I found the mesh-wire gate we had seen, and as you'll also read from the article in the Tribune yesterday (below), you can get a pretty cool view of the game at street-level. If a ball was ever hit into the rightfield corner, you'll probably see Jacque Jones rushing towards you chasing it down, like you were wearing 3-D glasses. There were about 12 people peering in, causing no trouble at all, letting you in front of them for a better look with a happy chuckle. Here's Big Z firing away.
It's not a bad upgrade, if you had to mess around with something, but the ballpark seems like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde these days -- old school Weeghman at Clark and Addison, manufactured retro Camden Yards (sorry, Uncle Bob) on Waveland and Sheffield. And, what the hell are Bud Light Bleachers anyway?! If I had money, it would be the Bass Bleachers or the Boddington's Bleachers. View the audacity for yourself.
And finally, you'll never bite a burger better than a Bubba! Bubba Burger is the official hamburger of the Chicago Cubs. Speaking of ballpark food, I talked to a guy unloading boxes of Connie's Pizza for the concessions stands. He told me that the pizza was all cold already. Together with re-signing D-Lee in the winter, another upgrade we should have made a priority was in the pizza department.
Enjoy the season!
Hole truth: Fans like changes
By and large, fans give thumbs up to renovations at Wrigley Field opener
By David Haugh
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 8, 2006
From his view behind the "knothole" cut into the brick wall in deep, deep right field, Bruce Tranen saw the ball explode off Derrek Lee's bat.
Tranen did not need to see where the ball landed to know immediately where it was headed in the first inning of Friday's 5-1 Cubs victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in front of a crowd of 40,869.
"That's gone!" Tranen shouted to the dozen or so fans peeking into Wrigley Field from the right-field opening behind him.
For confirmation, Tranen asked a paying customer on the other side of the wall who actually could see through a fence where Lee's drive finally had fallen in the left-field bleachers.
"You can't see everything out here," said Tranen, a Wrigleyville resident. "But you can see more than I expected. This is really kind of cool."
That represented the feelings of many curious Cubs fans who either bought a pricier-than-ever ticket in the new bleachers for Opening Day or ventured over to Sheffield and Waveland Avenues to judge the $13.5 million renovation for themselves.
Cubs officials had said passersby who had not purchased tickets would not be permitted to watch the game from Sheffield. But those willing to look through green mesh and a fence enjoyed a decent vantage point.
The only action out of their view from that angle was anything hit deep to the outfield gaps.
It was the best "seat" out of the house.
"We should put up a sign that says, `Freeloaders stand here,"' one smart aleck shouted from the back of the pack.
Cubs President Andy MacPhail acknowledged the group with a wave as he passed through the new walkway behind the right-field wall inside the park. Security guards were not sure whether to stop fans who lingered at the fence and obstructed the view of those outside the park or leave them alone.
"I can't complain," Tranen said as the game continued. "I didn't buy a ticket."
The mood was less joyful beyond left field, where Wrigley Field ball hawks bemoaned their new reality. Adding six rows and moving the exterior walls 8 feet out as part of the 1,790-seat bleacher expansion meant fewer home runs flying onto Waveland.
Moe Mullins, who said he has hawked balls outside Wrigley since 1958, counted 1,000 homers flying out of the ballpark in 2005 and estimated a drop of as much as half this season.
"Now we have a new problem out here because we can't see the ball because of how far the walls come out," said Mullins, wearing his black glove before Friday's game. "Before we could pick up the ball [sooner], so hopefully there will be someone who's a spotter sitting in the bleachers.
"Entering those bleachers Friday immediately reminded fans they were walking into an updated section and a new era. The impossible-to-miss "Bud Light Bleachers" sign above a modernized entry, promoting the sponsorship that helped finance the project, made some traditionalists long for the past.
"The `Bud Light' is bigger than the word `Bleachers,' and I hate it," said Sheila Keating, a North Sider who said she has been sitting in the end seat of the 10th row in the right-field bleachers for 20 years.
Keating and her sister Sharon moved up to the new top row to give the new look a fair shot. It pained them to look down at the red rope marking off the $60 bleacher box seats in the right-field corner, many of which stayed empty.
"I don't like the [exclusivity] of the box seats and the [Batter's Eye Lounge]," Keating said. "It's nice to see a few of the same people year after year for the past 20 years, but it's not nice to see people with ties and people wanting to get on camera and people just coming here to drink beer. It has gone from the Bleacher Bums to the Bleacher Yuppies."
Most of the other gripes leveled by fans' offering their first impressions of the new bleacher area involved more constructive criticism.
Dave Carter of Bensenville appreciated how much room he had to roam in his wheelchair in the new section in center field for disabled fans but suggested chairs for people who accompany handicapped and wheelchair-bound fans.
"But it's really a nice view and a lot better than it was," Carter said.
Over in the new patio area behind the left-field bleachers, Jeff Douglas' only complaint was that the televisions added so fans buying food and drinks could watch the game still were covered in plastic. Douglas also pointed out he still had to go down one level to go to the washroom.
"The changes are good, but I'm not sure they're great," said Douglas, who brought his son and a friend to the game from Rockford.
Several fans were overheard wondering if there had been any changes at all.
"I've heard people say they think it's a little better now with the walkway, more room and you can go into main part of the ballpark now," said Don Mazza, who was starting his third year as an usher in left field. "But if you weren't out here before and just looked at the bleachers, you wouldn't be able to tell."
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