text: As the nation's third largest party, the Populists had made an organizational decision in 1896 to "fuse" with the Democratic Party on the national level - their identity kept separate by the nomination of two different candidates for vice-president. At the state level, local Populist parties were left at liberty to proceed as they saw fit. In the Plains states, the Populists fused with the Democrats, and in some states replaced them entirely. In the South, the Populists fused with the Republican Party. The end result, though Bryan was defeated, was that the Populists greatly enlarged their representation in Congress, from 10 to 26. In several southern states, however, the legislatures were still controlled by the Democrats, and they began passing a series of laws to eliminate the franchise for black voters, with the intention of undermining a significant bloc of the Populist vote. The move had its intended consequences, as in the mid-term election of 1898, Populist representation in the House of Representatives fell to 9, its lowest since the party's founding.


title: 1900 United States presidential election

text: The treatment of Populists by the Democratic Party led to a division in the party. On May 17, 1899, Populist Party leaders met in St. Louis and issued an address calling for a "Middle of the Road" policy, in which the party would decline future fusion efforts. The statement was primarily aimed at the party's national chairman, U.S. Senator Marion Butler of North Carolina, who had been elected to the Senate through fusion with North Carolina Republicans, and was already working for the re-nomination of William J. Bryan by the Populists in 1900. The pro-fusion leaders of the Populists fought back in early 1900. The first state party known to have split was the Nebraska party, which divided during its state convention on March 19. Both factions appointed delegates to the national convention, scheduled for Cincinnati. Ultimately, the Fusion Populists decided to hold a separate national convention when it became apparent that the Ohio Populists did not favor fusion, and were working to organize a convention which would not nominate Bryan, but an independent ticket.


text: The "Fusion" Populist National Convention assembled in a large tent just west of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on May 9, and unanimously nominated Bryan for the presidency. Charles Towne, the leader of the Silver Republican Party, was near unanimously nominated as his running mate, facing only weak opposition from Representative John Lentz from Ohio. When Adlai Stevenson won the Democratic vice-presidential nomination over Towne, Towne withdrew from the race, with the Fusion Populists endorsing Stevenson.


text: Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, the "Middle of the Road" faction adopted a platform that called for the creation of fiat money, government ownership of key industries, and the opening of conservation lands for economic development. Businessman Wharton Barker was nominated for the presidency, while Representative Ignatius Donnelly was chosen as his running mate.


text: Social Democracy of America was founded by in June 1897, and was later reformed as the Social Democratic Party of America in 1898 while the Socialist Labor Party of America was having internal struggles. James F. Carey, who had been elected to the city council in Haverhill, Massachusetts, was expelled from the Socialist Labor Party. Eugene V. Debs, Carey, and Sylvester Keliher founded the Social Democratic Party. Carey and Louis M. Scates were elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives while John C. Chase was elected as mayor of Haverhill. Victor L. Berger led the party in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a slate of candidates received almost six percent of the vote in the 1898 election. Twenty members had been elected to office by 1900.


text: Morris Hillquit and members of his faction, the Kangaroos, in the Socialist Labor Party attempted to oust Daniel De Leon from the party's leadership at the 1899 convention. The Kangaroo faction was removed from the party and formed their own Socialist Labor Party. The Kangaroo faction lost a court case against De Leon for control of the party. They nominated Job Harriman for president and Max S. Hayes for vice president although they were not meant to run in the 1900 election and were instead used for a compromise with the Social Democratic Party of America.


text: The Social Democrats had been invited to the Kangaroo's convention, but declined although the Social Democrats supported unity between the parties. The Social Democratic National Executive Board allowed for the Kangaroo faction to send delegates to its national convention. The Kangaroos passed a resolution supporting unity and created a unity committee. Sixty-seven delegates from thirty-two states attuned the 1900 convention and voted by acclamation to give their presidential nomination to Debs. Hayes and Harriman were both nominated for the vice-presidential nomination and Harriman won it.


text: The executive board announced on May 12, 1900, that they would not support unity with the Kangaroos after accusing them of being too dogmatic and impeding an unity referendum. The Kangaroo unity committee sent out sent out ballots to members of both groups and both voted in favor of unity. The Kangaroos nominated Debs and Harriman as their presidential ticket which Debs accepted on July 31. Debs and George D. Herron started the party's campaign on September 29, at Chicago's Music Hall. Debs received 87,945 votes with his largest amount of support coming from New York and Illinois. Debs received over ten times the amount of votes in Chicago that the Socialist Labor Party had in the 1896 election. Debs received more votes than any presidential ticket from the Socialist Labor Party. The Kangaroo faction and the Social Democrats later merged into the Socialist Party of America in 1901.


text: The Prohibition Party met in Chicago, Illinois on June 28 to nominate their presidential ticket. Hale Johnson, who had been their vice-presidential nominee in 1896, withdrew his name immediately before the balloting was to begin. John G. Woolley was nominated on the first ballot, with Henry B. Metcalf of Rhode Island nominated to be his running mate in short order.


text: The Lincoln Republican Party, formerly the Silver Republican Party, had by 1900 come to recognize that the issue of bimetallism had been superseded by that of imperialism, and it was hoped that a broader platform in line with the perceived values of Abraham Lincoln would allow the Party to evolve beyond its singular issue of free silver.


text: The Lincoln Republicans assembled in Kansas City, Missouri, at the same time as the Democratic National Convention held in the same city. Committed to endorsing William Jennings Bryan for the Presidency, the primary aim of many of those attending was to promote the nomination of national chairman Charles Towne for the Vice Presidency by the Democratic Party, an effort endorsed by Fusionist Populists who had nominated Towne to the same position two months earlier. Unfortunately for those who boomed Towne these efforts may have backfired, pushing away Democratic delegates who might have otherwise been favorable to Towne by presenting the ticket of Bryan and Towne as a fait accompli, with Southern Democratic delegates themselves preferring a Vice-Presidential nominee who'd appeal to voters the Democratic Party lost in the Northeast and Midwest four years prior. Hopes for a personal endorsement of Towne by Bryan were also dashed when Bryan, who personally preferred Towne of those candidates in running and was expected to make mention of this in an acceptance, decided against going to the Convention or involving himself in the Vice-Presidential contest. Ultimately, Towne was a distant third, with Adlai Stevenson winning the nod.


text: The nomination of Stevenson, who'd previously served as Grover Cleveland's vice president, outraged many of the Lincoln Republicans still in attendance, and in the ensuing pandemonium attempts were made to nominate Charles Towne for the Vice Presidency. Only when Charles Towne himself addressed the convention did the anger settle. Declining the efforts to nominate him, Towne pleaded with the delegates present to accept and support the Democratic ticket as it was, noting that Bryan was at the head of it and much of the Democratic Platform was aligned with that of the Lincoln Republicans. Others, such as Senator Fred Dubois, Senator Henry Teller, and John Shafroth made similar speeches calling for support for Bryan and Stevenson. It was eventually decided that the question of the vice presidential nomination would be handled by the National Committee. They would formalize and endorsement of Adlai Stevenson for the Vice Presidency the following day, in deference to Towne's wishes.


text: The American Anti-Imperialist League had been formed in 1898 in opposition to the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, considering its annexation violating the concept of "consent of the governed". While not formalized as a political party, there existed a movement within the League that sought to nominate an independent ticket to run solely on the platform of anti-imperialism or, barring that, to endorse whichever Republican or Democratic presidential nominee that was themselves anti-imperialist. Upon the nominations of McKinley and Bryan however, there were immediate divisions on whether to endorse Bryan and the Democratic Platform, many sympathizing Republicans and Gold Democrats finding it anathema to their own political philosophies beyond its denouncement of imperialism; already by July some were considering supporting McKinley in November. Later that same month a call was made for a National Convention to meet in Indianapolis on August 15 with the intention of either endorsing or nominating a ticket for the general election. Discussions were held with remnants of National Democratic Party about the possibility of a fusion ticket, but this was voted down by their national committee. Then discussed names for possible presidential candidates were former Speaker Thomas Reed, former Secretary of State Richard Olney, former Massachusetts Governor George Boutwell, and former Senator John Henderson


text: From the beginning the headwinds were in Bryan's favor, with permanent President George Boutwell addressing the convention and calling for the endorsement of the Democratic ticket, this followed in speeches by former General John Beatty, Edgar Bancroft, and Gamaliel Bradford. The resolution to endorse Bryan however was subject to prolonged debate, its principal opponents being representatives of the "third-ticket" movement led by Thomas Osborne. Osborne and those who followed him theorized that many anti-imperialists would not be willing to vote for Bryan or in favor of the Democratic Platform, and would be better served by a candidate of their own. Charles Codman, the author of the resolution, and Edwin Burritt Smith countered that all issues were secondary to the issue of imperialism, and that the most effective means by which to put an anti-imperialist in office should be used. In a voice vote, the Platform of the "Liberty Congress" as it was then known as adopted overwhelmingly, with all amendments to strike the endorsement of the Bryan/Stevenson ticket being voted down. Osborne and other "third-ticketers" would then bolt to the then nearby organizing National Party.


text: The National Party was an outgrowth of the "third-ticket" movement that existed within the Anti-Imperialist League. The first steps towards its formation were taken after the failure of a number of anti-imperialists, among them Thomas Osborne and John Jay Chapman, to convince the National Democratic Party to either nominate or endorse a third party ticket. A statement was then released by the attending League delegates from New York, denouncing both the Republican and Democratic parties, advocating for the independence of the Philippines and Porto Rico (sic), supporting gold standard and a sound banking system, calling for the abolition of special privileges, and demanding a public service based on merit exclusively. They also called for a national convention to be held from August 14 to 15, which would have placed it alongside the "national" League Convention that was being held from August 15 to August 16.


