before wrigley became wrigley; wrigley field year by year
Reviewed by Mark D. Noe, Pennsylvania College of Technology
10 september 2014 archive
This year marks the beginning of a new century of baseball in Wrigley Field. Much has happened in that park since the first game was played there in April 1914, and the park continues to be held up as an almost Platonic ideal of what a baseball field should be. Yet the twists and turns of how Wrigley Field became the be-all and end-all of baseball settings argue for the value of a healthy dose of luck—good, dumb, and otherwise—in making Wrigley the iconic place it is.
After all, the ballpark was built in a mere six weeks during the late winter and early spring of 1914 (construction began March 4, and the opening game was April 23) to house the Chicago entry of the Federal League, variously known as the Chicago Whales or the Chifeds (or Chi-Feds) or the Tinx or Tinkers. It was Weeghman Field then, a park meant to be the showpiece of the Federal League, a cobbled together collection of teams and parks and cities and business operations that were generally more minor league than major in make-up. Charlie Weeghman was the Chicago lunchroom entrepreneur who bought the franchise and who elected to build a new park so the team could compete with the West side Cubs and their owner, Charles W. Murphy, along with Charles Comiskey's South side White Sox. It was Murphy who had overseen the disassembly of the Cubs' glory teams of only a few years before, the champions of '06, '07, and '08, the teams of Three-Finger Brown and of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. And, indeed, it was Joe Tinker who would become one of the biggest names making the jump to the Federal League, to play shortstop and to manage the Chicago entry.
Both of these books describe these beginnings, the genesis of the ballpark, separate from the occupying team. Deveney's Before Wrigley became Wrigley stays within the confines of those early years, really offering a history of the Federal League more than a history of the field that became Wrigley. His narrative captures the roller coaster that was the attempt to break the monopoly of the National and American Leagues, an attempt that very nearly succeeded, thanks as much to the bickering among many of the established league owners as to the drive of some Federal League owners. In Chicago, the Weeghman team actually bested the Cubs and the White Sox on many of the days they all three competed directly with home games. The Cub owner who succeeded Murphy, Charles Taft (it's as if only people named Charles could own a team in this city), was an absentee owner, while Comiskey was notoriously parsimonious in paying his players. A handful of quality players made the Whales a team to watch, as they played exciting games and winning baseball. They finished strong in 1914, and they won the Federal League pennant in 1915. But the dream of a third major league unraveled after that season, and Charlie Weeghman lost his team and sold his park, a park so much better than the one long used by the Cubs that those Cubs moved from the West side to the North side, where they and their field would become institutions.
Pathy's Wrigley Field Year by Year covers, in abbreviated form, that same background, at least as far as the field proper is concerned. But even the history here is more categorical and compressed. This is a coffee table book, filled with photos. The layout includes a few to several pages devoted to each year of the park's existence, depending on the events of that year, both in terms of team success and of ballpark modifications. Every annual entry includes season numbers (won-lost and attendance), a description of the home opener, listings and brief explanations of modifications to the park and its operation and of significant occurrences during the season, a nominee for the game (sometimes games) of the year, and a quote of the year. The pattern may be limiting, but the result over a hundred entries is informative. And Pathy doesn't ignore the other occupant of the park, the NFL Bears, who played at Wrigley for many decades. (For the record, he even includes that one hockey match played at Wrigley.) What seemed initially a bit of a cheesy approach turns out to be a useful highlighting of the sports and the seasons played at Wrigley.
Each book serves its separate purpose. Both are packaged reasonably well. Deveney's book could have included a few more photos of major characters and even a map or two. His narrative is stronger, but his book is a historical study, after all, while Pathy's tends toward the nostalgic and lends itself to perusal between innings of a televised game or, perhaps, this autumn as a way to enjoy Wrigley Field during the post-season. Both books make clear that building a ballpark on once-sacred ground—the spot had been occupied by a seminary before Weeghman bought it—will not automatically mean deific support (though it may have helped confer a sacredness on the park itself). Both also make clear that it's going to actually be in April 2016 that Cub fans will want to celebrate a hundred years of Cubbies at this park, and, in April 1919, they can celebrate a hundred years at the field actually named Wrigley. While we're at it, in 2045, they can even celebrate a hundred years since the last World Series game played there. Or—hope springs eternal in this Cub fan's breast—maybe not.
Deveney, Sean. Before Wrigley Became Wrigley: The Inside Story of the First Years of the Cubs' Home Field. New York: Sports Publishing, 2014. 268pp; Illus. $24.95.
Pathy, Sam. Wrigley Field Year by Year: A Century at the Friendly
Confines. New York: Sports Publishing, 2014. 362pp; Illus. $35.00.
Copyright © 2014 by Mark D. Noe