Creating Memories We Never Really Had

“I don't have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has been erased like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt and then erased again. But baseball has marked time while America has rolled by like a procession of steamrollers. It is the same game that Moonlight Graham played in 1905. It is a living part of history, like calico dresses, stone crockery, and threshing crews eating at outdoor tables. It continually reminds us of what once was, like an Indian-head penny in a handful of new coins.” --W.P. Kinsella Shoeless Joe

Many of you just read that quote and immediately heard James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams in your head. Maybe some of you read the quote and thought: “Wait, that doesn't seem quite right. Who the hell is W.P. Kinsella? What is Shoeless Joe?” What you read didn't quite match what you remembered.

The rest of you didn't make the connection to Field of Dreams at all, and could care less who said it, who wrote it, or where it came from.

Regardless of whether you had memories of the movie, the book, or you are reading it for the first time, we are all sharing this memory of baseball even though we all experienced it differently and at different times. This is Wrigley Field.

We all have the memories of a pristine Wrigley Field even though all of us visited a different Wrigley Field than those before us. It's true that the Friendly Confines has resisted modernization, but the Wrigley Field of our fathers' childhood in the '60s is much different than the one we visited in the '80s and the current one our children will profess love for when they are adults. Each generation bemoaned the fate of the old ballpark whether they were adding lights in '88 or a Toyota sign in 2010. There have been changes, but so far, it hasn't destroyed the feel of Wrigley Field. It still feels like a piece of history, even though we all know it was better when we were kids.

That history is the greatest asset the Cubs have in regards to marketing their brand and their field. Much has been made of needing advertising, but Cubs fans are up in arms against it because they don't want to go to their beautiful hundred-year-old ballpark and see a garish red Toyota sign. They aren't revolting against advertising as much as they are arguing for keeping the old-timey experience. The Ricketts can use this to their advantage. I think they can sell tons of advertising all over Wrigley Field, create things for kids to enjoy, and not alienate Cubs fans.

If I owned the Cubs (we've all said that before), I would do a complete Disney-fication of Wrigley Field. Disney World doesn't make money because they have the best rides; they make money because they have the best atmosphere. Every ride has a theme and that theme is carried out from the start of the line to the exit tunnel into the gift shop. It is a full experience and the nostalgia of time gone by, embodied in the walls of Wrigley Field, is what should be marketed from start to finish at Wrigley Field.

It would start when the fans arrive to a newly restored Wrigley Field. It will look just like we imagined it did back when it was still a new field. They will look up at the red marquee with a temporary board announcing the team, month, and dates of the current homestand just like it was back before digital technology. While the fans wait to be admitted, Chicago blues music will float down from the rooftop bar above. Fans will then be admitted by ticket takers dressed in period clothing from the '20s.

Just inside, paperboys will be selling programs that are made to look like newspapers (at least the outside will look like a newspaper with the inside being very modern with glossy ads and pictures of players). More programs, and souvenirs, will be available at the NEWSTAND near the entrance.

About 30 seconds after grabbing a paper, it will be time to hit the speakeasy for a bottle of the good stuff. A guy dressed like a shady character or a woman in a cigarette girl outfit will sell the fan a beer and a dog from the food-stand or food-window that “secretly” has beer too. Now the fans head for their seats.

As they walk along, all the latest and greatest products are displayed in advertising everywhere. The ads all look like old Coca-Cola advertising. Many of them have a Norman Rockwell painting style; a boy dressed in his ball uniform playing catch with dad in the front yard with a 2013 Toyota Prius parked in the driveway. The golden age advertising makes the fans feel like they are headed into a post-WWII when baseball was king.

The ushers dressed in period uniforms of the '30s or '40s await the fans at the different sections of seating. When the fans sit down, they look out on Wrigley Field, ivy walls, and the old hand-operated scoreboard that their fathers' watched when they were boys. All along the top of the bleachers is more advertising like they saw as they walked up. Huge billboards showing a golden age of America even though they are selling new products.

By the second inning, the kids want to go wandering. At Wrigley Field they can go out onto the concourse and find the 5-piece brass band playing tunes every half-hour. The kids can see the musicians play their instruments and dance to the music. Then they can go over to see the organ. Wrigley Field has a beautiful, large organ that anybody can go by and watch while the organist performs the soundtrack to the game being played on the field. Behind the bleachers, young men with buckets, a fan favorite, are drumming away on the five gallon. Up on the rooftop patio, a blues guitarist is playing a Chicago Blues show every half-hour. The kids love seeing the different parts of the old ballpark and hearing the different types of music in each area.

The Cubs win and the game is over. The fans sing to the only song heard in the stadium that is not organ music. “Go Cubs Go” finishes and the fans head for the exit. They stop and buy souvenirs of their day in another time at Wrigley Field and then step back out into the bustling city of Chicago circa 2013 and beyond.

When they go home, the fans tell their friends about how going to the game was like stepping back into a different era. They talk about how everything at Wrigley Field was completely different than any other field they have visited. Their friends will be amazed that there was no jumbotron. The kids will talk about the music they heard that they'd never heard before.

Instead of being just another field with the latest pop song blaring between innings, fake races being run on the jumbotron, and mascots being pushed around by drunk jerks who think teddy bear beatings are funny, Wrigley Field will become that Indian-head penny in a handful of new coins. It will be the place people want to go to see what baseball was like before teams decided they needed to distract fans from the game with every electronic gizmo around. The team will be allowed to put up advertising and even bad Cubs years will still be good Wrigley years because people will come for the experience. The experience of watching baseball like they think their parents and grandparents did and sharing that with their children.

“It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”--James Earl Jones Field of Dreams