text: As the delegates arrived in Indianapolis, it was hoped that the League could be convinced to nominate a third party ticket, with the National Party then offering its endorsement. It swiftly became clear however that the majority of the delegates to the Anti-Imperialist League Convention were in sympathy with Bryan and prepared to endorse him, and attempts on the part of anti-Bryan delegates to kept the platform at least non-committal on the subject of the presidential race were unsuccessful. Those League delegates that were associated with the National Party then left and proceeded to elect Thomas Osborne as Permanent Chairman, calling for a new national convention to be held on September 5. It is claimed that at the time the National Party presidential nomination was offered to Moorfield Storey, but Storey declined and ultimately opted to run as an Anti-Imperialist Independent in the 11th District of Massachusetts; William Jackson Palmer was suggested as a vice-presidential nominee to run alongside him.


text: Meeting in Carnegie Hall (then Chamber Music Hall) on 5 September, the National Party was formalized, nominating Senator Donelson Caffery of Louisiana for the Presidency, and historian Archibald Howe of Massachusetts for the Vice Presidency. Though there was some concern over whether Caffery would accept the nomination if offered, Osborne claimed that he had been communicating with Caffrey and that he was both sympathetic to the National Party and willing to be their candidate for the Presidency. The party platform was virtually identical to the one offered by the League committee back in July, though the definition of "special privileges was defined as "subsidies, bounties, undeserved pensions, or trust-busting tariffs." A strategy was also adopted where, in those States where it was impractical to nominate a full slate of electors, a single elector would be nominated instead, allowing for voters to vote the Nationalist ticket as well as one other of their choice; it was hoped that this might avail concerns that the Nationalists would take votes away from either Bryan or McKinley, depending on the voters' sympathies.


text: Unfortunately for the Nationalist Party Senator Cafferty declined the nomination some weeks later, resulting in a scramble where Arthur Briggs Farquhar, owner of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works, was considered as a possible replacement. A day later, on September 21, the Massachusetts branch of the Party voted to disband. It was then hoped that unpledged electors could be nominated, but papers were only ever taken out for one, Edward Waldo Emerson of Massachusetts.


text: The Union Reform Party nominated Seth H. Ellis of Ohio for president and Samuel T. Nicholson for vice president.


text: The United Christian Party nominated Jonah F. R. Leonard for president, and David H. Martin for vice president. Initially, the party had nominated Silas C. Swallow for president and John G. Woolley for vice president, but both men refused, choosing instead to contest the Prohibition Party nomination "(of which Woolley would emerge the victor)".


text: The economy was booming in 1900, so the Republican slogan of "Four More Years of the Full Dinner Pail," combined with victory in the brief Spanish–American War in 1898, had a powerful electoral appeal. Teddy Roosevelt had become a national hero fighting in Cuba during the war, and as such he was a popular spokesman for the Republican ticket. Roosevelt proved highly energetic, and an equal match for William Jennings Bryan's famous barnstorming style of campaigning. Roosevelt's theme was that McKinley had brought America peace and prosperity and deserved re-election. In a whirlwind campaign, Roosevelt made 480 stops in 23 states. In his speeches, he repeatedly argued that the war had been just and had liberated the Cubans and Filipinos from Spanish tyranny:


text: Bryan's campaign was built around a reprise of his major issue from the 1896 campaign: Free Silver. It was not as successful in 1900, because prosperity had replaced severe depression and McKinley claimed credit. Advocates of enlarging the money supply to raise prices had to admit that a great deal of new gold was flowing into the world economy, and deflation (i.e. falling prices) was no longer a threat. Bryan's second major campaign theme attacked McKinley's imperialism; Bryan had supported the war, but opposed the annexation of the Philippines. He said McKinley had simply replaced a cruel Spanish tyranny with a cruel American one. Bryan was especially harsh in his criticisms of the American military effort to suppress a bloody rebellion by Filipino guerillas. This theme won over some previous opponents, especially "hard money" Germans, former Gold Democrats, and anti-imperialists such as Andrew Carnegie.


text: Both candidates repeated their 1896 campaign techniques, with McKinley campaigning again from the front porch of his home in Canton, Ohio. At the peak of the campaign, he greeted sixteen delegations and 30,000 cheering supporters in one day. Meanwhile, Bryan took to the rails again, traveling 18,000 miles to hundreds of rallies across the Midwest and East. This time, he was matched by Theodore Roosevelt, who campaigned just as energetically in 24 states, covering 21,000 miles by train.


text: The triumph of the American army and navy in the war against Spain was a decisive factor in building Republican support. Democrats tried to argue that the war was not over because of the insurgency in the Philippines; this became their major issue. A perception that the Philippine–American War was coming to an end would be an electoral asset for the Republicans, and the McKinley administration stated that there were reductions of troops there. Republicans pledged that the fighting in the Philippines would die down of its own accord within sixty days of McKinley's re-election.


text: However, as one lieutenant explained in a letter to his wife, "It looks good on paper, but there really has been no reduction of the force here. These battalions [being sent home] are made up on men...about to be discharged."


text: In addition, Secretary of War Elihu Root had a report from MacArthur of September 1900 that he did not release until after the election. General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., had been in command of the Philippines for four months, warning Washington that the war was not lessening and that the end was not even in sight. MacArthur believed that the guerrilla stage of the war was just beginning and that Filipinos were refining their techniques through experience. Furthermore, Philippine leader Emilio Aguinaldo's strategy had popular support. MacArthur wrote:


text: Nonetheless, the majority of soldiers in the Philippines did not support Bryan. Any mention of the election of 1900 in the soldiers' letters and diaries indicated overwhelming support for the Republican ticket of McKinley and Roosevelt. According to Sergeant Beverly Daley, even the "howling Democrats" favored McKinley. Private Hambleton wrote, "Of course, there are some boys who think Bryan is the whole cheese, but they don't say too much."


text: Despite Bryan's energetic efforts, the renewed prosperity under McKinley, combined with the public's approval of the Spanish–American War, allowed McKinley to gain a comfortable victory.


text: Theodore Roosevelt, the vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket, attracted unusual attention in the campaign, and it has been commonly asserted that he brought a considerable number of votes to the Republican ticket.


text: McKinley polled roughly 7,200,000 votes. He carried 28 states with a combined 292 electoral votes (65.32%). He slightly increased his national percentage (51.60%) with 120,000 more votes than in 1896. This change is reflected in the gains made in number of counties carried; McKinley had 222 more counties than he had carried in 1896, thus gaining a slight majority of the total number of counties making returns in 1900.


text: Of the 2,729 counties making returns, McKinley won in 1,385 (50.75%) while Bryan carried 1,340 (49.10%). Two counties (0.07%) were split evenly between McKinley and Bryan, while two counties (0.07%) in Texas recorded more votes cast for "Other(s)" than either of the two-party candidates. McKinley had a majority in 1,288 counties while Bryan had a majority in 1,253 counties.


text: Further examination reveals that changes in counties were even more impressive. Of the 2,729 counties making returns, 2,286 were identical in these two elections; 113 changed from Republican to Democratic; and 328 changed from Democratic to Republican.


text: A notable feature was the Bryan gains made in the New England and (Northeastern) Mid-Atlantic sections, with also a slight gain in the East North Central section. Bryan even managed to win New York City by almost 30,000 votes when he had lost it by more than 60,000 votes just 4 years earlier. In all other sections, Bryan's vote was less than in 1896, and in the nation his total vote was 23,000 less than in 1896. The percentage of total was 45.52, a slight loss. Kentucky, which he carried this time, showed an increase of 17,005. In 16 states, the Democratic vote increased, but in 29 states it was less than in 1896. Bryan carried only 17 states. This was the only one of his three runs in which he failed to carry his home state of Nebraska.


text: This was the last election in which the Republicans won the majority of electoral votes in Maryland until 1920. It is also the last election in which a Republican won the presidency without winning Idaho and Montana. In addition, this would also be the last election in 100 years when the Republican candidate would win without earning a minimum of 300 electoral votes. That did not occur again until George W. Bush narrowly defeated Al Gore in the 2000 United States Presidential Election.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Whales of the Federal League, which folded after the 1915 baseball season. The Cubs played their first home game at the park on April 20, 1916, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings. Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. of the Wrigley Company acquired the Cubs in 1921. It was named Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926, before being renamed Wrigley Field in 1927. The current seating capacity is 41,649. It is actually the second stadium to be named Wrigley Field, as a Los Angeles ballpark with the same name opened in 1925.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the North Side community area of Lakeview in the Wrigleyville neighborhood, Wrigley Field is on an irregular block bounded by Clark and Addison streets to the west and south, and Waveland and Sheffield avenues to the north and east. Wrigley Field is nicknamed "The Friendly Confines", a phrase popularized by "Mr. Cub", Hall of Fame shortstop and first baseman Ernie Banks. The oldest park in the National League, it is the second-oldest in the majors after Fenway Park (1912), and the only remaining Federal League park. The park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2020.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field is known for its ivy-covered brick outfield wall, the unusual wind patterns off Lake Michigan, the iconic red marquee over the main entrance, the hand-turned scoreboard, its location in a primarily residential neighborhood with no parking lots and views from the rooftops behind the outfield, and for being the last Major League park to have lights installed for night games, in 1988. Between 1921 and 1970, it was also the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League, and was the home of the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) of the National Football League from 1931 to 1938. The elevation of its playing field is above sea level.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Baseball executive Charles Weeghman hired his architect Zachary Taylor Davis to design the park, which was ready for baseball by the home opener on April 23, 1914. The original tenants, the Chicago Whales (also called the Chi-Feds), came in second in the Federal League rankings in 1914, and won the league championship in 1915.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In late 1915, Weeghman's Federal League folded. The resourceful Weeghman formed a syndicate including the chewing gum manufacturer William Wrigley Jr. to buy the Chicago Cubs from Charles P. Taft for about $500,000. Weeghman immediately moved the Cubs from the dilapidated West Side Grounds to his two-year-old park.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 1918, Wrigley acquired the controlling interest in the club. In November 1926, he renamed the park Wrigley Field. In 1927, an upper deck was added, and in 1937, Bill Veeck, the son of the club president, planted ivy vines against the outfield walls after seeing the ivy planted at Perry Stadium, Indianapolis.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Ricketts family aggressively pursued a Wrigley Field renovation since buying the team and the stadium in 2009. During the annual Cubs Convention in January 2013, the family revealed the 1060 Project, which called for a $575-million, privately funded rehabilitation of the stadium to be completed over the course of five years. The proposal was vast and included planned improvements to, among other things, the stadium's façade, infrastructure, restrooms, concourses, suites, press box, moving the bullpens and clubhouses, as well as the addition of restaurants, patio areas, batting tunnels, a jumbotron, and an adjacent hotel, plaza and office-retail complex.


