BCB’s Danny Rockett visited the area around Wrigley Field Monday and Tuesday afternoon and sent me these photos. The first 15 photos are from Monday, the last four on Tuesday. He also sent these notes:
As I was walking around Wrigley Field today I happened to walk right past Theo Epstein. Given that I hadn’t worn my contact lenses I couldn’t tell it was him until he was right up on me. I was blasting music in my headphones, so I’m sure I yelled “Thank you!” Theo turned abruptly and said “Thank you, guys!”, and we both kept walking. I suddenly got excited for baseball season more than I had all winter! Can you feel the love?
As far as construction goes: The office building looks beautiful and the video board looks ready to go! Hotel Zachary is well underway and will completely change the block from what it was for decades. Prepare not to recognize anything in Wrigleyville in a couple years!
There isn’t much that has changed since the set Mike Bojanowski sent me from Saturday afternoon. One day I hope that Mike or Danny will be in the area when they are testing the video board that’s on the building (photo 7) so we can share a look with you at how that video appears.
As you can see, work continues at a steady pace. Again, the Cubs are fortunate to have had generally good weather, mild conditions and an almost total lack of snow since mid-December. That’s allowed work crews to make up for the time lost to the postseason — a loss of work time that I’m sure everyone here is totally fine with, and that we all hope the Cubs lose that much work time for next offseason, too.
The Cubs will open the 2017 home season at Wrigley Field 62 days from today against the Dodgers. I don’t see any reason the ballpark won’t be ready (apart from the concession areas the Cubs said at the convention might not be).