Chicago Cubs: Classic Wrigley Field features that no longer exist

Chicago Cubs: Before cupsnakes, the used up beer holders were used to spell things out.

One of the favorite things for bleacher patrons to do during an afternoon at Wrigley was head to the well areas in the left and right field corners and use old beer cups to spell out things like “Go Cubs” on the old well fences. The fences in reference were the 20-ish foot tall chain-link fences that were behind the small rows of seats in the old 1937-2005 bleachers.

Back before the two major bleacher renovations in 2005-2006 and 2014-2015, the old bleachers had those corner fences up for decades. They were pretty noticeable when the fans who had a bit too much to drink would either spell stuff out on them or start climbing them.

Seeing an occasional line-drive homer ricochet off that old rusty fence was part of the experience when sitting in that section. There was an odd year in 2002 when the Chicago Cubs decided to try to obstruct views from outside the park by covering the fences with a translucent screen.

Today there are not such chain link fences in the bleachers outside the basket. The bleachers go so much higher, and there is a much bigger concourse in the back there is not a need for one. For many years though, there was.

I am sure other fans much older than I can recall other classic features at Wrigley Field now gone. Heck, go back many decades to when there was a “Baby Ruth” sign across the street. Some things just come and go that may not always be noticed right away.