It was an exquisite afternoon for baseball Saturday, so I ventured out to the Wrigley Field bleachers to see how Chicago Cubs followers have been dealing with the rebuild that may’t be referred to as a rebuild.
The bleachers have been packed for the sport in opposition to the Atlanta Braves as followers stood behind the final rows in left and proper subject and congregated behind the concessions to socialize with out the duty of watching the precise recreation.
In different phrases, enterprise as typical on the nook of Waveland and Sheffield avenues.
Cubs homeowners all through the years have counted on followers being oblivious to the failures of the group on the sphere, figuring out that regardless of how dangerous it will get there all the time shall be younger followers on the lookout for a celebration environment at Wrigley.
The bleachers have been a first-rate spot for tanning, beer ingesting and folks watching ceaselessly, which is why tickets are so costly for seats so distant from the motion. Even former Cubs President Theo Epstein made a visit out to the left-field part Friday afternoon to soak within the solar and have just a few chilly ones with associates.
After promoting the White Sox in 1981 to a bunch led by Jerry Reinsdorf, Hall of Fame proprietor Bill Veeck spent his summer season days sitting within the entrance row of higher heart subject at Wrigley, which he referred to as the “best seats in the house.” In an interview from his perch in 1983, Veeck instructed me: “It’s one of those rare places where people of my generation can get along with young people.”
Back within the days when bleacher tickets went on sale solely on the day of the sport, regulars would line up early alongside Sheffield to make sure their favored spots. But the previous proprietor, Tribune Co., did away with that long-standing coverage in 1985 in a cash seize that modified the bleacher vibe.
Veeck, who helped plant the ivy on the outfield partitions in 1937, started his celebrated boycott of the bleachers due to that coverage change.
Every era of Bleacher Bums decries the youthful era encroaching their territory a minimum of since I used to be a 20-something sitting in proper subject within the Eighties earlier than heading to work on the Chicago Tribune metropolis desk. Years later, after turning into the Cubs beat author, I spoke with longtime Cubs fan and rock star Billy Corgan concerning the trendiness of celebrities attending video games.
“The emphasis has to be on the people who support the team — day in, day out — and I always defer to that,” Corgan mentioned in a 2004 interview. “I’m a typical Cubs fan. I used to be a typical Cubs fan lengthy earlier than I grew to become well-known. I’ll by no means forgive the yuppies for shifting in again in ‘84. I’m nonetheless mad about that.
“When the Cubs stopped selling bleacher tickets the day of the game, that was the end of that old Bleacher Bums culture. Now it’s just fake Bleacher Bums.”
The yuppies might have precipitated the demise of the bleacher tradition 4 a long time in the past, however now it’s the “Cuppies” who’ve taken heart stage. You might have caught them on current nationwide TV broadcasts, together with Fox Sports and ESPN telecasts of the Cubs-Cardinals sequence two weeks in the past.
The Cuppies are younger followers who spend a big a part of the sport accumulating empty beer cups to stack excessive sufficient to cowl a number of rows. These are normally known as beer snakes or cup snakes. It has been occurring for a minimum of 5 years however these days has turn into a nuisance to some.
The regulars I spoke to Saturday within the left-field bleachers have been adamant: The Cuppies are ruining the bleacher expertise. But in addition they agreed there was nothing anybody may do to cease them.
A safety guard I spoke to mentioned orders from on excessive have been to cease the Cuppies from going part to part accumulating cups and to take away these tossing cups for beer snakes from one part to a different. When I discussed that beer snakes obtained obsessive protection on each Fox and ESPN, the guard mentioned the Cubs couldn’t do something concerning the nationwide telecasts however that Marquee Sports Network gained’t enable photographs of cup stacking throughout its telecasts.
The safety guard requested to not be named to keep away from being reprimanded by the Cubs.
At least Cubs safety bosses have their priorities so as. As somebody as soon as ejected from Wrigley Field for by accident spritzing a fan with a water mist from a sprig bottle on a sweltering afternoon in 1983, I can attest that bleacher excessive jinks can result in a lifetime of crime. Fortunately, I turned my life round by shifting from the bleachers to the press field, the place I’m not a risk to the group.
I requested among the Baby Boomer bleacherites if the present Gen Z and Millennial inhabitants actually are any worse than the Boomers have been throughout their heyday. In case anybody had forgotten, I reminded them the Cubs put in the hampers on the bleacher wall in 1970 as a result of followers had been leaping onto the sphere after wins, a deed far worse than stacking beer cups.
They assured me the unique Bleacher Bums have been there solely to root for the Cubs and have some enjoyable, whereas the Cuppies are a blot on bleacher society and never even “real” Cubs followers. Someone identified that one fan caught a Manny Machado dwelling run through the Cubs-San Diego Padres recreation Wednesday and refused to throw it again. Oh, the horror!
I’ve no quarrel with the Cuppies. They have the proper to be oblivious to the Cubs’ plight, similar to the generations that got here earlier than them. If somebody desires to pay $100 or extra to not watch the Cubs from the bleachers, that’s their prerogative.
Back in the summertime of 1987, for an article on the fiftieth anniversary of the development of the bleachers, I interviewed 57-year-old fan Marv Rich, a Bleacher Bum since 1943. Rich insisted the yuppies had taken over the bleachers and spoiled the vibe for everybody else.
“They don’t care about watching the game,” he mentioned. “All they care about is getting a good tan and being able to tell everyone later that they got it in the bleachers.”
The Cuppies have taken over from the yuppies, however the music stays the identical. The bleachers are a part of Wrigley Field, however watching the sport isn’t obligatory.
It’s going to be an extended, sizzling summer season. The Boomers and the Cuppies must coexist.
Can’t all of us simply get alongside?
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Source: www.bostonherald.com