BCB's David Sameshima spent part of a very cold New Year's Eve at Wrigley Field and filed this report:
It was cold again. Very, very cold. I arrived around 2:30. They appeared to be wrapping things up for the day. There was no activity in right field. It looked like they were packing up on the north end of Sheffield, where they were doing utility work in the middle of the street. Like Tuesday, the work site dirt quickly covered the steel plates in the street, so that they were camouflaged. In fact, the wind picked up while I was on Sheffield, and the street was quickly turned into a mini sandstorm, so I left to protect my camera gear.When I turned on to Waveland, I saw that they had continued with attaching a tarp to the top of the existing fences. They only got as far as left-center field, with the new tarp. There were workers in the left-field excavation area, but it appeared that they were starting to pack up. You will see in one of my photos workers checking out of the job site. They have been taking ballpark security seriously. Workers have been undergoing bag checks when entering, and leaving, the work site. All was quiet in the triangle lot. I don't know if they were working there, earlier in the day.
I will look for ballpark photos to address some of the issues I have seen raised about the batting cage, batting practice and grounds crew logistics on game days. You and I know how it works, but I see others are confused about where things are stored under, and next to, the bleachers. Somewhere I have photos of the BP equipment storage area next to Gate Q, and the right-field batting cage. I should also have a photo of the grounds crew storage area in left field. There would be game day implications if the bleachers are not accessible on opening day. Where will both teams have batting cage facilities to use, where will batting practice equipment be stored and where will grounds crew equipment be stored?I have read where some feel that the bullpens should be relocated underneath the bleachers now, for the 2015 season. If that were to occur, where would the teams have batting cage access? The new underground batting cage facilities won't be available until the triangle/plaza phase of the project is completed. I imagine that batting cages would temporarily be placed in the bleacher bullpen areas for 2015.
I think that explains it pretty well and when David sends me those photos, I'll post them.
While there likely won't be any work going on at Wrigley Field on New Year's Day, David was planning a visit, so we hope to have more photos here tomorrow.