Chicago Cubs: Remembering the old outfield bleachers

The home of the Chicago Cubs has changed a great deal over the years, but some past features, including the longtime outfield bleachers, won’t be forgotten.

Most Chicago Cubs fans 20 or older can remember their first games as a young kid. Going up those stairs in the grandstand and seeing the park or heading up the ramp to sit in the bleachers. For those who went to games prior to 2005 will remember the classic outfield bleachers of Wrigley Field.

Before video boards, suites in the center field batter’s eye and wide bleacher concourses stood the longtime bleacher seats that lasted 68 years. These seats, constructed in 1937-1938 were built along with the ivy-covered walls and famous scoreboard in center that still stand today. While the center field section of bleachers is still from that structure, everything else in that outfield behind the iconic brick walls was demolished and rebuilt in the last 15 years.

There was a lot of history in those 68 years of fan spectating. Famous MLB, NFL and soccer games were played at Wrigley Field during those years. Plenty of famous home runs went in or over those bleachers and of course how can we not forget the Bleacher Bums? By the time of the first renovation (the 2005-2006 bleachers would be rebuilt again in 2015), those seats were crumbling, too cramped and in need of repair. But it was still hard for sentimentalists to say goodbye.

Chicago Cubs: The history of the 1937-2005 bleachers

Everyone who saw them can still remember the shape. Two downward sloping ramps that began in center down to the well areas. Fans often spelled ‘Go Cubs’ with beer cups in the chainlink fence behind these seats. Who could forget the green batter’s eye in the center that went from unoccupied seats to a tarp and finally juniper bushes in the late-90s to 2005.

In the late 1930s, the original wooden bleachers were replaced and the new brick walls were graced with ivy, thanks to Bill Veeck. The outer walls lining Waveland and Sheffield were part of the original construction in 1914.

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Meanwhile, the iconic center field scoreboard was added atop the center field seats and was originally a dull brown color. The clock was added a few years later. The batter’s eye in center came about because opposing players had a hard time seeing the ball with people wearing white in his line of sight.

Over the next six decades, not much changed in the outfield seats. The well areas went from catwalks to several rows of seats, but the main areas in left center and right center stayed the same. Since the bleachers then did not go back nearly as far as they do today, more homers went over them and onto the streets back then.

“Ballhawking” outside the park during batting practice became a lifestyle for many Cubs fans. The old bleachers also gave fans in the grandstand a good look at the buildings on Waveland and Sheffield – and allowed for spectators on those buildings to see the field.