Traditions started at Wrigley

by cubfever7 on May 31, 2008 3:18 PM CDT

Milwaukee has it's sausage race and the Yankees have Frank singing New York, New York; but we have a bunch of our own.

1.) Harry used to do the 7th inning stretch while announcing for the Sox too, but it seemed to have really taken flight when he came North--yes? It seems almost every team does it now.

2.) Throwing back HR's goes back to at least the late 60's. Anyone know different?

3.) The W flag--not sure when that began.

4.) The Let's Go Cubbie's or Foo-koo-doe-may or any other four syllable chant I think may have started at Fenway--no?

5.) I've not seen any other club where the outfielders do the mid-air bump like the Cubs do. Did they start that?

6.) Taking over road team ballparks much to the chagrin of their announcers (nods to S.D and Cincy).

How many have I forgotten folks?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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#4

I’m pretty sure the four syllable chant started with the Bleacher Creatures in Yankee Stadium as they run through the entire starting defense in the top of the first.

WOXY.com - The Future of Rock and Roll

by Gibbon Jockey on May 31, 2008 4:13 PM CDT reply actions

And at Wrigley in the 70s

there was a three-syllable Lets-Go-Cubs chant. And in the old footage from the 50s or 60s, you see “Here we go Cubbies, here we go”—eight whole syllables.

"Is there anything he can't do?" ~Len Kasper, 4/5/08, on Kosuke Fukudome

by JohnM on May 31, 2008 4:43 PM CDT up reply actions

Very cool

You can see/hear that in “This Old Cub”...

by blackhawk24 on May 31, 2008 5:18 PM CDT up reply actions

#5

...I am pretty sure that Kenny Lofton brought the mid air post victory bump to the Cubs in ‘03 and it has hung around. I love that no matter which players finish the game in the outfield, they always do that after a win..

Felix Pie must play everyday!

by JB 23 on May 31, 2008 4:23 PM CDT reply actions

Oh

I thought for some reason Pie and Soriano started that. I don’t remember Patterson, Hairston, Jones, Floyd, Burnitz, Murton etc. ever doing that.

"Is there anything he can't do?" ~Len Kasper, 4/5/08, on Kosuke Fukudome

by JohnM on May 31, 2008 4:41 PM CDT up reply actions

I think you're right, John

by Shanghai Badger on May 31, 2008 4:53 PM CDT up reply actions

I know the '03 team did it

Maybe it went away until recently?

by dbaltman on May 31, 2008 5:15 PM CDT up reply actions

I don't remember that

Alou would have pulled a quad.

by Shanghai Badger on May 31, 2008 5:19 PM CDT up reply actions

And then peed on it

I know Lofton did it. Don’t know how much air Moises or Sammy got.

by dbaltman on May 31, 2008 5:21 PM CDT up reply actions

you might be right, but

I really think Pie started it. couldn’t find anything in a quick Google search, and I don’t feel like doing any more research on it. . . .

by Shanghai Badger on May 31, 2008 5:23 PM CDT up reply actions

It was funny seeing Lofton and Sammy doing that

knowing Lofton thought (and was probably right) Sammy was a clubhouse cancer at the time. Turns out he was probably right. Guess maybe that contributed to why I always liked him.

by blackhawk24 on May 31, 2008 5:23 PM CDT up reply actions

I saw Milwaukee do it on opening day.

I’m not sure who started it though.

"You know they're not going to lose 162 games." Harry Caray

by wrigleyrocker12 on May 31, 2008 7:14 PM CDT up reply actions

that has been around for as i can remember

10-11 years or so (im 17)

"I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying" - Michael Jordan, the one and only...

by LPLancer23 on Jun 1, 2008 12:38 AM CDT up reply actions

#2

Didn’t that start in the 80s?

