Posted on 05/14/2012 7:46:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Having not won a World Series since 1908, and having last appeared on that stage in 1945a war year in which the professional leagues were still populated by has-beens and freaksthe Chicago Cubs must contemplate the only solution that might restore the team to glory: Tear down Wrigley Field.
Destroy it. Annihilate it. Collapse it with the sort of charges that put the Sands Hotel out of its misery in Vegas. Implosion or explosion, get rid of it. That pile of quaintness has to go. Not merely the structure, but the ground on which it stands.
I'm a Roman, and to me, the expanse between Waveland and Addison on Chicago's North Side is Carthage. The struts and concessions, the catwalk where the late broadcaster Harry Caray once greeted me with all the fluid liquidity of an animatronic Disneyland pirateHello, Cubs fan!the ramps that ascend like a ziggurat to heavenit's a false heaventhe bases, trestles, ivy, wooden seats and bleachers, the towering center-field scoreboardall of it must be ripped out and carried away like the holy artifacts were carried out of the temple in Jerusalem, heaped in a pile and burned. Then the ground itself must be salted, made barren, covered with a housing project, say, a Stalinist monolith, so never again will a shrine arise on that haunted block. As it was with Moses, the followers and fans, though they search, shall never find its bones.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"1066 West Addison?
That's Wrigley Field!"
All of the old sports stadiums and traditions must be destroyed. So that the masses will be more willing to accept the future their masters dictate to them.
The more people forget how things ever were, the easier it is to get them to accept “change”.
Recently, the Pittsburgh Civic Arena (the Igloo) was demolished. I had many a fond memories of that place... the first time I ever tried ice skating... the Hornets, Penguins... college basketball... concerts from the Beatles to Sonny & Chere to Paul MaCarthy... but it was time. The building had outlived its usefulness.
Nostalgia is a great thing, but there is always a time to move on.
Yankees Fan from WAY back [I was at the ‘58 and ‘61 World Series]. Didn’t complain about the re-model, BUT when they built Macoombs Dam Park, instead of building a new Stadium on the site of the old one, I swore I’d never enter the place. Never have. Sometimes nostalgia is all you’ve got.
Maris din’t hit #61 in “The New Yankee Stadium”. Larsen, Wells and Cone didn’t pitch perfect games there. And Gehrig didn’t play first, Mick didn’t play center, Ford didn’t pitch, Yogi and thurman didn’t catch there, and Ruth never hit the snot out of a baseball there...
For all you north siders here. The last time the Cubs won it all, they played at Polk and Wood Streets, on the south side.
Please let the Cardinals get some more easy Ws from that hellhole and those stupid Cubbies.
then yeah - arc-light that POS!!
When I lived in Lincoln Park, I'd take in 30-40 Cubs games a year but there was only one year (81) where the Cubs got into the playoffs. This is a great park and this Cohen writer is a real b*tcher for sure.
So that more taxpayers can be bilked for building a replacement?
Curse of the Billy Goat
That all is true, but....good times...good times. :-)
Wrigley Field is an entity and an attraction all its own. It’s the world’s biggest beer garden and singles bar.
The Cubs are nothing but a sideshow of minimal relevance.
Ya, but in Pittsburgh, I can take you to a hunk of the left-center field wall where Mazirosoki's home run in 1960 beat the Mighty Yanks in game seven. The people with the serious nostalgia thing for baseball gather there every October 13 to reminisce.
No matter how much you love your wife, you can't make her like she's 20 years old again, and you can't make an old dilapidated ball park attractive to 20 year olds either.
There's a point where ball teams have to move on. It is a business after all.
How about moving the Cubs to either Tennessee or North Carolina? Chicago doesn’t need two teams anymore.
That’s just so cute. A Cubs fan with dreams of getting to the Big Show.
When you add up a combination of World Series appearances and/or wins, the Yankees and the Cardinals have owned the last century. The Cubs, not so much.
Would a new park really make a difference?
you can’t make an old dilapidated ball park attractive to 20 year olds either.
but when they turn 40 their memories are golden
and they remember. Sure they go to the modern venues
but they go to Wrigley to experience baseball.
Go Cubs.
Was that you I was sitting next to on Saturday? I’m 6’1”, not abnormally tall but when I sit in the common seats at Fenway my knees are always jammed into seat in front of me. It’s a great ballpark but it was built for hobbits.
I got away with giving the Jamaican only $30 this time.
Thye should convert a section of seats behind home plate to a small goat pasture. I wouldn’t go to watch the Cubs. But I might go to watch the goats watch the Cubs.
I agree. Still as much as the WSJ has gone downhill, it is still better than the toilet paper quality we get from all the other big city rags out there.
Hell with the flubs. I guess it is now offical that no one alive remembers their last championship. Serves these ____ right. Most obnoxious ignorant fans in MLB.
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