Wrigley Field 101- Streets, Eats, and Seats

I attended my first game at Wrigley Field when I was nine years old. It was a Tuesday night in September, and the Cubs defeated the Montreal Expos 3-2 in 10 innings. I was hooked instantly. Since that first night, I've been back dozens of times, appreciating the fact that it's my home team's park more and more every year.

In the past 11 seasons, I've learned everything there is to know, inside and out, about my summer home away from home. Wrigley in itself is a stadium like no other, but every baseball fan knows the thing that really makes it original is where it's situated; smack dab in the middle of it's very own neighborhood-Wrigleyville.

Seeing as how most of my BaseBlog readers (yes, my second B is capitalized) are pretty aware of everything I'm an expert on, I thought I should give some friendly tips to readers of Justin's page if they're planning their first visit to Chicago.

Streets

The Friendly Confines are located at 1060 West Addison Street on the North side of the city. Wrigleyville is just a small part of the Lakeview neighborhood, the name officially recognized by the city.

There are plenty of ways to get to the ballpark based on your location and situation. Let's start with the simplest and most popular- public transportation.

Chicago's master subway map

Wrigley is easily accessible from the CTA's Blue and Red subway lines. The Blue makes it's way Northwest out of the city, and terminates at O'Hare airport. The Red is for riders coming from the Southside, downtown in the Loop, or Northern suburbs.

More often than not, I travel on the Blue Line. I live in the West suburbs during the summer, so it's a short drive to the Cumberland or Rosemont station, which both offer plenty of safe parking spaces for $5. The longer you stay there the more it costs, but I've taken quite a while at some games and never been charged more than that.

Once you get on the train, you'll go five or six stops before arriving at Addison Street. Once you get to street level, the 152 Addison bus picks you up directly across the street. After riding that for three miles, you'll be let off right in front of the ballpark. You can't miss it, but if it's a crowded bus and you can't see, just follow the masses. The train takes 20 to 25 minutes, but the bus varies on traffic. As a rule of thumb, allow 50 minutes and you'll be fine.

The Red Line is the one that runs the entire length of the city; South, through downtown, and way up past Wrigley. You can actually take it to 35th Street as well, where US Cellular Field is located. It's the most traveled line in the entire city.

There are a few Red Line stops located along State Street, which can all easily be found on Google Maps. If you're downtown already or took the Metra and find yourself at Union or Ogilvie Station, this is the one for you!

Hop on a train headed for Howard and take it for about 20 minutes to be dropped off within steps of the stadium at the OTHER Addison station. You can actually see the stadium from the platform, and will be able to see the outer walls within seconds of walking on the sidewalk.

Now here it gets a little tricky. If for some reason you want to avoid the bus from the Blue Line station, you can continue downtown to the Jackson stop, where the Blue and Red link up. The transfer between them is free, and all you need to do is walk a long tunnel underground that connects State and Dearborn Streets.

If you follow either of these routes and don't make mistakes that cost you an extra fare or transfer, it comes out to $4.75 a person. In addition to these two methods, there are a number of buses that can bring you within walking distance of the park. If you need to find your bus, or want a more detailed description of the train routes, check out the CTA's trip planner.

If you're opposed to going outside the comfy surroundings of your personal vehicle, things start to get more complicated. Driving is always an option, but legal places to park around Wrigley are scarce and usually overpriced. There's always someone offering up their garage or front lawn for $30, but there are always cheaper and less shady ways to find a spot.

Obviously, the Cubs have some official parking lots around the area. Most are reserved for season ticket holders, and it's been years since I've been familiar with this option. Honestly, this is the only place you should pay money for unless it comes down to the wire and you're desperate. You can see what the Cubs have to offer right here.

For day games, you don't have much to worry about. Pretty much any street is fair game, no matter the day. But have some common sense. Don't think you can park a block from the park and expect your car to be there when you get back.