"Is there anything he can't do?" ~Len Kasper, 4/5/08, on Kosuke Fukudome

by JohnM on May 31, 2008 4:44 PM CDT reply actions

Saw it in the 80's also

don’t remember its origin though.

by blackhawk24 on May 31, 2008 5:19 PM CDT up reply actions

The throw the ball back thing definitely was going on as far back as.....

.... 1969. I was out there one time in ‘69 and some guys put a ton of pressure on a kid to throw it back—he was truly torn. But he did it!

BBWAA's name should be changed to "Power in the hands of Fools"

by cubfever7 on May 31, 2008 6:44 PM CDT up reply actions

Standing for the last out in the 9th

Pretty sure that started in 1984.

Also, entire teams never came out to the field to congratulate each other after wins . . . that may have also been the 1984 Cubs.

by Shanghai Badger on May 31, 2008 4:53 PM CDT reply actions

Saw big red machine

do the game-win congraduatory thing but don’t know if they originated it.

by blackhawk24 on May 31, 2008 5:20 PM CDT up reply actions

alrighty

I guess it was just rare “in the day” then.

by Shanghai Badger on May 31, 2008 5:20 PM CDT up reply actions

4 syallable thing

seems to be an East Coast dominated thing…

by blackhawk24 on May 31, 2008 5:21 PM CDT reply actions

Not Winning The World Series?

We did that in 1909 and a lot of other clubs have followed suit…..

Just kidding! Just kidding!

"Eighty-five percent of the world is working. The other fifteen percent come out here." - Lee Elia, 1983

"The only thing that bothers me is that I would never want to destroy the love and what the fans of Chicago are to the Chicago Cubs. I mean, God knows. If there's one pure thing in baseball, it is the fans of Chicago." - Lee Elia, 2008

by CaughtInTheVines on May 31, 2008 5:50 PM CDT reply actions

LMAO!

BBWAA's name should be changed to "Power in the hands of Fools"

by cubfever7 on May 31, 2008 6:45 PM CDT up reply actions

First MLB park with an organ..

I’m pretty sure about this…

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." - Jacque Barzun

by Bump Bailey on May 31, 2008 6:48 PM CDT reply actions

You are correct

and WGN TV was the first to use a center field camera for that pitcher/home plate shot.

"WGN, Channel 9 Cubs Baseball, Excitingly, Importantly, Dramatically Yours." - Jack Brickhouse

by BigJohnAZ on May 31, 2008 8:15 PM CDT up reply actions

all we need is a circulatory system

and we are set!

2008 Cubs: Who needs nine innings, when you only need a 7th?

by Chanman25 on Jun 1, 2008 7:44 AM CDT up reply actions

Also...

I think I read this somewhere….first concession stand.

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." - Jacque Barzun

by Bump Bailey on May 31, 2008 6:57 PM CDT reply actions

You forgot the "wave"

I keed! I keed!

Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."

by ballhawk on May 31, 2008 7:28 PM CDT reply actions

Funny you mention that

I was at the Red Sox/Orioles game last night and the wave went around a couple times. I was embarrassed for them. It was cool to see Manny’s 500th though.

"I'm not giving him a high-five ever again." - Sammy Sosa, joking about Moises Alou's personal habits

by MorePiePlease on Jun 1, 2008 12:00 PM CDT up reply actions

#3

The term “White flag time at Wrigley!” means the Cubs have won.

Beginning in the days of P.K. Wrigley and the 1937 bleacher/scoreboard reconstruction, and prior to modern media saturation, a flag with either a “W” or an “L” has flown from atop the scoreboard masthead, indicating the day’s result(s) when baseball was played at Wrigley. In case of a doubleheader that results in a split, both the “win” and “loss” flags are flown.

Past Cubs media guides show that originally the flags were blue with a white “W” and white with a blue “L”, the latter coincidentally suggesting “surrender”. In 1978, consistent with the dominant colors of the flags, blue and white lights were mounted atop the scoreboard, denoting “win” and “loss” respectively for the benefit of nighttime passers-by.