title: Wrigley Field

text: After months of negotiations between the team, local Alderman Tom Tunney, and then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the plan obtained the endorsements of both the city's Landmarks Commission and Plan Commission before receiving final approval by the Chicago City Council in July 2013. To help fund the project, the team planned to more than double the amount of advertising signage in and around the stadium to about , including additional signage to be placed beyond the outfield walls – a move that was opposed by many owners of the rooftop clubs surrounding the stadium, who worried that such signage would obstruct their sightlines. Before work on the project began, the team wanted the rooftop owners to agree not to pursue legal action challenging the construction and continued to negotiate privately with them – offering to reduce the size and number of signs to be built – in order to gain their assent. The team could not come to terms with the rooftop owners who had a lease agreement with the team until 2023 in exchange for paying 17% of the gross revenues. In May 2014, the Cubs announced they would pursue the original 2013 plan to modify the park. Over the course of the next three years, the Ricketts family began to purchase many of the rooftop locations.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Phase one of the 1060 Project began on September 29, 2014. During the offseason, the bleachers in both outfields were expanded and the stadium's footprint was extended further onto both Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. A Jumbotron scoreboard was added to the left field bleachers, topped with a sign advertising Wintrust Financial, a Rosemont-based bank and a Cubs Legacy Partner; the "W" in Wintrust flashes after every Cubs win. A video scoreboard was also added in the right field bleachers, and the parking lots along Clark Street were excavated for underground players' locker rooms and lounges.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Exterior renovations of the park seek to restore design elements present before the 1960s. These details include ornamental muted-green grill-work and red terra cotta roofing.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Phase three of the 1060 Project was completed before the start of the 2017 season. The left and right field bullpens were relocated to enclosed areas under the bleachers, the brick walls were extended toward the field, and new seating was added in the vacated bullpen areas. A visiting team "batting tunnel" was also added. Partial façade replacement and concourse restoration was completed along Addison Street, along with structural improvements to the right field bleachers. The outfield turf was replaced just weeks before the start of the season. The Cubs Plaza building just to the west of Wrigley was finalized, and the "Park at Wrigley", the area above Cubs players dressing rooms, was in use for fans before and during games. Construction of Hotel Zachary along the west side of Clark Street was ongoing.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The fourth phase of improvements began at the conclusion of the 2017 season. The dugouts were moved farther down the left and right field foul lines to make room for two of the four new luxury clubs. The seating area behind home plate was reconstructed to locate another of the new clubs. The final upper level club was planned for the 2019 season. The Hotel Zachary, just across Clark Street, was open for business in time for the Cubs' first home game on April 9, 2018.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Near the start of the renovations, the Ricketts applied for National Historic Landmark status for Wrigley Field in 2013. A similar plan had been successfully pursued by the owners of Fenway Park in Boston. To achieve landmark status, the renovations had to respect and reflect the historic character of the stadium. The benefit to the owners is that landmark status allows them to claim tax credits for the renovation. National landmark status was awarded in 2020, with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior commenting that "the historical significance of Wrigley Field is interwoven into our nation's story and a key part of what has become America's beloved pastime for over a century".


title: Wrigley Field

text: On May 26, 2015, Cubs rookie third baseman Kris Bryant became the first to hit the new left field videoscreen with his home run. On October 13, the Cubs clinched a playoff series at home in Wrigley Field for the first time in franchise history, with a 6–4 victory in game four of the 2015 NLDS. After Anthony Rizzo hit what would be the game-winning and series-winning home run in the sixth inning, Kyle Schwarber's seventh inning home run ball landed on top of the right field scoreboard. The ball was left in place, encased in clear plexiglass to protect it from the elements, but was removed in 2016.


title: Wrigley Field

text: During the 2014 season, the Cubs celebrated the centennial of Wrigley Field. Each decade was represented during ten homestands throughout the season. April 23, the 100th anniversary of the stadium's opening, saw the Cubs playing the Arizona Diamondbacks in a throwback game. Each team represented one of the teams which played in the inaugural game at the stadium. The Cubs wore the uniforms of the Chicago Whales (Federals), the original occupants of the stadium, and the Diamondbacks wore uniforms representing the Kansas City Packers, whom the Federals played on April 23, 1914.


title: Wrigley Field

text: On July 14, 2022, the United States government filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Cubs, operator of the stadium, for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, claiming that the stadium did not accommodate spectators with disabilities, primarily those in wheelchairs. The lawsuit states that, during recent renovations, the stadium operator removed the best wheelchair seating, failed to add wheelchair accessibility to premium club rooms, and stuck the wheelchair seats behind railings, which could obstruct the view of those in wheelchairs. The Chicago Cubs, however, released a statement, saying that "Wrigley Field is now more accessible than it was in its 108-year history".


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field follows the jewel box ballpark design that was popular in the early part of the 20th century. The two recessed wall areas, or "wells", located both in left and right field, give those areas more length than if the wall were to follow the contour from center field. It is also in those wells, when cross winds are blowing, that balls have a habit of bouncing in all directions. In addition, there is a long chain-link fence strip running the entire length of the outfield wall, the base of which is about two feet down from the top of the wall and the top of which projects out at an angle, primarily used to keep fans from falling out of the bleacher area and onto the field of play, which is about seven to ten feet below the top of the wall. Called "the Basket" by players and fans alike, the rules of the field state that any ball landing within the basket is ruled a home run, making the distance to hit a home run in Wrigley Field actually shorter than the location of the outfield wall.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The ballpark is famous for its outfield walls which are covered by ivy. In the first weeks of the baseball season, the ivy has not leafed out, and all that is visible are the vines on which it grows. However, as the baseball season progresses further into spring, the ivy grows thick and green, disguising the hard brick surface of the outfield wall. In the autumn, generally during postseason, the ivy turns red. On April 7, 2013, Total Pro Sports named Wrigley Field the "Best Place to Catch a Game in 2013", owing the award primarily to its architecture and ivy-coated fields.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 1937, the stadium was renovated and P. K. Wrigley discussed beautification with then-Cubs President William Veeck Sr., who suggested planting ivy on the outfield walls. The ivy was originally English ivy, but was later changed to "Parthenocissus tricuspidata", commonly called Boston Ivy or Japanese Bittersweet, which can endure the harsh Chicago winters better than its English cousin. Cuttings from the ivy were sold by local vendors. The Cubs attempted to grow the ivy on the outside of Wrigley Field as well, but the plantings were often stolen, so the Cubs abandoned the plans.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Following a later change in MLB rules, which requires all outfield walls to be padded, Wrigley Field was grandfathered into the rules, meaning it is the only stadium in the league without padded walls because of the ivy. In 2004, the ivy was specifically included in Wrigley Field's Landmark Designation by the Chicago City Council. Although the ivy appears to "pad" the bricks, it is of little practical use in this regard. There have been occasions of fielders being injured when slamming into the wall while pursuing a fly ball.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Under the ground rules of Wrigley Field, if a baseball gets into the ivy and gets stuck, the batter is awarded a ground rule double. Outfielders often raise their arms up when the ball goes into the ivy, signaling to an umpire to go out and rule on the play. However, if the ball becomes dislodged or the fielder reaches into the vines to try and retrieve it, it is considered in play and the runners can advance.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The distances from home plate to various points in the outfield have remained essentially unchanged since the bleachers were remodeled during the 1937 season. They were originally marked by wooden numbers cut from plywood, painted white, and placed in gaps where the ivy was not allowed to grow. Since the early 1980s, the numbers have been painted directly on the bricks, in yellow. Although the power-alley dimensions are relatively cozy, the foul lines are currently the deepest in the major leagues.


title: Wrigley Field

text: It is to the notch in the wall just beyond the left field foul pole. The point where the bleacher wall begins to curve inward in left-center field, one of the two "wells", is an unmarked . The front part of the left-center "well" is the closest point in the outfield, about . The marked left-center field distance is . It is closer to true center field than its right-center counterpart is. True center field is unmarked and is about . The center field marker, which is to the right of true center field and in the middle of the quarter-circle defining the center field area, is and is the deepest point in the outfield. Right-center field is , the notch of the right-center "well" is an unmarked , and the right field foul line is . The backstop is listed in media sources as behind home plate. Although that distance is standard, the relatively small foul ground area in general gives an advantage to batters.


title: Wrigley Field

text: When Wrigley Field was constructed, the buildings along Waveland and Sheffield avenues gave spectators a view of what was going on inside the ballpark, but did not become popular spectator areas until the 1929 World Series. The 1938 World Series brought paying spectators to the rooftops, however, fans typically sat in lawn chairs and brought their own food and beverages. In the mid-1980s, rooftop owners began to organize more formally as businesses, seeking to extract more revenue by updating the rooftops with bleacher-style grandstands. The Sky Box on Sheffield opened in 1993, originally catering primarily to corporate groups. Today, it is complete with a two-tier roof deck, indoor clubhouse, fully staffed bars on three levels, and an elevator.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 1998, the city started requiring rooftop owners to have a license and began to regulate the venues. In 2003, relations between rooftop owners and the Cubs worsened when the team put up a large screen to block the view of the rooftops, exemplifying what is known as a spite fence. The Cubs then sued most rooftop businesses that year, claiming they were stealing from the team's product and "unjustly enriching themselves".


