The Cubs Are NOT Playing At The Cell In 2013

In all seriousness, I would have been ok with this happening. While it’s not as convenient to get to, Comiskey isn’t a bad place to see a game.

When I first saw this on Twitter, I thought you meant they weren’t playing interleague there, either. “What’s the point of interleague when two ‘natural rival’ teams don’t meet in each others’ park?”

If it ever needed to happen, they should have done it now, year one of the rebuild.

Imagine, just imagine, if the Cubs finally reached the World Series, and it all happened at US Smellular field. Cub fans being taunted and harassed in Bridgeport on their way to games.

The idea of this is so ugly, I have to stop thinking about it. It’s as ugly as a Sox fan attacking an umpire.

These are big boys with millions of dollars. They can figure out how to do this in the spare weeks and months.

I’ve met a lot of Sox fans who refuse to go to Wrigley, but living on a numbered street as I do these days, I find lots of bitter Sox fans. They seem to define themselves more as Cub haters than Sox fans. Its a pretty common attitude down here.

But I dont know ANY bitter Cub fans. The appropriate attitide to take toward the other team in town is to treat it like a minor league team…. an amusing trip to the ballpark – but it really doesnt mean anything in the larger scheme of things.

From a convenience standpoint, it’s not a bad idea. I’m definitely NOT a fan of the White Sox, but that aside, the logistics of playing a season anywhere else would be immense. It’s not like the year the Bears played their home games at Champaign, that was probably 6 or 7 games, I don’t remember. The Cubs can have 6 or 7 home games in 10 days. I’d have to know that the money I spent there went to the Cubs though. I wouldn’t want to support, in any way, the White Sox.

Is paying rent to either the Illinois Sports Facilities or the the sox. screws those bastages.

Miller Park is much better for me to get to.

they play at Soldier Field if they have to move somewhere for a season.

Just sayin’.

When Al is writing articles about what it means if the Cubs were to do something they’ve already said they won’t do.

As in….. this season.

It’s a rebuilding year on the field…. it may as well be a renovation year at Wrigley.

Since it is a more or less “lost” season, what better year to take the Cubs’ “talents” to the South Side for a season??

Id get season tickets then

A lot of people who I know who are Cub fans who hate the cell have never actually been there. I kind of like it. I belong to a Chicago baseball fan group that goes to 1 game at each park every year (we never go when they play each other). I just don’t like the loud music sometimes.

Better than playing in St Louis or Milwaukee for a season. Bears fans will remember the year they played in Champaign what a stupid thing (Still don’t know why they didnt play in Evanston at Ryan Field)

I have also always wondered what would happen if one of the parks sustained damage from a fire or tornado or something and couldn’t operate for a length of time. I think they would share a park for that time.

Leads to rushed and incomplete work, which is the last thing Wrigley needs.

I think playing at the cell for a year was an option if they wanted to be done by 2014 the parks 100th birthday.

But I think the goal is 2016 the Cubs 100th anniversary there.

It would be weird of course if they played for a year there and won the world series that year. Weird but still wonderful. Some fans wouldn’t like it and it would be a tad very tad bittersweet to see it happen there but at this point in my life they could win the series on a ballpark on Antarctica and I’d be happy.

Would they rather do a temporary move to Miller Park / Wrigley Field North? I mean, it worked real well for the fans and the Cubs for two games in 2008 (even though the Cubs were technically the “away” team).

Of course, I’m not being serious here. But in the end… Happy Valentine’s Day.

My commute to and from many games might be better. I work downtown, across the street from Union Station. I commute to work on Metra and I’m a 10 walk from my house to the train station.

For a night game, I’d walk over to the Red line and be at the cell in 15 minutes. And then it’s just the reverse – red line, walk to union station, Metra train, walk home. It would be cheaper because I have a Metra monthly pass.

But no Ian’s pizza. So, NO.

around Wrigley are certainly breathing a sigh of relief. I imagine they get a bit of an economic bump during the season that they rely on.

Personally, I don’t care either. If it HAD to be done, then, so what? The only thing I wouldn’t exactly look forward to would be the majority of Sox fans complaining non-freakin’-stop.

is that, that would be the year the cubs win it all. Id rather lose another year than win it on enemy turf

Stay in Wrigley. Renovate the left side of the park one year and the right side the following. Leave the bleachers be.

