Opening Night at Wrigley Field is scheduled for three weeks from Sunday -- just 22 days away. Likely as a result, there was quite a bit of activity at the ballpark Friday afternoon, and so we have the largest gallery in this series' history -- 80 photos of things going on all around the park.
Here's the full report from BCB's David Sameshima:
I arrived at 2:30 p.m. The temperature was 51 degrees, with no wind chill temperature listed. It kept changing between a hazy sun and bright overcast. This made my life much easier today taking photos. Good to see that it was pretty active all around the ballpark. Steel workers were working on both sides of the bleachers. The triangle lot was particularly active. There wasn't much construction traffic on Waveland Avenue, so I was able to walk up to the fence to take photos of the triangle lot. I did take photos to show that the platform for the left-field scoreboard is tapered. The east end of the platform is wider, and tapers down to a narrow end. There also appear to be intentional gaps in the center field bleacher patio. There are gaps on both the left-field and right-field sides of the patio.The double doors in the right field bleacher wall have been installed. I also saw bracing material for the inner bleacher wall being removed from the field.There was a change made with the Waveland Avenue construction gate near the firehouse. The gate has been moved from the front of Gate K to the construction trailer near the foul pole. This must be in preparation for Opening Day. Now the construction gate won't block entry to Gate K. To me, this is a good sign. For the workers, this does reduce the amount of secure space they have to use as a staging area. Today there was equipment parked in front of Gate K, so I could not get a good look inside. Also, the fence along the Waveland Avenue curb is still in place, all the way to the firehouse.I also noticed that the conduit from the broadcast cable bridge goes underground on the north side of Waveland Avenue. They must go underground to the former Gold (parking) Lot. This is the new space where the broadcast trucks will be parking.
David mentioned that opening up the area around Gate K appears to be a good sign. I concur. We'll see if they can get everything else prepared in just three weeks. Meanwhile, David is planning a Saturday visit to Wrigley so we should have more photos tomorrow.