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2004, the building owners agreed to share a portion of their proceeds with the Cubs. Rooftop owners were required to pay the team 17% of their gross revenue in an agreement lasting until 2023. The Cubs obtained permission from the city to expand the ballpark's own bleachers out over the sidewalks and do some additional construction on the open area of the property to the west, bordered by Clark and Waveland, and to close the remnant of Seminary Avenue that also existed on the property. The rooftop seats are now effectively part of the ballpark's seating area, although they are not included in the seating capacity figure.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In July 2016, former rooftop owner R. Marc Hamid was convicted on nine counts of mail fraud and illegal bank structuring. Hamid had been underreporting attendance at the Sky Box on Sheffield from 2008 to 2011, and covered up over $1 million in revenue while also avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and royalties that violated the agreement rooftop owners had with the Cubs. In January 2017, he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2013, the owners threatened suit when the team announced plans to renovate the stadium and potentially disrupt the sight lines. In May 2014, when the rooftop owners did not agree to a scaled down plan for renovations, the Cubs' owners announced their intentions to implement the original 2013 plan for renovations even if it meant battling the issue in court. Cubs owner Ricketts said Wrigley has "the worst player facilities in Major League Baseball...I am saying it is the time to invest in Wrigley Field and do the things that our competitors do." By the end of the 2016 season, the Ricketts family had acquired ten of the rooftop locations, with a financial stake in an eleventh.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Some of the rooftops became legendary in their own right. The Lakeview Baseball Club, which sits across Sheffield Avenue (right-field) from the stadium displayed a sign that read "Eamus Catuli!" (roughly Latin for "Let's Go Cubs!"—"catuli" translating to "whelps", the nearest Latin equivalent), flanked by a counter indicating the Cubs' long legacy of futility. The counter was labeled "AC" for "Anno Catulorum", or "In the Year of the Cubs". Prior to the team's 2016 championship, it read "AC0871108", with the first two digits indicating the number of years since the Cubs' last division championship as of the end of the previous season (2008), the next two digits indicating the number of years since the Cubs won the National League Pennant (1945), and the last three digits indicating the number of years since their last World Series win (). After winning the World Series in 2016, the sign was updated to "AC0000000".


title: Wrigley Field

text: In April and May, the wind often comes off Lake Michigan (less than a mile to the east), with a northeast wind "blowing in" to knock down potential home runs and turn them into outs. In the summer, however, or on any warm, breezy day, the wind often comes from the south and the southwest, "blowing out" with the potential to turn normally harmless fly balls into home runs. A third variety is the cross-wind, which typically runs from the left field corner to the right field corner and causes all sorts of havoc. Depending on the direction of the wind, Wrigley can either be one of the friendliest parks in the major leagues for pitchers or among the worst. This makes Wrigley one of the most unpredictable parks in the Major Leagues. Many Cubs fans check their nearest flag before heading to the park on game days for an indication of what the game might be like. This is less of a factor for night games, however, because the wind does not blow as hard after the sun goes down.


title: Wrigley Field

text: With the wind blowing in, pitchers can dominate and no-hitters have resulted. The last two by a Cubs pitcher occurred near the beginning and the end of the 1972 season, by Burt Hooton and Milt Pappas respectively. Not until Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies no-hit the Cubs in 2015 would another no-hitter be pitched at Wrigley. In the seventh inning of Ken Holtzman's first no-hitter, on August 19, 1969, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit a ball that looked headed for the bleachers, but the wind caught it just enough for left fielder Billy Williams to leap up and snare it.


title: Wrigley Field

text: With the wind blowing out, some true tape-measure home runs have been hit by well-muscled batters. Sammy Sosa and Dave "Kong" Kingman broke windows in the apartment buildings across Waveland Avenue several times, and Glenallen Hill put one on a rooftop. Batters have occasionally slugged it into, or to the side of, the first row or two of the "upper deck" of the center field bleachers. Sosa hit the roof of the center field camera booth on the fly during the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins, some away. The longest blast was probably hit by Dave Kingman on a very windy day in 1976, while with the Mets. According to local legend, that day, Kingman launched a bomb that landed on the third porch roof on the east (center field) side of Kenmore Avenue some 550 feet away. No batter has ever hit the center field scoreboard, but it has been struck by a golf ball hit by Sam Snead using a two-iron.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The scoreboard was installed in 1937, when Bill Veeck installed the new bleachers. It has remained in place ever since, and has only seen minor technical and cosmetic modifications. The clock was added in 1941, and a fifth row of scores was added to each side in 1961, with a sixth by 1969. A set of light stands facing onto the scoreboard was added in 1988 with the introduction of night games.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Along with Fenway Park's scoreboard and Minute Maid Park, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Oracle Park's out of town scoreboards, Wrigley is one of the last parks to maintain a hand-turned scoreboard. A number turner watches the score changes on a computer (a ticker tape machine was used in the past), and updates the scoreboard by manually replacing the numbers from within the scoreboard. The scoreboard is made of sheet steel. The numbers that are placed into the inning windows are also steel, painted forest green, and numbered with white numerals. The box for the game playing at Wrigley uses yellow numerals for the current inning. The clock, which sits at the top center of the scoreboard, has never lost time in its -year existence.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Standing over the clock are three flagpoles, one for each division in the National League. There are 15 flags, one for each National League team, and their order on the flagpoles reflects the current standings. The entrance to the scoreboard is a trap-door on the bottom. On the reverse of the scoreboard, visible from the CTA elevated trains, is a blue Cubs pennant in white outlined in red neon. The scoreboard was extensively rehabilitated for the 2010 season.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Unlike the home of the Red Sox, the scoreboard at Wrigley is mounted above the centerfield bleachers, rather than at ground level, making it harder to hit during play. No players have hit the current scoreboard, although at least three have come close: Roberto Clemente to the left side on May 17, 1959; and Bill Nicholson and Eddie Mathews to the right on August 22, 1942, and April 22, 1953, respectively.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2010, the Cubs considered adding a video screen to the stadium, but the hand-turned scoreboard cannot be moved due to the park's landmark status, which also prohibits even simple facelifts, such as adding two more games on either side (there are 15 teams in both the National and American Leagues) of the 12-game, 24-team scoreboard (reflecting the MLB from 1969 to 1976), so up to three games (one NL, one AL and the interleague) each day cannot be posted. Those games may eventually be part of the auxiliary video board currently on the right field that may also be added in left field. Most Cubs players support the concept of a video board, and work on two additional scoreboards began at the end of the 2014 season.


