With Opening Day now just 123 days away, it's a good thing that BCB's David Sameshima saw quite a bit of activity around Wrigley Field Wednesday afternoon. Here's his report:
After I arrived at the ballpark, I received the Cubs' community email to notify me that Clark Street was going to be restriped to eliminate the curb lane on the east side of the street and the parking lane on the west side of the street. Well, I got to see this in person. There is now only one lane of traffic in each direction on Clark between Addison and Waveland. The sidewalk on the east side of Clark is now closed. The next step is for concrete barriers to be moved into place.When I arrived, they were removing the support shields along the side of the excavation on Sheffield near Gate Q. Workers then started to fill in the hole. This must be good news.On Waveland, there was the sound of activity. The large machine in the far left-field corner was pounding away into the ground. From my position, I could not see the ground where this pounding was taking place.You will see that the west side of the ballpark has been stripped down to just steel beams. They continue to erect scaffolding at the far northwest corner of the park.There was also some work taking place at the "EAMUS CATULI" building on Sheffield. This made walking down the Sheffield Ave sidewalk more difficult, as work equipment there blocked the sidewalk.They completed decorating the Cubs holiday tree. In addition, they replaced the missing baseballs on the baseball snowman. They also added a second smaller baseball snowman. The baseballs are much "cleaner" on the new snowman.
The holiday tree will officially be lit in a ceremony Thursday at 5:30 p.m. outside the Cubs Store at Clark & Addison. It's open to the public, and Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins will be joined by Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, President of Business Operations Crane Kenney and representatives from many of the organizations that benefited from the team’s 100 Gifts of Service this year. You can drop off new, unwrapped toys to donate at this event, or at the Cubs Store during their usual business hours. Any toys donated will benefit children at Lawrence Hall Youth Services.