Since these games bring such large crowds, the city issues residential parking permits. For the day games, you actually WANT to find a street that has a zone 383 restriction. There's also one by the name of LV-2 in areas East of the ballpark, and far enough West to be out of walking range. Regardless, both areas say it in the same way, and mean the exact same thing.

As the sign says, this applies ONLY when the Cubs have a night game. However, I've never risked it enough to remain parked in one of these spots after 6:00 PM, so I officially disclaim anything that happens if you decide to do that. I usually drive East on Addison and get as close as I can until all the spaces are taken up. Heck, if you're lucky, you can park right ON Addison!

Take a right or left onto the side streets, and snag a spot. Again, there are no worries if you're in a 383 zone and intend to come back to your car right after the end of a 1 PM game. But be sure to check for street cleaning signs, fire hydrants, and other restrictions before you decide leave it there for a few hours.

Now, for a crowded night game, you'll have a much tougher time. Forget everything I just said how every street is fair game. When the Cubs play at night, the 383 permit is in full effect and strictly enforced, which means your car will more than likely get towed. If this is your situation, I STRONGLY suggest clicking on that trip planner link from above, since you can never go wrong with the trains.

If you MUST still drive, there are some limited last resorts. Busy streets like Ashland and Southport that run parallel to the park offer some free spots if you look hard enough. be able to parallel park, and make sure you're not in a 'Pay for Parking' area.

Eats

Alright! You finally made it. You've got a little extra time to spare, and want to soak up this Wrigleyville atmosphere you've heard so much about.

I have good news and bad news for you. The bad is that I've been 21 for only the first three months of this season. Because of that, I don't have that many recommendations for good bars. Unfortunately, I feel like that's what most of you are looking for in this section.

However, I can offer just a little bit of advice on the subject. I found out the hard way that any of the establishments in the immediate vicinity of Wrigley do NOT offer their specials posted online during Cubs home games. Unless you have $35 to dispose of before even going inside to watch the game, look elsewhere. Try going four or five block to get away from the tourist prices. I haven't tried them yet, but I've heard good things about Redmond's Ale House on Sheffield and BEER on Clark Street.

The good news, though, is that I've been finding places to eat on my own in the neighborhood since I was 16. My all time favorite is the Salt and Pepper Diner, located just one block South on Clark Street.

Typical diner food from what I can tell. Any type of breakfast for the early bird fan, as well as lunch and dinner items. I highly recommend the Buffalo Chicken sandwich.

But what's a baseball game without a hot dog? Where can I grab a decent, quick baseball classic before dropping $7 inside?

Wrigleyville Dogs, that's where.

I randomly stepped in here with my Dad one day in 2005, and I've been coming back ever since. It's not the nicest building in the neighborhood, but the service is quick and gets the job done. I always go with the hot dog combo with fries and a drink, which runs about $6. They have plenty of different items too; burgers, gyros, even a pizza puff.

If neither of these places satisfies you, there's always the McDonald's that's adjacent to the park, and a Taco Bell right near the front of the stadium.

Wherever you eat, it's cheaper than inside where you would get essentially the same food. Not only that, but just a few years ago, Wrigley was recently found as the most unsanitary ballpark in the majors. I haven't trusted it since and try to avoid it as much as possible.

Another helpful hint I offer is something I don't think most fans know about. I believe this is the case for most other parks, but it's a not so advertised policy. As long as you don't try to smuggle alcohol and your drinks aren't in cans or glass bottles, you can bring anything from the outside right in with you. Just bought a Big Mac and the game is starting in two minutes? Go right ahead!

Stock up at the 7-11 at the corner of Addison and Sheffield. Don't try to get by with a huge fountain drink, though. Wrigley security has recently changed to rule to say that nothing can come in if it's not factory sealed. So be sure to not crack open that water bottle too early!

Seats

This section is my specialty. Not only do I know the park like the back of my hand, but I could be on an episode of My Strange Addiction for how obsessed I am with seating charts, pricing levels, and tickets in general.

First, I want to cover the thing that most concerns me as a Ballhawk. Lucky for me, I knew this rule before it ever became a problem, and I want to make sure this is loud and clear to everyone reading:

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A TICKET FOR THE BUDWEISER BLEACHERS, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED OUT THERE AT ANY TIME!

Ever since the Bleachers became the most popular place to sit, the Cubs have come down with an iron hammer on this. I don't really like the rule, but it's something I have to live with.

First of all, thanks to that perception that Bleachers are the best place to be, the tickets there are not the cheapest. For most games, they cost as much as a lower level infield seat. They want to try to keep all the upper deck people from buying cheap tickets and hanging out back there.

Secondly, the Bleachers are 100% general admission. First come, first serve for every regular season game. Because of that, there's no need to check people's tickets. So if someone with an upper deck seat came in and snagged a seat, it would be unfair to the person who paid more to sit there. And there's also no way to find them and kick them out, either.

But if you have a Bleacher ticket, no worries. The Bleacher only gate (gate N)  is in dead center field. All gates around the park open two hours early. In order to get the best spots, some people start lining up an hour or two before the gate time. That all depends on the day and who the visiting team is. The past couple seasons, you could still get a decent seat in the more popular left field up to half hour before game time. Just to be safe, I don't recommend coming in after the game starts.

 Having the Bleacher ticket allows you to access the regular seats by scanning in and out near the foul poles. I know it's odd and sort of backwards, but I just report the rules, not make them.

Anyway, let's throw down a seating chart:

Notice that Wrigley goes by aisles, not sections.If your ticket says 235, it can be in either the section to your left or right. This can get especially confusing for first timers. All you need to do is pay attention to your seat number. If you're walking up an aisle while going away from the field, the 100s will be on your right, and the single numbers on your left.

Notice the single number and the 100 number, just a few sections apart.

Here's a rough diagram of what the seats look like:

Hey, I ain't no artist.

As you can see, in this tiny section example, seat 105 is actually next to seat 5 from the next aisle over. Yes, very confusing and had to believe, but sometimes that's what the ticket program spits out to you. It's not a mistake. Trust it- it's right.

If you get to the park early when batting practice is still happening, you can go anywhere in the seating bowl , besides between aisles 11 and 32. Those Club Box sections are for ticket holders to those sections only. During the game, all field and 100 level aisles are guarded by an usher. The retirees in Chicago are very diligent about checking tickets. As in, there's no way you'll make it past them, even in the 8th inning. It's always possible to slip past them when they're not looking though.

If you're a bad seat thief, there's still good news. The 200, 400, and 500 sections are never guarded. Feel free to casually walk up and snag some seats. As long as it's not a sold out game, you'll have no problem finding a view like this after buying nosebleeds:

One last thing about the seats-While sitting in the 200s and 500s, it's definitely possible to run into something like this:

Believe it or not, as long as your seat isn't in the immediate vicinity of one of these poles, your ticket is NOT marked as obstructed view. I've had many games with something in my way, which is why I don't exactly like buying tickets in the 200s anymore.

To combat this ancient problem crated almost a century ago, I offer two more resources. The first one is this, that shows all the pole locations in the stadium as tiny yellow dots:

From 206 through 236, the poles are even with the 7th row. In front of that is the Terrace Box pricing level, where you pay more to know there for sure won't be anything in your way.

The second is a website that has a database of every single seat and it's obstructions. It's called Wrigley Guide, and has helped me immensely when I've bought tickets in the past. (Note: I've realized that it currently only works with Firefox, but beyond that, it's an absolute great place to check your possible seats.)

Wherever you may end up, there's really not a bad seat in the house. Nothing beats a warm summer day in one of the nation's oldest, most unique ballparks.

****

I may seem to know too much for my own good, but there's a lot left I still haven't discovered about my favorite place in the world. I'll keep going back until the day I die with memories of my first game, and all the ones after it that made coming back every year so worth it.