title: Wrigley Field

text: On March 21, 2013, it was announced that Alderman Tom Tunney wanted to demolish the scoreboard to clear the view for nearby residents, who watch games from their rooftops. "Demolishing the landmark old scoreboard has never been part of any plan discussed or envisioned by the Ricketts family," said Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts. To date, there is a third generation scoreboard operator whose grandfather began working in the hand-turned scoreboard at its inception.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Directly over the main entrance to the stadium stands the most familiar icon of the exterior of the ballpark: a large, red, art deco-style marquee, with "Wrigley Field, Home of Chicago Cubs" painted in white. The marquee was installed around 1934, and was originally painted blue with changeable letters—similar to the scoreboard—to announce upcoming games. The marquee originally read "Home of the Cubs", which was replaced with "Home of Chicago Cubs" by 1939. In years when the Bears played there, the sign was changed appropriately during football season. On March 23, 1960, the Cubs repainted the sign red.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 1982, a two-line announcement board was replaced with an electronic LED message board, and a backlit advertising panel was added below (this is now solid red). The marquee uses red neon lights at night, showing the familiar "Wrigley Field" in red, with the rest of the sign in darkness. A Budweiser Beer slogan was on the lower panel in the early 1980s, around the time when the team added the LED signage. Past and present owners of the park have used the marquee in some way as the park's trademark of sorts: the CTA Addison street platform that serves Wrigley Field uses an image of the marquee painted on walls to announce the destination. In November 2010, the marquee was painted purple with an Allstate Insurance logo for the Northwestern Wildcats, who played as the home team against the Illinois Fighting Illini in a Big Ten football game.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2015, a Toyota emblem was placed on the lower panel just below the LED sign on the marquee; previously, the area was used for logos of transient corporate sponsors and team initiatives. Toyota, one of the team's "legacy partners", began displaying other signage in and around the park in 2016, including branding on all of its parking lots.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The marquee was temporarily removed and restored for the 2016 season, including new paint, a new LED display board, and new neon lights. The back of the sign was given a new green paint job as well, which can now be seen from inside the terrace level.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Cubs were a holdout against night games for decades, not installing lights at Wrigley until 1988, after baseball officials announced that the park would be prohibited from hosting any future postseason games without lights. Before then, all games at Wrigley were played during the day. Night games are still limited in number by agreement with the city council.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 1942, then-owner Philip K. Wrigley had planned to install lights, but they were scrapped for the World War II effort. On July 1, 1943, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League's first midseason All-Star Game was played under temporary lights at Wrigley Field, between two teams composed of South Bend Blue Sox and Rockford Peaches players versus Kenosha Comets and Racine Belles players. It was also the first night game ever played in the ballpark.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The 1984 World Series was scheduled to start in the National League park, but the MLB actually had a contingency plan to instead start the Series at the American League park in the event that the Cubs won the NLCS against the San Diego Padres. This would have allowed the Wrigley Field-hosted (i.e. daytime) games to be held over the weekend; in return, only one night game (game 3 on Friday) would have been lost. Had the Cubs advanced to the Series instead of the Padres, the Detroit Tigers would have hosted games 1, 2, 6, and 7 (on Tuesday and Wednesday nights), while the Cubs would have hosted games 3, 4, and 5 (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), with all three games in Chicago starting no later than 1:30 p.m. CST. Since the Padres wound up winning the 1984 NLCS, these plans proved moot.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the late 1980s, Cubs management insisted that the team was in danger of leaving Wrigley if lights were not installed, and Major League Baseball threatened to make the Cubs play postseason "home" games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. After 5,687 consecutive day games played by the Cubs at Wrigley, the lights were finally lit on August 8, 1988, for a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. However, that game was rained out after 3½ innings, and the first official night game took place the following evening against the New York Mets, whom the Cubs beat 6–4.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field's first tenant was the Federal League team, the Chicago Whales, from 1914 to 1915. It has served as the home baseball park for Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs franchise since 1916.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Chicago Bears of the National Football League played at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 before relocating to Soldier Field. The team had transferred from Decatur, and retained the name "Staleys" for the 1921 season. They renamed themselves the Bears in order to identify with the baseball team, then a common practice in the NFL. Wrigley Field once held the record for the most NFL games played in a single stadium, with 365 regular season games, but this record was surpassed in 2003 by Giants Stadium in New Jersey, thanks to its dual-occupancy by the New York Giants and New York Jets. On September 14, 2003, the game played between the Jets and Miami Dolphins was the 366th regular season NFL game at Giants Stadium, breaking Wrigley's regular season record. The 50 seasons the Bears spent at Wrigley Field had been an NFL record until 2006, when Lambeau Field duplicated this feat by hosting the Green Bay Packers for a 50th season and broke it in 2007. Soldier Field also matched the accomplishment when the Bears played there for their 50th season in 2021.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Initially, the Bears worked with the stands that were there. Eventually, they acquired a large, portable bleacher section that spanned the right and center field areas and covered most of the existing bleacher seating and part of the right field corner seating. This "East Stand" raised Wrigley's football capacity to about 47,000, or a net gain of perhaps 9,000 seats over normal capacity. After the Bears left, this structure would live on for several years as the "North Stand" at Soldier Field, until it was replaced by permanent seating.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The football field ran north-to-south, i.e. from left field to the foul side of first base. The remodeling of the bleachers made for a very tight fit for the gridiron. In fact, the corner of the south end zone was literally in the visiting baseball team's dugout, which was filled with pads for safety, and required a special ground rule that sliced off that corner of the end zone. The end zone was also shorter than the north, as the south end zone was eight yards, compared to the regulation ten yards. One corner of the north end line ran just inches short of the left field wall. There is a legend that Bears fullback Bronko Nagurski steamrolled through the line head down, and ran all the way through that end zone, smacking his leather-helmeted head on the bricks. He went back to the bench and told then-coach George Halas, "That last guy gave me quite a lick!" That kind of incident prompted the Bears to hang some padding in front of the wall.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Bears are second only to the Packers in total NFL championships, and all but one of those (their only Super Bowl championship) came during their tenure at Wrigley. After a half-century, they found themselves compelled to move as the NFL wanted every one of its stadiums to seat at least 50,000 as a result of the then-recent AFL–NFL merger. The Bears held one game at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field) on the Northwestern University campus in 1970, but otherwise continued at Wrigley until their transfer to the lakefront ended their five-decades run on the north side.


title: Wrigley Field

text: One remnant of the Bears' time at Wrigley was uncovered during the offseason rebuilding of the playing field between 2007 and 2008: the foundations for the goal posts. Five NFL championship games were played at Wrigley Field: 1933, 1937, 1941, 1943, and 1963. Coupled with the Chicago Bears, the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) of the NFL called Wrigley Field home from 1931 to 1938. Born on the South Side of Chicago, the Cardinals also played their home games at Normal Park, Comiskey Park, and Soldier Field.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Northwestern Wildcats and the Illinois Fighting Illini played a college football game at Wrigley Field on November 20, 2010. It was the first football game at Wrigley Field since 1970, and the first collegiate football game there since 1938, when the DePaul Blue Demons played its regular games at Wrigley. The field used an east–west field configuration (third base to right field). In order to keep the playing field at regulation size, the safety clearances for each end zone to the walls in the field were considerably less than normal. In particular, the east (right field) end zone came under scrutiny as its end zone was wedged extremely close to the right field wall (as close as one foot in some areas), forcing the goal posts to be hung from the right field wall in order to fit. Despite extra padding provided in these locations, it was decided that all offensive plays for both teams play to the west end zone, where there was more safety clearance. The east end zone could still be used on defensive and special teams touchdowns, as well as defensive safeties; and, in fact, there was one interception run back for an eastbound touchdown. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said that, as late as three days before the game, he had only been apprised that the situation wasn't "anything other than tight". When he had a chance to fully vet the situation, however, he concluded that the space surrounding the east end zone was smaller than the minimum of six feet stipulated in NCAA rules, and it would have been too great of a risk to allow offensive plays to be run toward that end zone. The Fighting Illini won the game 48-27, taking home the Land of Lincoln Trophy, which was introduced in 2009.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Northwestern football intends to return to Wrigley Field in 2022 and 2024. As a result of the 2017-18 redesign of the home (third base) dugout and its adjacent seating into removable modules, the playing field will accommodate a regulation size 120-yard football field that will run east-west. A Northwestern football game had also been scheduled for Wrigley in 2020, but was relocated to Northwestern's Ryan Field due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a makeup, Northwestern relocated their 2021 home game against Purdue to Wrigley Field, which was held in November.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Chicago Sting of the North American Soccer League (NASL) used Wrigley, along with Comiskey Park, for their home matches during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Sting hosted the San Diego Sockers at Wrigley on August 25, 1979, when the Bears were using Soldier Field. Unlike the Bears' football layout, the soccer pitch ran east to west, from right field to the foul territory on the third base side. Soccer returned to Wrigley Field in July 2012, when Italian club A.S. Roma played Poland's Zaglebie Lubin in a friendly match.


title: Wrigley Field

text: On January 1, 2009, the National Hockey League played its 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field, pitting two "Original Six" teams – the host Chicago Blackhawks and the visiting Detroit Red Wings – in an outdoor ice hockey game. The rink ran across the field from first base to third base with second base being covered by roughly the center of the rink. The attendance for this game was 40,818. The Red Wings won 6–4.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Since 2005, Wrigley Field has been opened on a limited basis to popular concerts, but not without some controversy. Local neighborhood groups have expressed concerns about the impact of concert crowds and noise on the surrounding residential neighborhood, particularly in 2009, when three concerts were added to the schedule, one conflicting with an annual neighborhood festival.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field shares its name with the Wrigley Company, as the park was named for its then-owner William Wrigley Jr., the company's CEO. As early as the 1920s, before the park became officially known as Wrigley Field, the scoreboard was topped by the elf-like "Doublemint Twins", posed as a pitcher and a batter. There were also ads painted on the bare right field wall early in the ballpark's history, prior to the 1923 remodeling, which put bleachers there. After that, the Doublemint elves were the only visible in-park advertising. The elves were removed permanently in 1937, when the bleachers and scoreboard were rebuilt. It would be about 44 years before in-park advertising would reappear.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Ironically given the roots of its name, Wrigley Field had been a notable exception to the trend of selling corporate naming rights to sporting venues. The Tribune Company, the owners of the park from 1981 to 2009, chose not to rename the ballpark, utilizing other ways to bring in corporate sponsorship. During the mid-1980s, Anheuser-Busch placed Budweiser and Bud Light advertisements beneath the center field scoreboard. Bud Light became the sponsor of the rebuilt bleachers in 2006.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the early 2000s, following the trend of many ballparks, a green-screen chroma key board was installed behind home plate in the line of sight of the center field camera to allow electronic "rotating" advertisements visible only to TV audiences. By 2006, the board was set up to allow advertisements to be both physical and electronic (they can be seen in both live and replay shots).


