Wrigley Field In 1949: A Photo Essay
by Al Yellon on Dec 20, 2009 8:00 AM CST
in History
31 comments
BCB reader dogbone sent me four photos that he said his grandfather took at a game at Wrigley Field on May 29, 1949. On that date the Cubs and Reds played a doubleheader, losing the first game 4-1 and winning the second game 10-2. After that day's activity the Cubs were 14-21, six games out of first place, seventh of eight teams in the NL. 1949 was a bad year for the Cubs; they finished 61-93, their second straight 90+ loss year (and at the time, those were the only two 90-loss seasons in team history).
What is most interesting about this photo is the "shade" that's in the center field bleachers. That was one attempt to minimize the "white shirt problem" that finally resulted in the CF bleachers being closed permanently in 1953. This is the only photo I have ever seen of that "shade".
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After the jump, there are three more photos; you will see how people "dressed up" for games in that era -- particularly on a Sunday -- and the way the "boxes" were numbered, with the metal railings. Note also that the seats were folding chairs, not permanent seats. I'm not sure exactly when the permanent seats were installed -- the folding chairs were still there in this 1961 photo.
I have one of those folding chairs. When Tribune Co. bought the Cubs in 1981, they cleaned out a large storage area below the ballpark, where all the chairs had been stored. They put them out on Sheffield and sold them for $1 each. 28 years later, I'm sorry I bought only one.
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Very cool.
There is no infinity button for failing in sports. At some point, things turn. They always do. - Bill Simmons
happy holidays, allie!
I’m stuck in a scuzzy hotel in Atlanta… trying to fly my way up the Eastern seaboard with hopes of reaching family by tomorrow afternoon…
Cubs Supreme in Baseball World.
You'd probably have had better weather if you had stayed in Fairbanks.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
happy holidays and safe travels, em!
hope you find a flight! :-)
There is no infinity button for failing in sports. At some point, things turn. They always do. - Bill Simmons
These old photos are great!
Al, I really enjoy you doing this series of photos!
Folding chairs
were probably easier to get away from that overweight guy that always seems to sit by me in stadiums. Any idea if capacity went up with the chairs out when permanent seats went in?
In some ways, the chairs make sense. You could move them to face home plate, move them ahead if a tall person were behind you, It appears there is at least a few inches between the chairs.
Cool photos Al, I bet you do wish you had more than one chair!
This is only the beginning....Lou Pinella end of '07 season and Chicago Transit Authority (the band when they were really good).
I think capacity actually went DOWN when the permanent seats went in.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
I bought a chair too
Damned uncomfortable.. used it for my desk for years until it gave out.
Where is Mick Kelleher when we need him?
by 3744nsheffield on Dec 20, 2009 10:09 AM CST reply actions
Permanent Seats Installed in 1965...
…according to this article in Sports Illustrated (you have to go down to the 8th paragraph. It also states that when Wrigley went to wider folding chairs for the boxes, which would cut capacity, George Halas kept the smaller chairs around and used them for the Bears games. I wonder if you guys have the smaller ones of the larger ones?
Great find, thanks for posting it.
I suspect I have one of the smaller (older) ones — because it does not have the “tip” that is shown on the top of the seat in the photo above (each side of the top of the seat seems to have a “cap” on it). Mine is straight across.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Sure do remember that issue with
Stan Mikita on the cover. I had it for a long time, I might still even have it stored away.
Al, ya should have bought twenty of the damn things. But, there was no market for ball park nostalgia at that time. It’s remarkable that some of the artifacts from the ball parks that were abandoned in the 1970’s were kept.
by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 20, 2009 1:12 PM CST up reply actions
Without those concrete panels on the Addison St
side of Wrigley, it sure would have been easy to watch the game from your porch on Sheffield, south of the park.
Obviously, the placement of the panels was to prevent that from happening. Who could have dreamed back then that the nearby rooftops would eventually become part of the Wrigley experience and an easier way to ‘steal’ the game?
But, at the same time the Wrigley family put every home game on TV, unlike the overwhelming majority of owners in that era. So, they gave away more than they took away.
If only they had made winning a priority.
by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 20, 2009 1:08 PM CST reply actions
I doubt those panels were put up to prevent freebie watching of the game.
If that were true, why didn’t they double-deck the bleachers back in the 50’s, when they wouldn’t have had trouble getting city approval for that?
I have no idea why they put the panels up, but I do hope they take them down and replace them with something resembling the original wrought iron.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
It may have been a wind barrier, or part of a beautification program...
…“gone tragically wrong,” to borrow a current stock phrase from cable TV news. Or, those panels may have gone up for security reasons. In the early 1950’s, a fan sitting in the stands at New York’s Polo Grounds had been shot and killed by a random sniper’s bullet fired from Coogan’s Bluff, which overlooked that ballpark’s interior.
