I miss the Wrigley Field when there wasn’t a rooftop extravaganza. I miss the simplicity of a basic ballpark. A ballpark that boasted that it didn’t need lights or advertising.
The first rooftop I visited was in the summer of 1987. It was located on the Northwest corner of Waveland and Sheffield, that yellow brick apartment building.
A guy from the trading floor rented a place in that building and he invited my cousin and me to the game. So after the close Chuck and I jumped on a northbound Howard to Addison.
We arrived to the building and walked right up the backstairs without any hassle. On the roof was a beat up bleacher that you’d see at an old park in your neighborhood.
It sat about 15 people comfortably. There were some folding chairs and a styrofoam cooler full of Old Styles.
The guy who invited us was grilling HebNats on his little Smokey Joe.
I got to experience this!
Twelve to fifteen Board of Trade kids eating hotdogs, drinking Old Style and watching the Cubs and Mets.
Today those rooftops have massive bleachers with attendants in clean bathrooms.
That glorious day on the rooftop... if I needed to take a leak, I had to go down to 2C.
Wrigley Field is still there, but not the one I remember.
