Cubs Historic Photos: Fifth In A Series

by Al Yellon on Dec 17, 2009 9:15 PM CST in History

In the comments to yesterday's photo of Ernie Banks acknowledging the crowd after his 500th HR, BCB reader Chodes posted scans of the Chicago Sun-Times front and back pages, showing Ernie doing a heel-click after the game was over, staged for the photographers. It was a rare display of ebullience from Ernie, who generally never did pat-himself-on-the-back gestures.

Here is a photo of the staged photo-op (even though no one would have called it a "photo-op" in 1970):

Click on photo to open a larger version in a new browser window

Remember, if you want high-quality prints of any of these historic photos, email Leo Bauby at this address.

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Concrete walls...

Is that some of the ugly contract facade stick up behind the catwalk there? I didn’t realize that they had put the stuff anywhere except on the east and south sides of the ballpark.

by doc_blume on Dec 17, 2009 9:21 PM CST reply actions

No.

The pic is washed out.

The white iron fence is above the wall. That fence extends to the start of the bleachers. (And, is atop the LF brick wall) The catwalk is backed up by a chain-link fence. The cat walk in LF….went gradually down, from the seating area to the LF exit of the park.

I believe you are seeing the exterior brick wall of Wrigley Field, the old wall, which, of course — backed onto Waveland Avenue.

I’m going to try to find a picture that illustrates this.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 17, 2009 9:45 PM CST reply actions

But, on further review

Al posted this picture earlier, looking at the RF catwalk. It almost appears that some of those concrete panels MAY be behind the catwalk, below the chain link fence. It’s really hard to tell. I really don’t remember seeing them in LF or RF in the mid 60s, when I was a kid first attending games. The panels were certainly evident upon approach NB on Sheffield Avenue, and I remember seeing them as a kid.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5020/oldwrigley120309.jpg

When you magnify…it’s still hard to tell what’s below the chain link fence.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 17, 2009 9:59 PM CST reply actions

Well, here's LF

And this pic is from the 70s. Sure could be concrete panels but I have no memory of that.

http://www.hofimages.com/mlb/nl/chicago-cubs-team-photos/ron-santo-vic-davalillo-bunt-1972-photo.html

Al?

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 17, 2009 10:03 PM CST reply actions

Interesting.

It does look like they had the concrete panels behind the LF catwalk in the early 70s based on those photos. I don’t have any memory of that, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

By around 1975 or so they were definitely gone.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al Yellon on Dec 18, 2009 7:52 AM CST up reply actions