Understandably, that incident contributed greatly to the attendance problems experienced by the Giants, despite their generally good performance in that era. It’s only speculation, but increasing social unrest in the late 50’s may have prompted Cubs management to be proactive.
That doesn't sound at all plausible.
There was plenty of ‘social unrest’ in the late 1960s, and those panels were in place for at least a decade. “Beautification” of a sort, circa 1950’s, perhaps.
A sniper’s shot didn’t signal the end of the Giants or Dodgers in NY. Both teams were in decline past 1955, attendence wise and both the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field fell victim to the changes in society - the flight to suburbia. Both parks were hopelessly outdated, and the politics of NY literally drove the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.
It is quite amazing that Wrigley Field survived. I guess we can credit/blame the Wrigley family. (That’s depending on your point of view, although the ball park survived, the Wrigley Family could never produce squat on the field)
by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 20, 2009 10:00 PM CST up reply actions
I would doubt double-decking the bleachers
was a thought PK or William Wrigley EVER had. But from that picture without the panels, it’s obvious that from outside, you could see the entire field from locations on Sheffield, south of Addison. That’s the closest the grandstands are to a city street.
by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 20, 2009 9:38 PM CST up reply actions
I doubt you could see the field from Sheffield.
There was still a 10-foot wall behind the bleachers, even then.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Permanent Seats
There were still folding chairs in some of the box seats in the early seventies. I would get to Wrigley early as a 14 year old and “work” for Peter Marcantonio the heads grounds keeper. The jobs consisted of picking up trash, cleaning up the field and dugouts and pulling chairs. You would go down an entire aisle and pull the chairs up in to the next aisle so the trash could be swept up. For this “work” I would get a free ticket to the game. Pete was a fiery guy who yelled at us kids all of the time but I was in heaven because I would get a free ticket to the game and sometimes even get to get on the field. It also allowed me to talk to players inside the stadium as they came in. Lots of great guys back them but my favorite was Fergie Jenkins. Always talked to me. He was the hippest looking dude to in wild colored bell bottoms and a huge afro.
Is this an optical illusion
or does it seem like in pictures 2 and 4 that the lower deck fans on the 3B side are all crowded into the terrace sections? Choosing shade over a good seat, perhaps? Or saving a few cents? Or this may not be the case at all, it’s hard to tell.
Remember that...
… in those days, all the seats behind the boxes were unreserved. Thus anyone who walked up to the gate and wanted a grandstand seat got the best they could get when they entered. It looks like all the photos were taken during batting practice.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Makes sense
So there would have been incentive for Gen Adm ticket holders to arrive early.
That must have been chaos for a sold out game!
Well, you didn't have a "sold out game" until all the tickets were sold on the day of the game!
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Very cool!
I’m enjoying these old photos you’ve been putting up.
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"--The Brain
Wrigley Seats as Souvenirs
I have a pair of box seats in my entry way, shipped up from the 1985(?) remodel. The price was reasonable, but the shipping to Alaska was brutal. Figuring out a way to mount them was tricky, but I got it done. Complete with ancient chewing gum on the undersides.
Did anyone else spring for the old box seats?
AlaskaFan
"Year after year after year after year . . . . . after year after year after year . . ." - Steve Goodman, "Dying Cub Fan's Last Request"
Centerfield shade and folding chairs
The center field shade went up over three sections of the bleachers during the 1948 season. During the 1949 season the shade expanded, from across three sections of the bleachers to five sections (Sun-Times 7/27/49). In 1965, only the first ten rows of the bleachers received the new self-rising seats. The back half of the box seats still had the folding chairs. The new, more comfortable seats sold for 50 cents more than the folding seats ($3.50 compared to $3.00). The potential loss of seats worried George Halas enough that he considered playing elsewhere. But in the end, football capacity only dropped by 200 and Halas signed on for three more years at Wrigley Field (but he did raise Bears’ ticket prices $1.00 across the board).
everybody looks like they're at a Sunday service.....
….I know this sounds goofy—but it looks quiet.
A woman's guess is more accurate than a man's certainty.--Rudyard Kipling
folding seats
I went to a game in 1961,and being a weekday, many seats were empty. Most fans back then would take the empty seat next to them and lift the seat and bang it back down to exhort a rally. Made enough noise to make you think the place was packed!
"It's a funny old world. Man's lucky if he gets out of it alive." W.C. Fields
But all were properly dressed, coolio....
That’s the way people dressed to go out, almost anywhere until the 1960s.
“Team gear?”
Didn’t exist. Only the players wore unis.
by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Dec 23, 2009 7:00 PM CST reply actions
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