Would you want to live at Wrigley Field?

I think the new regime has shown they are willing to buck the old school notion of Wrigley as some sort of shrine to baseball- we came up with a brilliant way to increase revenue, create some publicity and have a great time for cubs fans. 

Truly great ideas build slowly in the mind. Separate idea fragments are gathered over time and sit in isolation. They lay, seemingly dormant, for years. Imperceptibly reaching out, building neuron pathways to construct a web of connections until that last fragment floats into the web and the distant fragments coalesce into one gorgeous concept, and a brilliant idea is born! A Brilliant idea in three fragments:

 

Not Roberto's most lasting impression on our author

 

1.       Remember Roberto Alomar? Sure you do, everyone remembers the umpire spitting incident, and some might also remember the slick fielding, his deft handling of the bat or his A-rod-esque persona. But what I remember is being a baseball obsessed teenager hearing that when Alomar was trade to Toronto  in the early 90’s he never bothered to rent an apartment, opting to stay in a hotel for the 2-3 months until the end of the season. Unremarkable, except this hotel was situated inside the Blue Jay’s stadium (The Sky dome at the time, now renamed the Rogers Center or something) and he had a room that looked out on the field. I was awestruck. You mean you can live in a baseball stadium?!
2.       A few years later the Cub’s were deeply entrenched in the Steve Buechele era and wins were hard to come by. The ‘W’ flag was something of a rumor. I was couch potato-ing and came across the movie ‘Rookie of the Year.’ The mere promise of a few Hollywood Cubs victories was enough for me to put down the remote and perk up a bit. You know the movie, an eleven year old little leaguer tears a ligament in his arm, the doctor sews him up a little tight and he comes out of it with a 103mph fastball. A scout for the Cub’s happens to witness him throw a bullet from right field during a little league game and signs him on the spot, he joins the team and after a few pitfalls they come together as a team and win the pennant. It’s basically the Mark Prior saga in rewind. But that isn’t the idea fragment, after he is signed by the Cub’s he shows up at Wrigley for his first day on the job. When he arrives at the player’s entrance there is a big metal door that is locked up tight and they have a little Wizard of Oz moment when he knocks on the door. A Munchkin-like geezer appears out of this small window asking him what he wants. There were plenty of oddities in this movie but I was struck, did that Munchkin geezer live at Wrigley?
3.       About a week ago on an overwhelmingly pleasant Friday, the sun was shining and everyone had a smile on their face.  It was the type of day that demanded a Cub’s game but the Lords of baseball are unyielding in their adherence to the schedule. Barring a decree from chairman Selig it dawned on me that this wasn’t going to happen. Upon reconsideration I concluded that I didn’t even need a game and 40,000 sun drenched friends to hang out with, I just wanted to sit at Wrigley, sip a beer and talk baseball. But how? And the apple drops. Whiz! Bang! Flash! Eureka! If only I lived at Wrigley, then all my problems would be solved!
Now it’s only a matter of convincing Mr. Ricketts to let me slap a few 2x4’s together to build a little tree house into the grandstand somewhere. Perhaps if I told him I was his bastard son, drunkenly conceived after one of those College days in the bleachers, the ones before he met his future wife. Would that be enough to extort a tiny corner of Wrigley for myself? Would that work?

 

Read the rest here: http://torturedfanbase.com/2010/04/a-beautiful-mind-and-a-brilliant-idea/