The flags were replaced by 1990, the first year in which the Cubs media guide reports the switch to the now familiar colors of the flags: White with blue “W” and blue with white “L”. In addition to needing to replace the worn-out flags, by then the retired numbers of Banks and Williams were flying on the foul poles, as white with blue numbers; so the “good” flag was switched to match that scheme.

This long-established tradition has evolved to fans carrying the white-with-blue-W flags to both home and away games, and displaying them after a Cub win. The flags have become more and more popular each season since 1998, and are now even sold at the ballpark. On April 24, 2008 the Cubs flew an extra white flag displaying “10,000” in blue, along with the customary “W” flag. The 10,000th win had been achieved on the road the previous night.

by Madison Cub Fan on May 31, 2008 10:00 PM CDT reply actions

Since the "W" and the "L" flags

were created for the neighborhood and the “L” riders to ‘tell’ them the outcome of the game—(smokesignals of the 1930’s and 1940’s) why is there a reason to run a “L” flag now? The “W” is now just a quaint tradition. Why place the negative “L” flag up? Is that really still done? Just run the “W.” After all, we do have TV and radio now.

If an “L” flag is still run up the pole after a loss (and I have never looked at the flags after a loss) - I don’t understand. To paraphrase Sharon Stone - ‘bad Karma.’

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 1, 2008 1:10 AM CDT up reply actions

Because it's tradition.

Man, you are a bit curmudgeonly today!

There was radio in 1937, too. Yet, they still did the flags and do today, for the benefit of people who might not have been glued to their TV, radio or internet all day.

I don’t have a problem with this.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jun 1, 2008 5:49 AM CDT up reply actions

this was in the same wikipedia article

First attempt at lights (1941)

Lights were scheduled to be added to Wrigley Field in 1942, but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, then-owner Philip K. Wrigley (son of the late William) donated the materials intended for lighting Wrigley Field to the war effort. Baseball boomed after the war, allowing P.K. Wrigley to procrastinate on the issue. He eventually decided never to install lights for a variety of publicly stated reasons, so Wrigley Field remained a bastion of day baseball until the Chicago Tribune Company era, which began in 1981; the first night game was not until 1988.

by Madison Cub Fan on May 31, 2008 10:03 PM CDT reply actions

#6

Haven’t the Yankees been doing that for decades?

by DrCrawdad on Jun 1, 2008 12:25 AM CDT reply actions

there not true fans though

yankees are just a well known team with a big bandwagon. now that they suck, how often do u see a yanks hat compared to 5 years ago?

"I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying" - Michael Jordan, the one and only...

by LPLancer23 on Jun 1, 2008 12:40 AM CDT up reply actions

I see Yankees hats everywhere

Just because they have stumbled to a slow start, nobody’s taking them off. However, every other cap in San Diego is a “B.” There are not that many transplanted Bostoinians here. Padres fans have adopted the Red Sox, not the Angels as their AL team. When the Red Sox were in Petco last year - and I thought Cubs fans were always dominant here when the team came to town - the crowd had to be 75% Sox fans for the series.

Literally, Padres fans took off their gear to root for the Sox. The local paper did a story on this event – some of the Padres were openly dismayed to see long-time season ticket holders change into Red Sox gear for the series.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 1, 2008 1:11 AM CDT reply actions

#1

Every team does this—why do you think this is exclusive to Wrigley? But, only the Cubs trot out a ‘celebrity’ to lead the crowd in “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”

Why is this even a fanpost, is my next question.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 1, 2008 1:14 AM CDT reply actions

Hey...

... lighten up a little. I don’t have a problem with these, but this is the second time this morning I have seen you question the reason for a FanPost. If you want to view more FanPosts on the front page, you can do so.

This is an active site. People can find stuff if they need to using the cool new search function.

I thought this was an interesting topic.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jun 1, 2008 5:50 AM CDT up reply actions