Wrigley Field is not your standard modern American sports facility, even though little could be more American than having your stadium named after a manufacturer of chewing gum. It is America’s Wimbledon, its Lord’s. It is the second oldest of the major league ballparks. There is a pervasive sense of history and a deep yearning that goes back 108 years, to the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
Built on land originally occupied by a Catholic seminary and first named Weeghman Park after the original owner, the stadium was finally renamed in 1927, six years after the club had been acquired by Bill Wrigley. His family – which still has its name on downtown Chicago’s most distinctive art deco office building – owned the Cubs for 60 years, from 1921 to 1981, but never saw them win the World Series again. The closest they came was in 1945: the Year of the Billy Goat.
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