Northwestern game at Wrigley Field

[TripletDaddy]

For those that don't know, Northwestern is playing a throwback this Saturday against Illinois at Wrigley. Should be really cool.

Sports by Brooks published these pics of the configuration. They look a tad insane, esp the end zone next to the ivy. The end zone is 6 inches away from the padding on the wall.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/tag/wr...field_football



The other end zone runs up towards the dugout steps.



Should be a good game.

[Mormon Red Death]

didnt they play iowa there last week too?

[Solon]

didnt they play iowa there last week too?

I don't know for sure, but I don't think so. My brother drove me by Wrigley on our way to the airport on Sunday morning. It was already decked out for the Northwestern-Illinois game - huge billboard-type ads plastered along the entire facade about how it was a big game for the state of Illinois. That would be some pretty quick turnaround.

I think it's a cool idea. Wrigley's seen all sorts of sporting events over the years. Why not an outdoor game in November? (Oh yeah, that's why. We've since invented nicer stadiums, modern facilities, concessions, toilets, parking, etc. My bad.)

[BigPiney]

Wow, those pictures make it look really dangerous. I think back to that poor guy last year or the year before who tried to make a catch in the endzone, and ran out the back, hit a cart that was parked there and conpound fractured his leg. It was nasty looking.

Warning, horrible to watch.
[ame="http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/10/Wide-Receiver-Breaks-Leg-596770"]Watch Wide Receiver Breaks Leg Video | Break.com@@AMEPARAM@@http://embed.break.com/596770@@AMEPARAM@@596770[/ame]

[Sizzle]

didnt they play iowa there last week too?

No.

[pellegrino]

I don't know for sure, but I don't think so. My brother drove me by Wrigley on our way to the airport on Sunday morning. It was already decked out for the Northwestern-Illinois game - huge billboard-type ads plastered along the entire facade about how it was a big game for the state of Illinois. That would be some pretty quick turnaround.

I think it's a cool idea. Wrigley's seen all sorts of sporting events over the years. Why not an outdoor game in November? (Oh yeah, that's why. We've since invented nicer stadiums, modern facilities, concessions, toilets, parking, etc. My bad.)

Hey! Don't knock The Friendly Confines, that's hallowed ground there.

[Solon]

Hey! Don't knock The Friendly Confines, that's hallowed ground there.

Invented Tradition.

[TripletDaddy]

Turns out the confines are not so friendly after all. After some discussion with their lawyers careful consideration, the Big 10 has decided to make a last second change.

For the first time in NCAA football history, both teams will be using the same end zone all game long. This will be a game to watch just to say you saw it. What a bizarre solution. I guess the safety risk was too great. The other end zone isn't much better, truthfully.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoot...ey-game-111920

[pellegrino]

Invented Tradition.

steer clear homewrecker. I've already had one crisis of faith in this life, I don't need another. I prefer the correlated version.

[Clark Addison]

Invented Tradition.

The author teaches at Marshall. It is, of course, a complete coincidence that the links on his website include www.whitesox.com. Is this what passes for scholastic research these days? A hack job on your favorite team's rival? Could SloanHater receive tenure for his work on CUF?

I'm not going to spend $30 to read this drivel, but I especially liked the only bit of evidence given in the abstract:

Wrigley has not always been considered hallowed ground. In 1918, for instance, when the first opportunity to host a World Series at Wrigley Field arose, the series was instead played eight miles south at Comiskey Park, home of the Cubs' arch rival, the Chicago White Sox.

Yes, it is quite shocking that:

1. Wrigley Field was not yet considered a historical treasure four years after it was built, and two years after it first hosted a Cubs game
2. The world Series was moved from a park that seated 14,000 to one that seated 29,000

[woot]

The author teaches at Marshall. It is, of course, a complete coincidence that the links on his website include www.whitesox.com. Is this what passes for scholastic research these days? A hack job on your favorite team's rival? Could SloanHater receive tenure for his work on CUF?

I'm not going to spend $30 to read this drivel, but I especially liked the only bit of evidence given in the abstract:



Yes, it is quite shocking that:

1. Wrigley Field was not yet considered a historical treasure four years after it was built, and two years after it first hosted a Cubs game
2. The world Series was moved from a park that seated 14,000 to one that seated 29,000

That's funny. With how professional rivalries in academia can be anyway, I can't imagine a field with the added dimension of sports team homerism. I looked at the article and there is some more stuff about how the ivy showed up relatively late and only 20 or 30 years after a field in Brooklyn did it, something about how they almost installed lights in the 60s so the whole day game thing isn't as sacrosanct as some think, and ok I'm bored already.

It's probably fun information if you care about baseball or Wrigley field, but I assume a similar article could be written about just about anything.

[wuapinmon]

Looks like I can go back to SbB again since he got rid of all the pictures of those insanely-hot scantily-clad chicks from his pages. Some of them were just unreal, and that wasn't good for me to see.

[All-American]

So Wrigley field is literally down the street from my apartment, maybe half a mile away. I walked down to see the spectacle. Some point after the game started, the crowd erupted, and I decided I should probably get in. $25 later, I was the proud holder of a standing room only ticket.

Surprisingly enough, that was actually REALLY cool.

You can tell where they went wrong with the field. Somebody forgot to factor in the space that the ivy and the pads would add to the walls. Meanwhile, the other side of the field had that two foot barrier intact all around the end zone, including around the corners. Had somebody thought about the pads on the wall and still tried to squeeze the field in, chipping a little off of the corner in the west end zone would have allowed for another foot or so in the back of the other end zone.

It was a fun atmosphere. I could care less about either of these big 10 teams (and I was unimpressed by the many northwestern banners proclaiming them to be "Chicago's Big 10 Team"-- shameless and pretentious pandering, says I), but Wrigley was a fun venue. Something about playing in that old dump really stirs the ghosts of games long gone. I was surprised to learn about the football history of Wrigley field, which has hosted more football games than all but two venues (Meadowlands and Lambeau). It was a little interesting singing "take me out to the ball game" after the first quarter.

[All-American]

And the view was quite good, by the way. Wrigley is small enough that even the really bad seats offered a view no worse than any seat in the lower half of LaVell Edwards Stadium. I was standing up against the railing in the back of the lower bleachers, so however many rows up that is. The view was as good as the best student tickets I got at BYU games.

[Solon]

The author teaches at Marshall. It is, of course, a complete coincidence that the links on his website include www.whitesox.com. Is this what passes for scholastic research these days? A hack job on your favorite team's rival? Could SloanHater receive tenure for his work on CUF?

I'm not going to spend $30 to read this drivel, but I especially liked the only bit of evidence given in the abstract:
Yes, it is quite shocking that:

1. Wrigley Field was not yet considered a historical treasure four years after it was built, and two years after it first hosted a Cubs game
2. The world Series was moved from a park that seated 14,000 to one that seated 29,000

I know Gregg very well. We were in grad school together. I proofread this article when it was a seminar paper. Don't spend your money on it, but it is a legitimate article about tradition, baseball, and modernity. I just linked it to yank pellegrino's chain. Hence the little winkey-guy. (I actually sort-of root for the cubs, since Mormon Red Death and my younger brother are big fans, and my NL team is the Pirates and they don't give me much to cheer for.)

BTW, how did the Bears play in Wrigley for so long if there's not enough room for 2 end-zones?