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2007, the first on-field advertising appeared since the park's early days. Sporting goods firm Under Armour placed its logo on the double-doors between the ivy on the outfield wall in left-center and right-center fields. Advertisements were also placed in the dugouts, originally for Sears department stores, then Walter E. Smithe furniture and currently State Farm insurance.


title: Wrigley Field

text: For 2008 and 2009, the Cubs worked out an agreement with the Chicago Board Options Exchange to allow the CBOE to auction some 70 box seat season tickets and award naming rights to them.


title: Wrigley Field

text: For the 2009 season, the Cubs announced that the renovated restaurant space in the southeast corner of Wrigley Field, formerly known as the Friendly Confines Cafe, would be renamed the Captain Morgan Club.


title: Wrigley Field

text: On October 27, 2009, Thomas S. Ricketts officially took over 95% ownership of the Cubs and Wrigley Field, and 20% ownership of Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The Tribune retained 5% ownership. Ricketts, however, has expressed no interest in selling the naming rights to the park, preferring that it retain the name it has used since 1926.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Corporate sponsorship has not been limited to the park itself. Wrigley Field is famous for its view of the neighborhood buildings across Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. In addition to spectators standing or sitting on the apartment roofs, corporate sponsors have frequently taken advantage of those locations as well. In the earliest days of Weeghman Park, one building across Sheffield Avenue advertised a local hangout known as Bismarck Gardens (later called the Marigold Gardens after World War I). That same building has since advertised for the Torco Oil Company, Southwest Airlines, the Miller Brewing Company, and Gilbert's Craft Sausages.


title: Wrigley Field

text: A building across from deep right-center field was topped by a neon sign for Baby Ruth candy beginning in the mid-1930s and running for some 40 years. That placement by the Chicago-based Curtiss Candy Company (which is now under Nestlé), coincidentally positioned in the line of sight of "Babe Ruth's called shot", proved fortuitous when games began to be televised in the 1940s—the sign was also in the line of sight of the ground level camera behind and to the left of home plate. The aging sign was eventually removed in the early 1970s.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Another long-standing venue for a sign is the sloping roof of a building behind left-center field. Unsuitable for the bleachers that now decorate many of those buildings, that building's angling roof has been painted in the form of a large billboard since at least the 1940s. In recent years, it has borne a bright-red Budweiser sign, and beginning in 2009, an advertisement for Horseshoe Casino. Other buildings have carried signs sponsoring beers, such as Old Style (when it was a Cubs broadcasting sponsor) and Miller, and also WGN-TV, which has telecast Cubs games since April 1948.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In January 2013, the Ricketts family launched "Legacy Partners", a marketing effort to sell new advertising in and around the renovated Wrigley Field. In conjunction with the new "W Partners", the Cubs entered into 10-year agreements with its largest advertisers.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Beginning in the days of P.K. Wrigley and the 1937 bleacher/scoreboard reconstruction, a flag with either a "W" or an "L" has flown from atop the scoreboard masthead, indicating the day's result. In case of a doubleheader that is split, both flags are flown.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Past Cubs media guides show that the original flags were blue with a white "W" and white with a blue "L", the latter coincidentally suggesting "surrender". In 1978, blue and white lights were mounted atop the scoreboard, to further denote wins and losses.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The flags were replaced in the early 1980s, and the color schemes were reversed with the "win flag" being white with a blue W, and the "loss flag" the opposite. In 1982, the retired number of Ernie Banks was flying on a foul pole, as white with blue numbers, in 1987, the retired number of Billy Williams joined Banks, the two flags were positioned from the foul poles, Banks from left field, and Williams from right field. Later on, the team retired numbers for Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux, with Jenkins and Maddux both using the same number (31).


title: Wrigley Field

text: Keeping with tradition, fans are known to bring win flags to home and away games, and displaying them after a Cubs win. Flags are also sold at the ballpark. On April 24, 2008, the Cubs flew an extra white flag displaying "10,000" in blue, along with the win flag, as the 10,000th win in team history was achieved on the road the previous night. Alongside the tradition of the "W" and "L" flags, the song "Go, Cubs, Go" is sung after each home win (it was also sung by visiting Cubs fans in game 7 of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field in Cleveland, where the Cubs clinched their first championship since 1908). Also, following the 2015 addition of the park's Daktronics video screens, the large "W" in the "Wintrust" logo on the left field video screen is kept on following Cubs' wins.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The tradition of singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Cubs home games began when Hall of Fame announcer Harry Caray arrived in 1982 (he had sung it the preceding seven years as a broadcaster for the White Sox), and has remained a Wrigley Field staple. After Caray's death, the tradition of a guest conductor began, with former baseball players, other sports stars, actors, and other celebrities invited to sing during the Seventh Inning Stretch. Among the best-known guests have been the actor Bill Murray, former Bears coach Mike Ditka, former Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, former pitcher Mike Krukow, former longtime Cubs first baseman Mark Grace, former Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady, Chicago Blackhawks forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, comedian Jay Leno, NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, singers Ozzy Osbourne and Eddie Vedder, former Chicago lead singer Peter Cetera, boxer and actor Mr. T, actor and lifelong Cub fan Gary Sinise, actors Tom Arnold, James Belushi, Bill Murray, WWE wrestler/Chicago native CM Punk, Vince Vaughn, actress Melissa McCarthy, and Illinois-native country music singer Brett Eldredge.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field was the first Major League ballpark to introduce live organ music on April 26, 1941. The stadium's first organist was Ray Nelson. As of July 2019, organist Gary Pressy, holds the record for 2,653 consecutive games played; never having missed a day's work in 33 years. Today, most major league ballparks have replaced the traditional live organist with canned music programmed by a DJ. Pressy says: "I don't think it's a dying art, especially at Wrigley Field ... The team respects tradition."


title: Wrigley Field

text: During the 2016 postseason, someone wrote a message in chalk on the outer brick wall of the stadium along Waveland and Sheffield avenues. This started a chain reaction and more fans began to write their own messages on the wall. The messages were anything from words of support expressed towards the team or just a name. Chalk covered a majority of the wall, to point where fans had to bring step ladders in order to reach upper spaces for their message. The Cubs themselves encouraged the event by supplying chalk and adding extra security. The event gained both local and national attention, receiving coverage from Fox Sports and "The Boston Globe".


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field had a brief cameo in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers", starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues. In the film, Elwood lists 1060 W. Addison as his fake home address on his Illinois driver's license, tricking the police and later the Illinois Nazis listening on police radio into heading for Wrigley Field. The 1984 film "The Natural", starring Robert Redford, had a scene set at Wrigley but was actually filmed at All-High Stadium in Buffalo, New York. All other baseball action scenes in that movie were shot in Buffalo, at the since-demolished War Memorial Stadium.


title: Wrigley Field

text: During Cubs games, fans will often stand outside the park on Waveland Avenue, waiting for home run balls hit over the wall and out of the park. However, as a tradition, Cubs fans inside and sometimes even outside the park will promptly throw any home run ball hit by an opposing player back onto the field of play, a ritual depicted in the 1977 stage play "Bleacher Bums" and in the 1993 film "Rookie of the Year".


title: Wrigley Field

text: The ballpark was featured in a scene in the 1986 film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", where the outside marquee read ""Save Ferris"". The director, John Hughes, originally wanted to film at Comiskey Park (he was a White Sox fan) but the team was out of town during filming. The 2006 film "The Break-Up" used Wrigley Field as the setting for its opening scene. An early 1990s film about Babe Ruth had the obligatory scene in Wrigley Field about the "called shot" (the ballpark also doubled as Yankee Stadium for the film). A scoreboard similar to the one existing in 1932 was used, atop an ivy wall (though that did not exist until later in the decade).


title: Wrigley Field

text: The ballpark was used for the establishing tryouts scene in "A League of Their Own" (1992). This film was a Hollywood account of the 1940s women's baseball league which Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley championed during World War II. Garry Marshall (older brother of the film's director Penny Marshall) has a cameo as "Walter Harvey", Wrigley's fictional alter ego. The sign behind the scoreboard was temporarily redone to read "Harvey Field", and filming was split between Wrigley and Cantigny Park near Wheaton, Illinois.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Many television series have made featured scenes set in Wrigley Field, including "ER", "Crime Story", "Chicago Hope", "Prison Break", "Perfect Strangers", "My Boys", "Chicago Fire" and "Mike & Molly". Also, the animated comedy "Family Guy" featured a scene at Wrigley Field that parodied the Steve Bartman incident. In an episode of "The Simpsons" titled "He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs", upon arriving in Chicago, Homer walks past a number of famous Chicago landmarks, including Wrigley Field, followed by a generic-looking stadium bearing the name "Wherever the White Sox play". In 2007, the band Nine Inch Nails created a promotional audio skit, which involved Wrigley Field being the target of disgruntled war veteran's terrorist attack.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The late-1970s comedy stage play "Bleacher Bums" was set in the right field bleachers at Wrigley. The video of the play was also set on a stage, with bleachers suggesting Wrigley's layout, rather than in the actual ballpark's bleachers. The tradition of throwing opposition home run balls back was explained by Dennis Franz's character: "If someone hands you some garbage, you have to throw it back at them!"


