Wrigley Field: The Unauthorized Biography

by Stuart Shea

Bathed in sun and suds, Wrigley Field is home to the perfect baseball viewing experience. The ultimate neighborhood ballpark serves as a sort of time capsule, transporting us to an era where every park felt like a day at Wrigley Field. But postcard memories aside, Wrigleyâ s modern cachet is a unique success story. From its construction in 1914 by the implausibly successful Charlie Weeghman (for a baseball team that was not the Chicago Cubs) to serving as the venue for George Halasâ s Bears, Wrigley Field has hosted many different kinds of sporting events for Americaâ s second city. Stuart Sheaâ s unparalleled history of Wrigley Field documents a park and its place within the surrounding community, its influence on who lives where in Chicago and why, and as a home to teams and events that have helped a city define itself.

Beyond Wrigleyâ s status as both a living treasure and a historical artifact, Shea looks at the current plans to renovate the park; the combative relationship among the teamâ s owners, the city, and the neighborhood; and the strange blend of interdependence and mutual annoyance that have handicapped efforts to preserve, promote, and adapt the park to the twenty-first century. Unlike any other history of a ballpark, this â unauthorized biographyâ chronicles the ballpark as a venue for womenâ s baseball, football, boxing, and soccer, among other sports. As Shea explains, the tension between past and present, memory and the future, or America as we imagine it and as it is, has rarely been so well captured in one place.

339 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Pop culture historian Robert Rodriguez has written or contributed to nine books. His newest, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years 1970-1980 will be published in March 2010. His most recent, Fab Four FAQ, has been published to critical and fan acclaim. Be sure to check out the new website www.fabfourfaq2.com."

Reviews

[Tracy McClowry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short chapters, funny anecdotes and interesting history of my favorite place and the teams that have played there.

[Mark Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring
Writer has no talent!

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admire the research and effort the author put into this, but my enjoyment of it suffered ultimately because of the poor writing and editing. It has a lot of facts I didn't know, as a devoted Cubs fan of 40 years, and he delivers it in an entertaining way with lively human stories. It also has a number of factual mistakes, references to people who haven't been introduced, distracting nonsequiturs, etc. In modern times, Shea diverges from the historical description into opinion and argument. Perhaps what bothered me most was that the stated aim of the book was the story of the ballpark; but there are actually more stories of people in the ballpark than about the ballpark itself. I was expecting more detailed descriptions along the lines of how the original construction was told. Later revisions to the park get very little attention. As I told my wife, it's the book I always wanted to write myself, but not nearly as well done.