"Some of our guys would have to pick up the ball and hit it three times to get it that far."
--Steve McCatty, A's pitcher on a Bruce Bochte tape-measure shot
Stadiums
West Side Park
By Wikipedia
West Side Park was the name used for two different baseball
parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois. They were both home fields
of the team now known as the Chicago Cubs of the National League.
White
Stockings (NL, 1885-1891)
Cubs (NL, 1894-1915)
Seating
capacity
16,000
Dimensions
1885:
Right Field - 216 ft
1893:
Left Field - 340 ft
Center Field - 516 ft
Right Field - 316 ft
The first West Side Park was the ball club's home from
mid-season 1885 through 1891, and succeeded Lakefront Park. The White
Stockings (later known as the Cubs) had had to secure a new property after
1884, and it took longer than anticipated. They spent the first several
weeks of the 1885 season on the road, and the park was finally opened on
June 6 with a victory over the St. Louis Maroons, late of the Union
Association.
Fly
to the site of West Side Park!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of the West Side Park. Of course
the stadium is no longer there, but you can see the old
neighborhood. (If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
The park was located on a small block bounded by Congress, Loomis,
Harrison and Throop Streets, with the diamond toward its western end. The
elongated shape of the block lent a decidedly bathtub-like shape to the
park, with foul lines reportedly as short as 216 feet. The park held
roughly 10,000 fans. In addition to the diamond, the park held a bicycle
track which encircled the playing field, at the height of the contemporary
bicycle craze.
Although the park's useful life turned out to be as short as the ball
club's stay at the Lakefront (seven years), it was also memorable. Despite
being "wanderers" early in the 1885 season, the powerful
Chicagos under player-manager Cap Anson captured the National League
pennant that season and also went on to win the league crown in 1886. The
site also saw post-season action those two years, as the White Stockings
squared off in 19th Century World Series play against the St. Louis Browns
(later known as the Cardinals and of no relation to the American League
Browns), who were then in the rival American
Association. The Series' of the 1880s were less formal affairs than
now, exemplified by that 1885 Series, which ended in dispute with no clear
winner. The 1886 Series was held more conventionally, and went in the
Browns' favor. Those fiercely-contested matchups were the first on-field
confrontations of those two clubs, which remains one of baseball's
strongest rivalries today.
The site also saw some "bonus baseball" in 1887, as a neutral
site for Game 14 of that year's unique 15-game "traveling" World
Series between the Browns and the Detroit Wolverines.
In 1891 the team split its schedule between West Side Park and South
Side Park. The first West Side Park was abandoned after the 1891
season, with the team playing at home exclusively on the South Side in
1892. The site of the first West Side Park is now occupied by a school.
In May of 1893, the club opened their second West Side Park a
few blocks west-southwest of the first one, on a larger block bounded by
Taylor, Wood, Polk and Lincoln (now Wolcott) Streets. They split their
1893 schedule with South Side Park, then moved into the new ballpark
full-time the following year. The second West Side Park is now also
sometimes erroneously called West Side "Grounds". Home plate was
in the northwest corner of the field. The right field fence paralleled
Taylor, with flat apartments between the high fence and the street. There
were also flats across the street to the east, behind left field, giving
the park (for a few years, at least) a degree of the ambience that Wrigley
Field would later be famous for. Cook County Hospital was across the
street to the north, i.e. behind third base. Like the first West Side
grounds, the new facility was hemmed in by the streets around it, creating
a somewhat rectangular playing area. The left-field foul line was measured
at 340 feet, while the right-field fence beckoned just 316 feet from home
plate. Distance to center field (actually deep left-center) was roughly
560 feet. The original grandstand was reportedly double-decked, and the
park held about 16,000 patrons. As with other parks of the era, fans were
often permitted to stand along the outer perimeter of the playing field
itself, so the park frequently drew well in excess of its official
capacity.
On August 5, 1894, during its first full season as home to the Cubs (by
then known as the Colts), West Side Park suffered severe damage from fire
during a game against the Cincinnati Reds. As the fire spread through the
first-base side stands, panicked fans trying to escape pressed up against
the barbed wire fence separating them from the playing field. Only quick
action by several players in wrenching the fence open averted a major
tragedy. The burnt stands were simply roped off, and the season resumed
the next day. Despite that near-disaster, the club rebuilt the park out of
wood.
