Chicago, Illinois | Home of the Chicago Cubs

Some stadiums feel new. Some feel historic.

And then there's Wrigley Field.

Our EARNED MLB Stadium Tour brought us to Chicago's North Side and one of the true American classics—a ballpark where more than a century of baseball history is still alive.

Wrigley Field opened in 1914, making it the second-oldest active Major League ballpark, behind only Boston's Fenway Park. The Cubs arrived in 1916, and generations later, baseball is still being played at the corner of Clark and Addison.

Walking into Wrigley feels different.

There's the famous red marquee. The manually operated center-field scoreboard. Rooftop seats overlooking the outfield. The bleachers. The neighborhood surrounding the stadium.

And, of course, the ivy.

The ivy was planted along Wrigley's brick outfield walls in 1937 and became one of the most recognizable features in all of sports. In summer, the combination of green grass, red-brown warning track, brick and ivy creates a baseball scene that almost looks unchanged by time.

Even the warning track represents old-school baseball culture. Unlike the artificial surfaces surrounding many modern fields, Wrigley's track has the classic crushed-brick look and feel—a reminder of why warning tracks exist in the first place: giving an outfielder a change under his feet as he approaches the wall.

Something Out of Left Field

Wrigley even has one of baseball's great legends.

For decades, a psychiatric hospital stood beyond left field. According to Chicago folklore, patients could sometimes be heard yelling things that confused players and fans, supposedly inspiring the expression:

“That came out of left field.”

Baseball is filled with stories passed from one generation to another, where history and legend sometimes become intertwined.

That's Baseball Culture.

Wrigley Field has survived world wars, generations of players, day baseball, the arrival of lights, heartbreaking seasons and finally the Cubs' historic 2016 World Series championship.

Yet the ivy still grows.

The scoreboard is still changed by hand.

Fans still fill the bleachers.

And baseball is still played at Clark and Addison.

Wrigley isn't simply somewhere you go to watch a baseball game.

It's somewhere you go to experience baseball itself.

The ivy. The brick. The bleachers. The history. The legends.

A true American classic.

It's Baseball Culture.