As kids, we played sandlot baseball with just a few players per side on fields where left field or right filed was “OUT.” Defensive players clustered to the left or right of the ‘imaginary line’ running from home plate through the pitchers rubber into the outfield.

Everyone batted left handed or right handed and if a ball was hit the opposite way, it was an out. Pure and simple.

If the Cubs did this, they’d need three less fielders per home game. So lots of pinch hitters available on the bench.

Pitchers would work the outside corners of the plate to induce opposite field automatic ‘outs.’ Less pitches thrown. Arms rested for the playoffs.

Brilliant!

Of course, getting opposing teams to agree to sandlot rules might be a little rough.

What’s that? Less revenue potential for the Cubs? Have you seen how hard they are trying to sell tickets this season?

If they had planned ahead and used my idea, they could have gotten this done in the next two years and still seated the same number of fans that they will anyway for the next two years- just on one side of the grandstand at a time.

Batter up!

WHACK!!

“You’re OUT!”

“Aw, man…”

Been thinking about it all day. That would be SO cool…

And here is why:

Seating Capacity: 61,500.

The novelty of it is going to bring in a ton of fans and they would stand a chance of selling it out a LOT. And where does that money go? Well, a lot of it goes back to the team, I imagine. Depending on what they would have to pay to fit it out for baseball, plus rent, etc…

Thing is, once you get up over 30,000 fans a game, the rest is just gravy, you’ve already paid operating costs. If the Cubs sold an extra 30,000 tickets a game, well, just imagine the revenue.

…would go into apoplectic fits if this ever happened.

As for me, it wouldn’t bother me a bit.

not going back to that park. I hate it. I’ll never set foot inside it again.

June 18-20

…back when it was called Comiskey II.

1993 Division Clincher

It wasn’t a GREAT game, but Bo Jackson hitting a 2-out 3-run HR to take the lead was amazing. Though from my seats in the upper LF corner, I didn’t even see it land. The crowd reaction was obvious though.

but the Cubs will play there…..for 3 games minimum

…over and above the gains that are bound to occur in the Epstein Era. A full night schedule played in modern surroundings that match both field and clubhouse conditions in the rest of the NL might mean another five or ten wins for the Cubs in a regular season. Assuming the team reaches the playoffs, those postseason games then could be played in a more relaxed atmosphere, relatively free of Cubbie Occurrences.

Mission accomplished and back at the new and improved Friendly Confines the following April, would that pennant or championship flag look good high up in center field? Put it on the board, yes!

And while the team has to do what it has to do, I was prepared to take a year off from baseball if the Cubs played at cellphone field. Glad it isn’t so. The only way I would be remotely ok with it, is if they renovated the northern section of the redline at the same time.

One aspect of rebuilding Wrigley is making sure to take care of the neighborhood businesses that rely on the home games and help make the Wrigley experience extraordinary. To do that, the Cubs and MLB need to find a way to get Wrigley rebuilt and still play homes games there. I realize that as long as Pud Selig is the Comish, this is a complete pipe dream because it requires creative, win-win thinking, but here’s how they can do it.

Over a two-year period, the Cubs open Season 1 with all home games, and then hit the road. In Season 2, they open with an all-road schedule, and then return home to open the rebuilt Wrigley for the second half.

There’s no reason that a properly managed and incentivized project can’t be built in a year, barring perhaps an unusually bad winter. Several large infrastructure projects in the US recently have been completed way ahead of schedule because of a combination of cold-weather techniques, necessity to get them done as quickly as possible, and money. One solid year of 24-7 tear-down and rebuild, and it can be ready for the second half of Season 2.

Sure, it’s not perfect, but no solution will be. But the only team that suffers will the Cubs from the non-stop travel for two half-seasons; for every other team, it’s really just flipping a series between halves. The best part of doing it like this is that the area businesses will only lose a relatively small percentage of their income rather than having an entire year of low cash flow put their backs against the wall. Sure, a place like Goose Island will survive, but there are plenty of locals who really need the season – every season – to get by. They can get it – and the Cubs can stay in Wrigley – if TPTB are willing to create a schedule that makes it happen.