LL#12 - Local Landmarks - Bricks and Ivy Traditional Cache

I am defining a "Local Landmark" as a place around you where, if
someone asks where you are or where you're going, you can say "such
and such" and anyone will know what you're talking about.

Welcome to the second oldest ballpark in professional baseball. Wrigley Field has housed the National League Baseball team for years and years and is visited my millions every year, not only by fans of the team, but fans of the game.

Wrigley Field cost $250,000 when it was built in 1914. Charlie Weeghman built the park to house his baseball team, the Chicago Federals (a.k.a. the Chi-Feds and, later, as the Whales) of the brand-new Federal League, which was challenging the established major leagues. The Federal League folded after only two years, so Weeghman, leading a ten man syndicate which included chewing gum magnate Willam Wrigley, Jr., purchased the Cubs of the National League. The team was moved from West Side Grounds to what was then known as Weeghman Park. In 1918, Wrigley took over Weeghman's share of the team and by 1919 had bought out the shares of the other members of the syndicate. The name of the stadium was changed to Cubs Park in time for opening day, 1920. It was given its current name in 1926.

Some classic moments in baseball history have taken place here, starting with the legendary 1917 pitching duel between Jim 'Hippo' Vaughn and the Cincinnati Reds' Fred Toney. Both threw no-hitters for nine innings (the only such dual feat in the majors) before the Reds storied Olympian Jim Thorpe drove in the only run. Toney completed his no-hitter. On Sept. 28, 1938, Cubs Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett hit his famous "Homer in the Gloamin" off the Pittsburgh Pirates' Mace Brown. With the game about to be postponed because of darkness, Hartnett hit a game-winning homer to lift the Cubs to the pennant. Probably no event at Wrigley Field is more famous than Babe Ruth's supposed "called shot" home run off Charlie Root in the 1932 World Series. It is now acknowledged that Ruth did indeed gesture toward the outfield just before depositing Root's pitch into the bleachers, but it may never be known just what he meant. The mystery only adds to the mystique. It was here that Ernie Banks hit his 500th homer in 1970 and Pete Rose got his 4,191st hit to equal Ty Cobb's mark in 1985. But the Cubs have never won a World Series title here, having lost in all six attempts since 1918. Their last world championship came in 1908, six years before Wrigley Field was built.

Some trivia about Wrigley Field:

• After each game, a white flag with a blue "W" flying from the center-field flag pole signifies a Cubs win, a blue flag with a white "L" a Cubs loss.
  
• Until the early nineties, the win flag was blue and the loss flag was white. But, it was pointed out that a white flag was the flag of surrender! Jokingly, it was said that the white loss flag was getting weather-beaten from overuse. It was also pointed out that flags honoring Banks, Williams and others had a white background, so all "good" flags should be white.
  
• This is the only park where it's more difficult to hit a homer down the foul line than to hit one 50 or so feet out in fair territory, because the bleachers protrude into the outfield.
  
• The 27-foot-high, 75-foot-wide scoreboard was built in 1937 by Bill Veeck. Its top is 85 feet above the field. The 10-foot-diameter clock was added in 1941.
  
• Ivy was planted on the outfield walls in 1937 by Bill Veeck, originally 350 Japanese bittersweet plants and 200 Boston ivy plants.
  
• The Cubs made changes to their ballpark before the beginning of the 1999 season to honor two of the their legendary broadcasters, both of whom had died the previous year. A seven foot tall statue of Harry Caray was erected at the corner of Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue near Gate D, and Jack Brickhouse's trademark "Hey, Hey" was placed above the distance markers on both foul pole screens.
  
• In 2008, an additional Bronze statue, that of Ernie "Mr. Cub" Banks was erected outside the concourse entrance. Banks' famous line "Let's play two" was initially misspelled without the ' in "Let's" but was fixed days later.
  
• The Bleachers are entirely separate from the rest of the seating, including its own entrance at the corner of Sheffield and Waveland Ave.
  
• Many films in history have been filmed at Wrigley Field including "A League of Their Own" and "The Breakup". IN the film "The Blues Brothers" Elroy blues told his brother that he reported his home address on 1060 Addison Ave - the address of this place.
  

• This was originally intended to be placed as "LL 10", but the day before it was to be placed, another eager cacher placed LL#10 - Local Landmarks - Crooked Rollers & Bones. Oops.
  
• This cache was placed approximately 4 hours before game time on May 15, 2008 prior to a Cubs vs. Padres matchup featuring, quite possibly, Greg Maddux's last appearance at Wrigley Field. The Cubs won 4-0.
  
• This game also featured the debut of newly acquired Jim Edmonds in center field (whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing is still to be determined...)
• This cache was placed shortly after my 400th find, a cache also dedicated to Wrigley Field.
  
• This cache is another in this series "Signature container". It is also the first LL cache to contain swag. If you've found other caches in the LL series, you'll know why that's interesting.
  
• As of 6-23-09 the Cubs W-L record for dates on which this cache is found is 32-23 so keep on finding! I did not include dates on which I maintained, so the record's actually a little better.
• Longest Win streak - 6 from 7-23-08 to 8-14-08. Longest Losing streak 6 from 5-09-09 to 5-25-09.
• Current streak as of 6-23-09 - W - 5 games.

As noted, the container for this cache is in the signature container for my placements within this series. It also contains some room for small swag (What?? SWAG in an LL cache?? Yep..:).

Stealth is VITAL for this cache. It won't be as easy to open unnoticed as one might think. Be wary.

Thanks to www.ballparks.com for some of the content of this listing.

Please be sure to visit the other Local Landmarks in the series!

Be sure to check out the Sister Series to Local Landmarks, called Days Gone By...!