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Wrigley Field: The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines
In spring 1914, a new ballpark opened in Chicago. Hastily constructed after epic political maneuvering around Chicago’s and organized baseball’s hierarchies, the new Weeghman Park (named after its builder, fast-food magnate Charley Weeghman) was home to the Federal League’s Chicago Whales. The park would soon be known as Wrigley Field, one of the most emblematic and controversial baseball stadiums in America.
In Wrigley The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines, Stuart Shea provides a detailed and fascinating chronicle of this living historic landmark. The colorful history revealed in Wrigley Field shows how the stadium has evolved through the years to meet the shifting priorities of its owners and changing demands of its fans. While Wrigley Field today seems irreplaceable, we learn that from game one it has been the subject of endless debates over its future, its design, and its place in the neighborhood it calls home. To some, it is a hallowed piece of baseball history; to others, an icon of mismanagement and ineptitude. Shea deftly navigates the highs and lows, breaking through myths and rumors. And with another transformation imminent, he brings readers up to date on negotiations, giving much-needed historical context to the maneuvering.
Wrigley Field is packed with facts, stories, and surprises that will captivate even the most fair-weather fan. From dollar signs (the Ricketts family paid $900 million for the team and stadium in 2009), to exploding hot dog carts (the Cubs lost that game 6–5), to the name of Billy Sianis’s curse-inducing goat (Sonovia), Shea uncovers the heart of the stadium’s history. As the park celebrates its centennial, Wrigley Field continues to prove that its colorful and dramatic history is more interesting than any of its mythology.
In Wrigley The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines, Stuart Shea provides a detailed and fascinating chronicle of this living historic landmark. The colorful history revealed in Wrigley Field shows how the stadium has evolved through the years to meet the shifting priorities of its owners and changing demands of its fans. While Wrigley Field today seems irreplaceable, we learn that from game one it has been the subject of endless debates over its future, its design, and its place in the neighborhood it calls home. To some, it is a hallowed piece of baseball history; to others, an icon of mismanagement and ineptitude. Shea deftly navigates the highs and lows, breaking through myths and rumors. And with another transformation imminent, he brings readers up to date on negotiations, giving much-needed historical context to the maneuvering.
Wrigley Field is packed with facts, stories, and surprises that will captivate even the most fair-weather fan. From dollar signs (the Ricketts family paid $900 million for the team and stadium in 2009), to exploding hot dog carts (the Cubs lost that game 6–5), to the name of Billy Sianis’s curse-inducing goat (Sonovia), Shea uncovers the heart of the stadium’s history. As the park celebrates its centennial, Wrigley Field continues to prove that its colorful and dramatic history is more interesting than any of its mythology.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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340 people want to read
About the author
Stuart Shea
37 books1 followerPop 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."
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 6, 2019
In this book I learned that in the ivy along the outfield wall there have been hundreds of balls lost in it.
March 4, 2017
This book was a treasure chest of information about Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs, the City of Chicago and its politics. The long squabbles that make up its history are still present at Addison and Clark today. Too bad that the book was a bit too early to include the events of last Fall when the dreams of every Cubs fan were finally realized.
June 14, 2025
About two hundred of the 410 pages before one arrives at the installation of the Ivy...
And yet, you somehow don't mind. This book is about Wrigley Field as an evolving place where baseball is played, rather than a book about the baseball or even the Cubs. That said, there are plenty of baseball stories, most every season gets a little bit of love, and often many individual games see extended descriptions. Ultimately, though, this book traces the development of the part through its four iterations--Weeghman, the Wrigleys, the Tribune, the Ricketts era.
Along the way, you learn some interesting things--for instance, how critical the Tribune's ownership was to the ubiquity of the Cubs on TV (WGN was owned by the same company). One wishes that the Tribune had written a longer TV contract clause into their sale of the Team to the family Ricketts.
If you love going to baseball games on the North Side of Chicago, it is hard to put this book away. If you don't, it might read like a chronological list of stuff going on at a place you don't like with teams you don't care for. Choose wisely?
And yet, you somehow don't mind. This book is about Wrigley Field as an evolving place where baseball is played, rather than a book about the baseball or even the Cubs. That said, there are plenty of baseball stories, most every season gets a little bit of love, and often many individual games see extended descriptions. Ultimately, though, this book traces the development of the part through its four iterations--Weeghman, the Wrigleys, the Tribune, the Ricketts era.
Along the way, you learn some interesting things--for instance, how critical the Tribune's ownership was to the ubiquity of the Cubs on TV (WGN was owned by the same company). One wishes that the Tribune had written a longer TV contract clause into their sale of the Team to the family Ricketts.
If you love going to baseball games on the North Side of Chicago, it is hard to put this book away. If you don't, it might read like a chronological list of stuff going on at a place you don't like with teams you don't care for. Choose wisely?
April 2, 2024
I enjoyed parts of this work but sometimes found the author a little too close to his subject. The volume provides interesting history but he somehow does not capture the perspective of baseball fans. He seems bewildered by why folks like this stadium and doesnt understand that the park provides every fan with a great seat
September 13, 2025
plenty of interesting bits but very disjointed about it can't seem to decide whether it's a history of the building or of its occupant and so it just jumps around between facts about what happened on and off field
March 8, 2025
I have read many baseball books, particularly about wrigley and the Cubs. This one was by far the best.
May 9, 2025
One of my favorite places to go in the world. A great read with a lot of cool information I didn’t know about. I recommend this to any cubs fan or baseball fan for that matter.
Go cubs go!
Go cubs go!
March 11, 2014
Shea, a lifelong Cub fan himself, provides a fascinating chronology of the ballpark’s growth into a baseball temple “surely larger than the team it houses.” Most importantly, Shea’s book provides historical context for the Wrigley Field of today – described by Shea as “a living wonderland for baseball fans” – and the current ownership’s drastic expansion plans for it. “It’s only by looking closely at the park and its history that one can see the nature of the changes at Wrigley Field and how those changes have served to build an image of constancy and steadfastness against the encroachment of modernity,” Shea poignantly writes.
The author sees the current $500 million renovation project as different from all those that have come before it and casts a cautionary flare about the possible implications, contending that these proposed changes could “make Wrigley, perhaps for the first time, unrecognizable to someone time traveling from 1914.” It is this kind of perceptive insight that sets Shea’s impressive biography apart from others that have tried to dissect the magic that is The Friendly Confines. For Cubs fans desperately looking for reason to cheer this year, this superb history of the ballpark they so cherish surely is it.
The author sees the current $500 million renovation project as different from all those that have come before it and casts a cautionary flare about the possible implications, contending that these proposed changes could “make Wrigley, perhaps for the first time, unrecognizable to someone time traveling from 1914.” It is this kind of perceptive insight that sets Shea’s impressive biography apart from others that have tried to dissect the magic that is The Friendly Confines. For Cubs fans desperately looking for reason to cheer this year, this superb history of the ballpark they so cherish surely is it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews