Yesterday I looked at the AstroTurf at Wrigley Field. Today, I will turn my attention to the other side of town (with my apologies to Steve at White Sox Cards.)
Full Disclosure: I grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago in a family full of Sox fans, so I know more about the White Sox than a Cubs fan probably should know.
My question yesterday about the second team to install AstroTurf in their park was a trick question since the Cubs didn't actually install it on the playing field. The second team to actually put it on the field was .....the White Sox.
Well, sort of (again!). On St. Patrick's Day of 1969 the White Sox began installing artificial turf at White Sox Park. Called Sox Sod, it was an improved version of the original AstroTurf made by the Monsanto Company. The initial installation, at a cost of $100,000, put the surface in the infield only The outfield remained natural grass. It would have cost an additional $300,000 to turf the outfield, so that was left for another year.
But it never happened. That means from 1969 - 1975, Sox Park had a hybrid field of both grass and AstroTurf. Living on the south side in a Sox family meant more trips to see the Sox than the Cubs, so I saw many games at White Sox Park. (The Sox also gave away free tickets to 2 games to kids with straight A's or perfect attendance and you can't pass up free ticket, even if you are a Cub fan--you can always root for the opponent--and I did!) It was a strange site to see the fake green infield and the lush green grass outfield.
When Bill Veeck bought the White Sox after the 1975 season, one of his first acts was to rip out the Sox Sod and put grass back in the infield. In the meantime, many of the cookie-cutter stadiums of the late 60's and early 70's were built and they had complete fields of fake grass. It was only the White Sox that ever had the combo deal.
Here are some cards that show both the Sox Sod infield and the grass outfield:
The first two show the Sox Sod
Topps 1974 Mickey Lolich warming up in the infield in front to the Tigers dugout. If you look over his left shoulder, you can see the area where the Sox Sod stops and the grass begins. The grass is a darker shade of green
Topps 1976 Lee Richards, but everyone called him Bee Bee Richards. This gives you a good look at the lighter shade of green and the smooth surface of the Sox Sod.
Both of these cards give you a good look at the outfield grass. Extra credit points for anyone who can tell me about the signs overhanging the outfield roof.
Topps 1976 - Terry Forster
Topps 1976 - Bob Coluccio standing in the outfield, wearing his cool '70's shades and sporting a bushy '70s mustache.
One final question, can anyone tell me why the White Sox wore red uniforms, including red stirrups. Wouldn't that make them the Red Sox??
Artificial grass made its first baseball appearance in 1966 at the Houston Astrodome. The dome opened in 1965 with a grass surface. It was thought that light coming through the roof would provide enough sunlight for the grass to grow. However glare from the dome made it difficult to follow a flyball, so the dome was painted. This allowed less light in and effectively killed the grass. The Astros solved the dead grass problem by installing AstroTurf.
Many of you probably already knew that. What you may not know is the name of the second major league ballpark to install AstroTurf. A big hint, of course, can be found at the top of the page. And why else would I be posting about it.
The second ballpark to install AstroTurf was....drumroll please.....Wrigley Field. The turf was installed in May of 1967, only one year after the Astros put theirs in. Now you may be saying to yourself, "I didn't know the Cubs played on AstroTurf." Well, actually, they didn't.
The turf was not installed on the field. It was used in the center field bleachers as a hitter's background. Immediately after the bleachers were built in 1937, hitters began complaining about losing the pitch in the white shirts of the fans in centerfield. Several sections were eventually closed off to spectators by the 1950's.
In May of 1967, huge sheets of AstroTurf were installed over the closed sections and provided a much better hitting background. The AstroTurf remained in place until the early 1990's when it was replaced by juniper bushes. Today, a restaurant has been built in the location with just a few rows of junipers in front of the restaurant.
In both of these cards you can see the bright green AstroTurf in the background.
But the Cub's AstroTurf story doesn't end in the bleachers. According to this Sporting News article from November 30,1968, the Cubs were seriously considering installing artificial grass on the playing surface. It states that owner P.K. Wrigley would like to install it as soon as money is available. It would have to wait until after the 1969 season because he was already spending $500,000 on ballpark improvements.
The spark of the idea is also interesting: Bears star running back Gale Sayers was seriously injured at Wrigley Field in early November, 1968 (this was dealt with in the movie Brian's Song...cue sappy music, everyone get their Kleenex). Wrigley was wondering if the injury would have been avoided it the ballpark had AstroTurf. That shows just how new the artificial turf concept was at the time. It took only a few more years before the stuff was seen as an injury cause, not prevention. If you'd like to read the entire article, email me and I can send you a PDF of the article.
Obviously (and thankfully) it was never installed.I can't imagine what Wrigley Field would have looked like with the fake grass up against the ivy walls. As a baseball purist, I am glad it never happened.
Tomorrow I'll have more on Chicago's other AstroTurf connection.
Others who bought these Pete Rose cards from Chris of Project 62 have showed off their cards. Now it is my turn.
From the 120 card Topps Pete Rose Baseball Card set, a Pete Rose autographed card - very cool.
The picture on this card below was taken at Wrigley Field on September 8, 1985. It shows Pete Rose rapping out career hit #4190 to tie Ty Cobb as the all-time hit leader.
I was there. This is my story:
Sunday, September 8, 1985.
My wife and I were given tickets to this game, Cubs vs. Reds. They were front row, upper deck seats along the first base line. This would also be my baby son's first trip to Wrigley Field-- well sort of. My wife was 8 1/2 months pregnant, so my son didn't get as good a view of the game as we did, but I'm sure he heard what was going on. He was born two weeks later, on September 22.
September 8 was also opening day for the NFL and the Bears were hosting Tampa Bay. The message board at Wrigley posted regular updates of the score. Early on, it was not good news as the Bears were behind 28 - 17 at halftime. But they ran off 21 unanswered points in the second half (and the Wrigley crowd cheered each time the score was updated) and they won 38-28. This got the '85 Bears off on the right track as they steamrolled their way to a 15-1 regular season and an eventual Super Bowl victory.
But the big news of the day was Pete Rose. He came into Sunday two hits behind Ty Cobb on the all time hit list. Player-manager Rose decided he wouldn't play Sunday because the Cubs were starting lefty Steve Trout. He also wanted to tie and set the record in front of his hometown fans in Cincinnati.
On the El on the way to the ballpark, we overheard someone saying that Trout was hurt and wouldn't pitch and that Rose would play. When we got to Wrigley, we found out that this was true! Flaky Steve Trout injured himself riding a bike and was out. Pete Rose was in!
He didn't waste any time, either. In his first at bat, he hit the first pitch he saw for a clean base hit. He trailed Cobb by one! Four innings later, he lined a base hit over Ryne Sandberg's head to tie Ty. Wrigley Field erupted. We were all on our feet, giving Rose a long standing ovation.
Now that he had tied the record, Rose faced a dilemma. His whole persona was Charlie Hustle, play and win at all costs. Charlie Hustle does not come out of a game. But staying in the game means he could set the record in Chicago instead of at home, which would make Reds management very angry. What would he do?
Charlie Hustle stayed in the game! He batted two more times, with the crowd roaring each time he came to the plate, hoping to see hit #4191. But there were no more heroics as he grounded out to short and struck out.
The game actually ended in a 5-5 tie. Rain came and in pre-lights Wrigley, the game was called because of darkness.
It was an exciting day that I will never forget. Official attendance was 28,269 (plus one soon to be born baby) and my wife and I are proud to say were part of that crowd.
Here are a few more of the cards from the set with Cubs connections:
Pete at the 1970 All Star Game plowing over Ray Fosse and scoring the winning run. Cubs manager Leo Durocher, who was the third base coach, is in the background. It was Cub Jim Hickman who had the hit that brought Rose in.
Pete at Wrigley Field, 1970 or 1971
Pete at Wrigley Field, mid '80's. It looks like the ball girl in the background is Marla Collins, who was fired by the Cubs after she posed in Playboy. And yes, I do have that issue (it was given to me by my brother-in-law -- I didn't buy it), because it is Cubs related. Maybe that is material for another post!
The Cubs announced a trade this afternoon, sending centerfielder Felix Pie to the Orioles for lefty Garrett Olson and a class A pitcher.
Pie was the latest in a string of highly touted Cubs prospects that could never produce in the big leagues (see Corey Patterson, who was also dealt to Baltimore when he didn't pan out).
Pie's lack of production, plus the signing of free agents Joey Gathright and Milton Bradley, squeezed Pie out of a job. He was also out of options, so it was either deal him or keep him on the big league roster. Jim Hendry choose to trade him while he still had some value.
In recent years, the Orioles have taken Sammy Sosa and Korey Patterson (spelled with a K in honor of his biggest talent) off our hands and neither player did much for the Birds. Good luck with Felix.
,..or "Managers, We Don't Need No Stinkin' Managers"
The Topps 1961 set featured managers cards that looked like this:
Here is what the Cubs' manager card looked like:
And the 1962 card looked remarkably similar. There were no Cubs manager cards issued in either year because from 1961 to 1965 the Cubs had no manager. Instead they had a "Head Coach." This was all a part of eccentric owner P.K. Wrigley's ill-fated "College of Coaches" plan.
His idea was this: instead of a manager, there would be a group of coaches who would take turns leading the team. They would rotate between the Cubs and their minor league affiliates, taking turns teaching everyone in the system "the Cubs way" (yes, I know that sounds ridiculous, please keep your sarcastic comments about "the Cubs way" to yourself!)
Here is a photo of Wrigley and his coaches.
During the 1961 season, four different coaches led the team over the course of the season and they ended the year with four more wins that 1960's 60 wins, although the team still finished in 7th place. The 1962 season saw three coaches leading the team, this time to a 9th place finish and only 59 wins (and this was the year of the expansion Mets). Wrigley's idea sure was paying off!!
In 1963 the idea was for all practical purposes abandoned, as Bob Kennedy led the team the entire season, and with only one man at the helm, the team won 82 games. Go figure!! Kennedy again led the team in 1964 and Topps issued a card for him, where he is listed as "Head Coach." Kennedy (58 games) split coaching duties with Lou Klein (106 games) in 1965, and Topps again issued a head coach card for Kennedy. The team finished in 8th place with only 72 wins.
Topps 1964 Bob Kennedy, Head Coach - "OK Bob, now pretend you're giving the guys some instructions"
Topps 1965 Bob Kennedy Head Coach - "OK Bob, this time, pretend your pitcher just gave up another three run homer (and Bob didn't have to pretend!!)"
The "College of Coaches" was officially dumped when Leo Durocher was hired by the Cubs for the 1966 season. At the press conference announcing his hiring, Durocher stated flatly that he was the manager of the Chicago Cubs, period. He also said the Cubs were no 8th place team, and he was right as they finished in 10th place (last place) in 1966!!
Topps didn't issue a card for Leo Durocher in 1966, but they did in 1967 - Leo Durocher, MGR.
How can you not love a team that doesn't think it needs a manager?!?
Last weekend I started slaying my three headed monster. Some of the results started arriving in the mail. Today I received several Cubs team sets including the Upper Deck 2007 set, a whopper with 41 cards!
Yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that Topps had never issued a card of Henry Blanco during his four years with the Cubs. But when going through the 41 2007 Upper Deck cards, who should I find but our friend Hank White. Upper Deck shows him some love.
Now I can give Henry Blanco a proper send off. Adios, amigo!
The weather here in SW Michigan has been brutally cold. There was no school on Friday as the morning temperature was -17 with wind chills around -34.
In honor(?) of these cold temperatures, I present to you the 1956 Cubs, who, like Friday's windchill, also registered 34 below. My boys in blue finished in last place, 34 games below the .500 mark. Manager Stan Hack's team started the season dropping 14 of their first 19 games and never recovered, ending the year at 60-94 and 33 games below the first place Brooklyn Dodgers.
As featured on the Topps 1957 card, here they are in all their glory,
the 1956 Chicago Cubs.