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the cartoon series "Biker Mice from Mars", the eponymous main characters hide out in the scoreboard of the stadium, which is named Quigley Field.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The stadium was also featured on the popular Travel Channel television show "Great Hotels", starring Samantha Brown. She attended a game during a visit to Chicago.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman featured Wrigley Field as the setting for his popular Cubs lament "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request", extolling both the trials of the Cubs and the place Wrigley Field holds in Cub fans' hearts. After his death from leukemia, Goodman's ashes were scattered at Wrigley Field as described in the lyrics.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Statler Brothers' 1981 song "Don't Wait On Me" referred to a then-implausible situation: "When the lights go on at Wrigley Field". However, after lights were installed, the line was changed to "When they put a dome on Wrigley Field" for their 1989 "Live-Sold Out" album.


title: Wrigley Field

text: A few brief shots of Wrigley Field appear in the 1949 movie "It Happens Every Spring". It is also seen on the History Channel's show "Life After People."


title: Wrigley Field

text: The stadium made a brief appearance in the open for the first episode of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", with Conan rushing through the turnstiles while running from New York (where his previous show, "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", was taped) to Los Angeles (where his new show was taped, until his role as host ended on January 22, 2010) and then running onto the field while being chased by Cubs security. The route O'Brien takes is somewhat misleading, as he is shown running south on Michigan Avenue past the Tribune Tower before arriving at Wrigley Field, which is well north of the Tribune Tower.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the movie "", a terrorist turns off all the electricity at the stadium for a few minutes to demonstrate how hackers could penetrate city electrical systems.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In episode 9 of season 3 of "The Man in the High Castle" (2015), Wrigley Field makes a short appearance as the home of a fictional soccer team called the "Chicago Norsemen" who, according to a banner, were "1963 Annual Soccer Champions".


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wrigley Field was the site of the final task of "The Amazing Race 29" finale, where one team member was guided by their partner communicating to them from the press box via a one-way radio to place numbers on the hand-turned scoreboard that corresponded to their team's final placement at the end of each of the previous eleven episodes, before searching the stadium's seats for their final clue.


title: Wrigley Field

text: On the Sonic Youth live album "Smart Bar Chicago 85" the band introduce the final song, 'Making The Nature Scene', as being about 'Tripping on Acid at Wrigley Field'.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In the 2020 film, "Greenland", Wrigley Field is shown still standing despite being severely damaged amidst the ruins of Chicago after the collision of an interstellar comet that collided with Earth.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Wesley Willis, an outsider musician and Chicago folk artist, had a track titled "Wrigley Field" on his album "Greatest Hits Vol. 3", which he played with his band 'The Dragnews'.


title: Wrigley Field

text: The Chicago "L" Red Line stop at is less than one block east of Wrigley Field; the stadium was originally built for proximity to the "L" tracks. As Addison is frequently crowded after games, many fans use , the next station to the north, and still less than a mile from the stadium.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Additionally, Purple Line Express trains stop at Sheridan before weekday night games in order to provide an additional connection for passengers traveling from Evanston, Skokie and northern Chicago. After weekday night games, northbound Purple Line passengers are told to board at Sheridan, while southbound passengers are told to board at Addison.


title: Wrigley Field

text: At the conclusion of games, the scoreboard operator raises to the top of the center field scoreboard either a white flag with a blue "W" to signify a Cubs victory or a blue flag with a white "L" for a loss. This is done to show the outcome of the game to passengers on passing "L" trains, and also to anyone passing by the park. The basic flag color was once the exact opposite of the colors used today (the rationale being that white is the traditional color for surrender). In addition to rail service, the CTA provides several bus routes which service Wrigley. CTA bus routes codice_1, codice_2 and codice_3 all provide access to the ballpark. Pace also operates the codice_4 from Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and the codice_5 from Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard. Biking to the field is also a popular alternative. As Halsted, Addison, and Clark streets all have designated biking lanes, getting to the field via bicycle is a widely used way to avoid hectic pre- and postgame traffic; Wrigley Field offers a complimentary bike check program to accommodate for them. Cyclists may check their bikes up to 2 hours before games at the bike racks off of Waveland Ave, and may pick up their bikes up to one hour after games end.


title: Wrigley Field

text: Parking in the area remains scarce, but that does not seem to bother fans who want to come to this baseball mecca, which drew over three million fans from 2004 until 2011, averaging to a near-sellout every day of the season, even with many weekday afternoon games. The little parking that is available around the park can go for as much as $100 per space. To partially alleviate this problem, the Cubs sponsor a parking shuttle service from the nearby DeVry University campus at Belmont and Western as part of their agreement with local neighborhood groups. This was not available during the last World Series prior to 2016, in 1945 against the Detroit Tigers, so cars parked as much as a mile away on residential streets and fans walked to Wrigley Field.


title: Wrigley Field

text: In 2001, a series of commemorative postage stamps on the subject of baseball parks was issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Most of them were engravings taken from old colorized postcards, including the illustration of Wrigley Field. In the case of Wrigley, the famous scoreboard was sliced off, presumably to hide the original postcard's banner containing the park's name. It may also be observed that the original black-and-white aerial photo, from the 1945 World Series, was taken from nearly the identical spot as the photo of the 1935 Series, allowing a comparison before and after the 1937 alterations to the bleachers. The stamp and its sources also provide a rare look at the center field bleachers filled with spectators, a practice which was later discontinued due to the risk to batters, who might lose the flight of a pitch amidst the white shirts. This led to the development of darker backgrounds to the pitcher's mounds.


title: 2024 Copa América

text: The 2024 Copa América will be the 48th edition of the Copa América, the quadrennial international men's football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL.


title: 2024 Copa América

text: The 2024 Copa América had been expected to be hosted by Ecuador due to CONMEBOL's host rotation order. However, CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said Ecuador had been nominated, but not yet chosen to organize the cup. In November 2022, the country declined to host the tournament. Peru and the United States have both expressed interest in organizing the tournament.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Daniel Stephen Jones III (born May 27, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Duke and was selected sixth overall by the Giants in the 2019 NFL Draft.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones attended Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, North Carolina. During his high school career, he had 6,997 passing yards and 98 touchdowns. Despite these numbers, Jones was barely recruited coming out of high school and was not ranked by Rivals.com.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones originally committed to Princeton University to play college football, but then opted to become a walk-on at Duke University.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: After redshirting his first year at Duke in 2015, Jones became the starting quarterback in his sophomore season in 2016 after quarterback Thomas Sirk suffered a season-ending injury. Jones started all 12 games, completing 270 of 430 passes (62.8%) for 2,836 yards, sixteen touchdowns and nine interceptions.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In 2017, he completed 230 of 413 passes (55.7%) for 2,439 yards, 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions as a junior. Jones was named MVP of the 2017 Quick Lane Bowl against Northern Illinois where he went 27-of-40 with 252 passing yards and two touchdowns, along with 86 rushing yards from sixteen carries for one touchdown.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: During his senior year, Jones was named the MVP in the 2018 Independence Bowl, where he went 30–41 with 423 passing yards and five touchdowns in a 56–27 victory over Temple. He later played in the 2019 Senior Bowl for the North team, and was also the MVP of that game, going 8-of-11 with 115 passing yards and one touchdown.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. On July 22, 2019, Jones signed his four-year rookie contract, worth $25.664 million, including a $16.7 million signing bonus.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Despite a stellar preseason, Jones was named the backup behind Eli Manning. Jones played his first regular season game on September 8, 2019, against the Dallas Cowboys in relief of Manning, where he completed 3-of-4 passes for 17 yards and lost a fumble as the Giants lost 35–17. On September 17, 2019, Jones was named the starter over Manning for the Week 3 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his first start, Jones completed 23 out of 36 passes for 336 yards with a 112.7 passer rating and two passing touchdowns along with 28 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in a 32–31 comeback win against the Buccaneers despite losing two fumbles. He became the first Giants' rookie quarterback to win his first career start since Scott Brunner in 1980. Jones led the Giants back from an 18-point deficit to beat the Buccaneers and became the seventh rookie quarterback in NFL history since 2010 to have a game-winning drive in their first career start. He was also named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Week 3.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: On September 29, in his second start (and first start at home), Jones led the Giants to a 24–3 victory over the Washington Redskins. After the game, Jones became the third quarterback in the Giants' history after Phil Simms (1979) and Travis Tidwell (1950) to begin their career with two wins as a starting quarterback for the franchise.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones played his first game on prime time on "Thursday Night Football" in Week 6 against the New England Patriots. In the game, Jones threw for 161 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions in the 35–14 loss. In Week 8, against the Detroit Lions, he had 322 passing yards and four passing touchdowns in a 31–26 defeat. In Week 10 against the New York Jets, Jones threw for 308 yards and four touchdowns in the 34–27 loss. In Week 16, Jones threw for career highs of 352 passing yards and five passing touchdowns as the Giants defeated the Washington Redskins in overtime 41–35. In the process, Jones became the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw five touchdown passes in a game as a rookie. He also became the only rookie quarterback in NFL history to throw for 350 passing yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions in a single game. He was named the Pepsi Offensive Rookie of the Week for his efforts in the Week 16 win. In Week 17 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Jones threw for 301 yards, one touchdown, and one interception during the 34–17 loss. Jones finished his rookie season with 3,027 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns, and 12 interceptions to go along with 45 carries for 279 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, and had a league-leading 18 fumbles with 11 of them lost.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones was selected to be a team captain in his second season. It was the fourteenth consecutive season that the Giants' starting quarterback had served as a captain, as Eli Manning had held the honor for the last thirteen years.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In Week 7 against the Philadelphia Eagles, in the third quarter, Jones ran for an impressive 80 yards on a single play, before losing his balance and tripping on the turf near the endzone. Despite the trip, this rush became the longest run in Giants quarterback history. Jones hit a top speed of , the fastest by an NFL quarterback since 2018 (Lamar Jackson).


