Interleague play is in its 14th season, but the Angels have not visited Wrigley Field until today (the Cubs have played one series in Anaheim, in 2004, winning two of three).
On the other hand, it's not quite true that the Angels franchise has never played in a ballpark called "Wrigley Field". In its first season of existence, 1961, the Angels played their home games in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, a park built by the Cubs for their then farm team, the minor league LA Angels, and made to resemble Chicago's Wrigley Field. They played there from 1925 to 1957, until the Dodgers took over major league status in Los Angeles; the park lay empty for a couple of years until it was used for the TV series "Home Run Derby" in 1959 and 1960; you can see the B&W reruns of that show on YouTube or occasionally on various cable channels.
The Angels played there in 1961 and 248 home runs were hit in its tiny confines; that was the record for HR in one park in one season until there were 303 hit in Coors Field in 1999.
It was demolished on January 24, 1969.
So welcome back to Wrigley Field, Los Angeles Angels. Please leave your victories elsewhere.
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Scott Kazmir has started only one game in his career vs. the Cubs, when he was a member of the Rays on June 17, 2008. He lasted only 4.2 innings and threw 110 pitches -- come to think of it, he'd fit right in with the Cub staff doing that kind of thing. Turns out he does this all the time -- he's thrown 100+ pitches in each of his last three starts without getting out of the sixth inning in two of them. Lesson: be patient. Marlon Byrd (from his AL days) is the Cub who's faced him most: 4-for-14 with a double.
Carlos Silva has a long history with the Angels from his days in the AL, and surprisingly (since his AL tenure wasn't that great), threw quite well against them: 7-2 in 13 appearances (12 starts) with a 3.77 ERA and one shutout. Bobby Abreu owns him: 11-for-20 (.550), two doubles, a HR. Silva threw very well in his last outing despite being tagged with his first loss of the season.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN West. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Angels site Halos Heaven.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 2:15, 3:15 and 4 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.