I just saw a meme that said if Marty McFly were to go back to the future today, he would be going back to 1993. That movie would have sucked! Bill Clinton and grunge just don’t compare to Ike and Chuck Berry.
It is crazy to think that today is the Thirty fifth anniversary of Wrigley Field turning lights on for the first time. That was a big thing back then.
That August day in 1988 was just the start of changes in Chicago sports. Several years later the Sox tore down the Palace and built a Mallpark. The Cubs were playing under flood lights and the Sox were playing in front of blue plastic chairs.
Empty blue plastic chairs!
Chicago sports had another loss a few years later. The Chicago Stadium came tumbling down. It was a horrible experience seeing the Blackhawks play for the first time in the United Center.
In the years between 1988 and 1994 Chicago lost two great sports venues and brought a third one into the twentieth century.
We haven’t even touched on the worst project to change sport’s history in town. The new millennium brought a spaceship toilet to Soldier Field.
Don’t get me started!
If I were to jump into that DeLorean with Marty McFly, I would go back to 1987. I would go sit in the bleachers at Wrigley for four bucks and watch Andre Dawson. I’d jump on the Howard el and transfer to the Dan Ryan and get a hotdog at the old Comiskey. There wasn’t a redline that connected the two baseball parks back then.
I would then go over and watch Walter Payton in his last year on the AstroTurf at Soldiers Field.
Then the last thing I’d do before jumping back into the Time Machine is go catch a hockey game at the Stadium. Oh, how I miss the cigar smoke, the stale beer and that grand old organ playing the Blackhawks theme song.
Though Wrigley still stands, it was thirty-five years ago today when the shift started. It’s when Vaudeville ended it's run and Disneyland took over sports venues in Chicago.
It’s Tuesday morning and I’m already in a daydream….
