Hare in the neighborhood, plus tentative access to public transportation there makes it a pretty attractive and not terribly inconvenient destination (assuming traffic doesn't end up awful because of this, which it usually is in that area during the evening rush anyway).

I'm not saying the Cubs absolutely have to move out there or absolutely have to stay. Whatever Tom Ricketts decides is the best course of action for the club is good enough for me, and hopefully the decision helps the club in the long run (and brings titles. Those are important). Either way, anyone who says they will stop being a Cubs fan if they move is not a true Cubs fan and should stop claiming as such. Yes, Wrigley is a part of the mystique of the Cubs franchise, but true Cubs fans will support them whether they're at Clark and Addison or in Rosemont. If you can get the city of Chicago to go along with renovation plans mostly unhindered and modernize Wrigley into less of a crumbling old relic, go for it. If not, and you can get a deal good for the franchise elsewhere in Chicagoland, don't be afraid to pull the trigger.

I love Wrigley Field as much as any Cubs fan. But if Chicago wants to play hardball, why not try to beat them at it?