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In Week 10 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Jones threw for 244 yards and rushed for 64 yards, including a 34-yard rushing touchdown, during the 27–17 win.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones injured his hamstring in the third quarter of Week 12 against the Cincinnati Bengals, causing him to miss the rest of the game and the following game against the Seattle Seahawks. He also missed Week 15 against the Cleveland Browns, after suffering an ankle injury against the Arizona Cardinals the week before.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In Week 17, in a game against the Dallas Cowboys, Jones had one of his best performances of his young career, completing 17 for 25 passing for 229 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception in a 23–19 win. Jones also helped drive the Giants down the field, to set up a jet sweep touchdown to Sterling Shepard. This was also the first time that the Giants had beat the Cowboys since the 2016 season, and also helped the Giants finish with their best record since the 2016 season. The Giants finished the season at 6–10, but missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year after the Washington Football Team beat the Philadelphia Eagles later in the day.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones began the 2021 season throwing for 267 yards, one touchdown, rushing for 27 yards and an additional touchdown, and fumbled once in a 27–13 loss to the Denver Broncos. Against the Washington Football Team on Thursday Night Football, Jones threw for 249 yards, rushed for 95 yards, and had two touchdowns, but miscues by the Giants would cost them a pair of touchdowns and haunt them as the Giants lost 29–30. Against the New Orleans Saints, Jones threw for a career-high 402 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception as the Giants won 27–21 in overtime. As a result of his performance, Jones was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week. In Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers, Jones threw for 203 yards, one touchdown, zero interceptions, rushed for 28 yards, and recorded his first career reception thrown by Dante Pettis for 16 yards in the 25–3 win.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In Week 12 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Jones suffered a neck injury, causing him to miss the remainder of the season. On December 20, 2021, Jones was placed on injured reserve.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: In the season opener against the Tennessee Titans, Jones threw for 188 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception in the 21–20 comeback win. In Week 5 against the Green Bay Packers, Jones completed 21 passes of 27 attempts, threw for 217 yards, and rushed for 37 yards with 10 carries in an upset win. In Week 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars Jones threw for 202 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 107 yards becoming the first Giants QB to record 100 rush yards in a game since Frank Filchock in 1946 in the 23-17 win. As a result of his performance, Jones was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 7.


title: Daniel Jones (American football)

text: Jones was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 27, 1997. He is the oldest son of Becca and Steve Jones. He has an older sister, also named Becca, who played field hockey at Davidson College, a younger brother, Bates, who played basketball at Davidson before transferring to Duke, and a younger sister, Ruthie, who plays soccer at Duke. Jones graduated from Duke University in December 2018 with a degree in economics.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a label of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Rob Reiner named the company in honor of the fictional Maine town of the same name that serves as the setting of several stories by author Stephen King, which in itself is named after the fictional mountain fort in William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies".


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Reiner and Scheinman already had a production company. They were friends with Shafer, who worked with Horn at 20th Century Fox at the time. Horn was disappointed at Fox and agreed to join the trio in forming the company. Horn brought along Padnick, who was an executive at Embassy Television. In Castle Rock, Horn became the CEO, Shafer ran the film division, Padnick ran television, and Reiner and Scheinman became involved in the development of productions.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: The company was originally backed by The Coca-Cola Company, then the parent company of Columbia Pictures. Coca-Cola and Castle Rock's founders jointly owned stakes in the company. Months after the deal, Coca-Cola exited the entertainment business, and was succeeded by Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: The then-new company, originally called Castle Rock Productions, is targeted to a minimum of 15 features over a 5-year period at a 3-picture a year pace, with support from then-Columbia Pictures CEO David Puttnam, following the box office success of the film "Stand by Me", which was produced by Act III Communications (controlled by Reiner's colleague Norman Lear; the film had been in production at Embassy when Lear sold Embassy to Columbia and Lear subsequently paid for production to continue).


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Shortly after formation, Castle Rock appointed Nelson Entertainment, the company that owned the domestic home video rights to Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap", "The Sure Thing", and "The Princess Bride", to join a five-year, eighteen-picture joint venture; this was in addition to a pre-existing pact between Nelson and Columbia for a 3-year, 12-feature deal, in which Columbia would serve as the co-financing entity; Castle Rock would produce fourteen films, while Nelson produced four films themselves.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Under the deal, Nelson also distributed the films on video in North American markets, and handled international theatrical distribution, while Columbia, which Nelson forged a distribution deal with, would receive domestic theatrical distribution rights. Some of Nelson's holdings were later acquired by New Line Cinema, which took over Nelson's duty. Columbia, shortly after the company's formation, thereafter had to re-invest with a substantial change in terms when accumulated losses exhausted its initial funding.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Reiner has stated that Castle Rock's purpose was to allow creative freedom to individuals; a haven away from the pressures of studio executives. Castle Rock was to make films of the highest quality, whether they made or lost money. In 1989, Castle Rock was supported by another backer, Group W, a subsidiary of Westinghouse.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: In August 1993, Turner Broadcasting System agreed to acquire Castle Rock, along with co-financing partner (and eventual Castle Rock corporate sibling) New Line Cinema. The sale was completed on December 22, 1993. The motivation behind the purchase was to allow a stronger company to handle the overhead.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: By 1994, Castle Rock launched a foreign sales operation, Castle Rock International, and planned to produce 12 to 15 films annually. Castle Rock also had aspirations to distribute its own films once its deal with Columbia expired in 1998. It was long rumored that Castle Rock's film projects could go to New Line when the deal expired.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner in 1996. After a failed attempt to divest the company, Time Warner integrated Castle Rock Entertainment into Warner Bros., and cut its production slate to five films per year. On June 27, 1997, Castle Rock's staff was reduced to 60 employees and Castle Rock International was folded into Warner Bros.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: In January 1998, Warner Bros. and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment formed a deal to co-finance and co-distribute Castle Rock films; that deal was taken over by Universal Pictures after the studio's parent company Seagram merged with PolyGram later that year. The Warner Bros./Universal deal expired in 2000. On June 19, 2000, after the expiration of the Universal deal, Spanish player Telefónica Media took over its take in the Castle Rock production company. Castle Rock also set up projects with Village Roadshow Pictures and Bel-Air Entertainment, two of Warner's key production affiliates.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: On July 20, 1998, Castle Rock Television took over production of The WB's midseason show "Movie Stars", which was set to be in development at Studios USA. In 2001, Castle Rock Television had set up "Mission Hill" writers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein with an overall deal, producing several projects, like an unsold family concept pitch at ABC.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: In April 2002, Warner Bros. reduced Castle Rock's budget following a string of box office bombs. Castle Rock fired 16 of its 46 employees, and Castle Rock's physical production and public relations departments, back-office duties, and remaining employees were absorbed into Warner Bros.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: In May 2020, Rob and Michelle Reiner signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television Studios, and on October 1 of that year, it relaunched the company. On October 19, 2021, the feature division company was revived with a $175 million film fund under which the studio will develop, produce and finance new movies for global audiences. Reiner will continue as Castle Rock CEO, with Michele Reiner and Matthew George serving as co-presidents. Castle Rock will produce films in a first-look deal with Warner Bros. on theatrical content, which has long been its home, in addition to their existing deal with Castle Rock television productions. In April 2022, Jonathan Fuhrman joined Castle Rock Entertainment as EVP and Head of Business Affairs. He will report to Rob and Michelle Reiner and Matthew George.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Following an addition $170 million investment from Derrick Rossi, Reiner announced his intention to relaunch Castle Rock through two films, one a sequel to his "This is Spinal Tap" mockumentary, and the other "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life" documentary, shopping both films at the 2022 Cannes festival.


title: Castle Rock Entertainment

text: Warner Bros. owns the copyrights and overall rights to most of the pre-2010 Castle Rock films and television shows, with a few notable exceptions. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) owns the worldwide home video rights (under license to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment since July 1, 2020) to most of the pre-1994 films by virtue of the purchase of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment/Epic Productions library via Orion Pictures (which had included, in part, the Nelson Entertainment holdings) in 1999. Sony Pictures owns the distribution rights to "A Few Good Men", "In the Line of Fire", and "North", whereas their television division owns the distribution rights to "Seinfeld".


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman were a duo of serial killers, arsonists and thrill killers who committed several drive-by shootings and arson in Phoenix, Arizona, between May 2005 and August 2006. They targeted random pedestrians and animals, mostly doing so while under the influence of methamphetamine, and also set fire to multiple objects. Investigations of their crimes coincided with the search for the Baseline Killer, who was also committing random murders and sexual assaults in the Phoenix area.


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: After being found guilty of 80 of 88 felony charges in one single trial including murder, attempted murder, arson, animal cruelty and drive-by-shootings, Hausner was sentenced to death 6 times, and later committed suicide in prison. Dieteman was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Investigators believe they were responsible for eight murders and at least 29 other shootings. Hausner's brother Jeff had assisted in some of the shootings, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: In addition to several dozen non-fatal shootings of people and fatal shootings of animals, Hausner and Dieteman were found guilty of the following murders:


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: Nathaniel Shoffner (44) murdered on November 11, 2005 while attempting to protect a dog from being shot.


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: Claudia Gutierrez-Cruz (20) shot and killed by Dieteman on May 2, 2006, as Hausner drove in Scottsdale, Arizona.


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: The serial shooters' last crime occurred July 30, 2006 in Mesa, Arizona. According to police, Robin Blasnek (22) was shot and killed at approximately 11:15 p.m. while walking from her parents' house to a friend's house after having an argument with her boyfriend. On August 3, Phoenix police released a statement linking Blasnek's murder to the serial shooter, citing forensic evidence and other similarities to the serial shooter's past crimes.


title: Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman

text: Prior to that, they shot pedestrians, cyclists, dogs, and horses. Phoenix police originally believed that the serial shooter was a single individual responsible for 4 murders and 25 shootings beginning in May 2005, and that a series of 13 shootings in the same area were the work of another offender. However, on July 11, 2006, investigators revealed that they believed the two series of shootings were related.