Goodbye to the Cubs (as we have newly gotten to know them these past twenty years)

Cub fans should be in a dizzy these days with all of the talk about the end of the old Wrigley Corporation Field on Chicago's North Side. Hell, I'm as big a Sox fan as we are made, and I'm hating the idea of the loss of yet another wonderful piece of baseball architecture being scrapped. For the city and for Cub fans (I think) it would be a great mistake to do away with Wrigley.

Chicago as a city is losing much of what makes us unique. Too many old buildings are being torn down and replaced by bland suburban-type condo architecture and parking lots. Any old suburb- or, a newish car-driven city like Los Angeles - would kill for the streetscapes that we routinely destroy each week. Marquette Park, the neighbourhood I grew up in, has lost enormous amounts of the 'walking city' along 63d street and Kedzie. Tall three and four story buildings, movie theatres, marble storefronts= all are missing from the historical neighbourhood I knew. Replacing the irreplaceable has been........................parking lots..............ug......... I feel a little cheated that my neices and nephews can't grow up in a real neighbourhood like I did, full of bricks and morter and interesting sights. Instead, the pull in Chicago is to destroy all neighbourhoods and replace them with parking lots.

Baseball as well has almost destroyed its heritage. This is the pentumulate season @ Yankees Stadium. We lost Tigers Stadium a few years back. Worst of all, Old Comisky Park, the Baseball Palace of the World, was taken from the city in 1990. And now, the most serious rumours about Wrigley I have ever heard. For me, I would hate to lose Wrigley, and there are many reasons.

During the last game @ Comisky Park a guy walked around the park with a sign saying "Babe Ruth Played Here" (one of my favourite baseball signs). Wrigley, although not having as glorious a past as Comiskey, has been a part of baseball for 90+ years. The memories are legion: the White Sox have played there in interleague play (the 1906 World Series was played before either of Chicago's historical parks were built), the famous 23-22 game v. the Phillies was played there, and many famous players have graced the field: Don Kessinger, Ron Santo, Steve Stone, Steve Trout, Bobby Howry--even Michael Jordan. To destroy this park would be to partly destroy these memories.

Wrigley is a great advertisement for Chicago. The ballpark itself is beautiful, but architecturally the real key to the stadium is the view OUTSIDE the park. Wonderful Chicago buildings across the street are on view for fans inside the stadium and on tv. The view from Wrigley in, say, 1979, was unique. Unfortunately, as this is a yuppie Cub area, a lot of what made the view unique is being destroyed. Instead of historic Chicago two and three flats, we're getting a bunch of "I'm a good friend of Daley" cinderblock condo wonders across the street. The old buildings that people lived in for decades are being replaced by cheap corporate buildings built expressly for their rooftops. Despite the endemic general unwashed of those who live in this neighbourhood, it's still an area with strong and interesting buildings. Enough of the view outside of Wrigley must be saved along with the stadium itself to keep its charm.

Sox fans tend to be smug with superiority, but the one thing that Cub fans have over Sox fans in the historical park. I loved old Comisky, the greatest ball park ever, but am less fond of New Comisky. The retrograde changes that have been made in the last few years have improved the park greatly, but it still isn't old Comisky. Cub fans still have the park that, in the absence of all the old destroyed parks is deemed "special" 'cause of its age. If the new Cubs management actually tears down the park and relocates the team in the suburbs, Cub fans will then be completely put on the same level as of Devil Rays fans: not lovable at all, just losers. Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, The Toronto Dome, even New Comisky before the last three years: none have kept the initial giant rush of fans coming to the game unless the team is doing well (New Comisky). Let three years pass, and if the Cubs have their typical team, New Wrigley will be having the same 15-20,000 these other parks have in lean years. No matter what kind of wonderful new park they build, it won't be Sportsmans, Ebbets, Comisky, or Old Wrigley: it'll just be a new place that, no matter how many comical ways the home team will continue to lose, Babe Ruth never played in. Plus, it'll have that most ultra of embarrassing situations: during Cub games, thery'll be Cub fans there. Ha ha.