As the park entered the new century, it featured a small covered
grandstand behind home plate. Behind the home plate stands, the team and
ticket offices were housed in a fairly ornate two-story brick building
topped with statues of baseball players. Uncovered bleachers extended
along both foul lines and into left field. Beyond left-center field, the
bleachers gave way to a small clubhouse. The right-field bleachers were
only five to ten rows deep, sitting underneath a free-standing billboard
that ran above the length of the bleachers. The billboard frequently
featured large ads for the sports pages and the sportswriters of local
newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily
News. A scoreboard was located on the extreme right end of the
billboard, toward the right field corner. Much like today at Wrigley
Field, several of the rooftops beyond the outfield bleachers offered
bleacher seating of their own, at least for a few years.
West Side Park!
Great views of
Chicago's West Side Park.
Postcards
courtesy of LCPC
The second West Side Park was the home of the Cubs' most successful
teams of the 20th century. From 1906 through 1910, the Cubs won four
National League pennants and two World Series championships. The 1906
World Series between the Cubs and the Chicago White Sox featured the first
cross-town matchup in Series history. Although the Cubs had one of the
most successful seasons in major league history, winning 116 contests
against just 36 losses, they were defeated by the light-hitting White Sox
four games to two. The Cubs finally brought a championship to West Side
Park the following year when they swept the Detroit Tigers after ending
the first contest in a tie. In 1908, West Side Park became the home of the
first repeat world championship when the Cubs again bested the Tigers.
After a one-year absence, the Cubs returned to the Series in 1910, only to
lose in five games to the Philadelphia Athletics. The 1908 championship
has turned out to be the franchise's last World Series championship to
date (as of the 2006 season).
The ballpark expanded with the club's rising fortunes. For 1905,
several rows of private box seats were built on top of the original
grandstand roof behind home plate. That same year saw the construction of
a new two-story brick clubhouse structure, fronted by columns, out in far
left-center. After just two seasons, jury-box bleachers were built
directly in front of and over the clubhouse. During the 1908 season, the
bleachers along the first and third-base lines were gradually covered and
topped by more private box seating.
By the early 1910s the wooden ballpark was showing its age, in large
part due to neglect by Charles Murphy, the unpopular owner of the Cubs. In
1910, the neighborhood view beyond the right field outfield wall was
blocked off by an enormous, unsightly billboard. By 1912, the left field
view was similarly obstructed by a large billboard which also served as
the new scoreboard. The enclosure of the park was completed with the
installment of billboards in dead center. At this time, the jury box
bleachers in left-center field were removed, adding to the new
claustrophobic feel of the outfield. With gambling becoming an increasing
problem in baseball, starting in 1911 the playing field was adorned with
large signs (as with some other major league ballparks) reminding fans
"No Betting Allowed." Additionally, the dilapidated park found
itself competing unsuccessfully with new steel-and-concrete baseball
venues. The Chicago White Sox inaugurated Comiskey
Park in 1910. Four years later, the upstart Federal
League placed a franchise on the North Side and began play in Weeghman
Park. By 1915, the Cubs were the third most popular team in a
three-team city.
When the Federal League collapsed
after the 1915 season, Charles Weeghman, owner of the now-defunct Chicago
Whales, was allowed to buy a substantial interest in the Cubs. One of
his first acts was to abandon West Side Park and move the Cubs to Weeghman
Park for the 1916 season. Weeghman Park survives today as Wrigley
Field.
One of the few items the Cubs took with them, besides normal
operational properties, was a set of large letters comprising a sign that
had run across the back of the grandstand and was to be read from the
outside of the park: "CHICAGO NATIONAL LEAGUE BALL PARK". This
sign was placed along the top of the Weeghman Park wall bordering
Sheffield Avenue, visible to everyone in the park, and of course reading backwards
to the spectators. This oddity lasted a few years at Weeghman/Cubs Park
until it was brought down during an early remodeling.
West Side Park continued to host semipro and amateur baseball events
for a few years. It even served as a setting for Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show. It was torn down in 1920. Murphy sold the leftover lumber
for scrap. The site is now occupied by the University of Illinois Medical
Center.
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