I’ve heard the stories, but it’s another thing to actually see it. I remember going to games as a kid and certainly having a bit of space, but I’ve never seen the Upper Deck closed.

thanks for posting this.

I’m impressed with your detective work!! That’s why I love this site….I don’t get the stats stuff ( I still read it tho) but this is one of the things that keeps me coming back.

On the better attended games, usually on the weekend, I can remeber Jack Brickhouse making a special note of " … and today they have opened up the upper deck!"

I didn’t take the time to figure out when the game was but #7 in CF I knew was Monday. I always remember Cardenal more as a RF’er but in his last few years with the Cubs he did play LF.

My parents driving past the park and my brother and I going inside – for free – late in the game to see what was happening. The team used to allow anyone to walk in late in the game – can you imagine that now?

There are fences in front of them. I’m not sure if those fences still exist, but they are obviously never closed now.

… I found that they are replacing a large section of the wall in left field near the bullpen:

And then the Cubs win the WS series and we all just move along…

even though I recognized Jose. He had to have been gone by then. Duh.

Great photo!

Back when Dallas Green ran the team, thats where he sat to watch the games. I had season tickets in Aisle 213 at the time and there was this one old guy…Bob was his name…that was very demonstrative during the games. At times, he would yell up at the press box and occasionally he would get a reaction from Green. Great memories.

What year did they move the bullpens in closer to home plate? The photo here shows the Cubs BP much further down the line than its current location.

attending sports games in person has become much more popular

of course, the 70s were also great because the “fans storming the court/field” thing was out of control, even in pro sports

why I never say to contract a team based on its attendance. the Cubs would have been gone years ago based on that. Pre 1984 it was not packed often. part of that was due to the neighborhood not being what it is today, part was due to losing a lot.

Hey Al…great job on this article, but, I’m really wondering if that homer Kingman hit went as far as the Glenallen Hill “roof-top” shot. Woulda liked to have seen how far that woulda went unobstructed.

It’s like being there. Great research and background, too, Al.

Al, maybe I’m going blind buy I can’t seem to find the link for the webcam inside of Wrigley. Help please.

citing a tweet from Jon Heyman. Muskat has a similar tweet on the MLB site.

Every time my Mom would take a trip back to Chicago, she and a friend simply walked up and bought tickets. I have a photo somewhere of her sitting right behind the 3B dugout, and there were plenty of empty seats around her.

watching the games (on WGN and on at least two occasions, at games, sitting in the “reserved” grandstands) and watching the foul balls launch up and into the empty stands and bouncing around the seats.

Those were the days when being a Cubs fan wasn’t cool — just a passionate act of faith.

of the lower grandstand were reserved by then. That would account for the block of unused seats in that shot. The unreserved seating would start about a row in back of the supporting beams.

I’m guesssing that empty section is the last section of the reserved grandstand down the 3B line and that day, they didn’t sell that block of seats. Those seats seem to be the “newer” plastic ones, (When the first wave of suchj seating was installed) not the old wooden ones that remained as the unreserved grandstand.

In the late 60s and early 70s, the Cubs would build a special broadcast position for NBC’s "Game Of The Week." A small plexiglass half- box would be placed in the first (probably) two rows of the UD right behind the plate, using perhaps about 6 seat locations. This is where Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek would broadcast the game from. As stated earlier, there were no season tix in the UD, so the Cubs would just not sell tickets there – and probably a few rows right behind this little set-up, for obviously – views would be obstructed.

I remember this quite well, since one Saturday game that NBC was covering, I was sitting in the UD with my parents. I waited until the well after the game ended, and Goudy was making his way up the stairs to leave that makeshift broadcast area. I asked him for his autograph, and he obliged. (I don’t know why I didn’t catch Kubek.)

I wonder how long this set-up lasted. It had to be a bit of a problem to run cables down through the seating area. I don’t remember if there was a TV gondola off the UD behind the plate for a WGN camera. If so, that would have solved the issue of power and transmission. Guess I’ll have to check some old pix.

I took one look at the picture and was immediately transported back to the bad good old days. Losing teams managed by that god awful Jim Marshall. Steve Swisher was behind the plate and Bill Bonham with 20 losses on the hill. It was like living through the Great Depression-awful times but great memories of taking off from Peoria IL. on a Satruday and being able to buy an unreserved grandstand ticket at the window. You sat with 15,000 to 25,000 in the sun and the Andy Frain ushers would let you go down and get autographs