Published: April 08, 2009 04:59 pm      

True shrine of baseball

Surely, he didn’t really mean it.

He was overcome by the opulent surroundings at the new Yankee Stadium, and he just lost his head for a minute.

There’s just no way that Carlos Zambrano, the Chicago Cubs ace pitcher, could really want the city of Chicago to replace Wrigley Field.

Or maybe he does.

Zambrano made the comments as he sat in the visitors’ clubhouse at the Yankees’ $1.5 billion stadium before an exhibition game Saturday.

“You come into a ballpark like this and see great things,” he said. “You wish that Chicago’d build a new stadium for the Cubs.”

Heaven forbid.

There is no better place in the world to watch a baseball game than the Friendly Confines. Built in 1914 and home to the Cubs since 1916, Wrigley is the second oldest major league stadium, trailing only Boston’s Fenway Park, which was built in 1912.

Just walking into the place, you can feel the magic. Sitting there in the stands, you can almost hear the voices of the generations of Cub fans who have turned out to watch a game.

Last year, in their 100th season since their last World Series title, the Cubs drew more than 3.3 million fans. And that doesn’t count the thousands who watched the games from the rooftops across the street.

Zambrano is one heck of a pitcher, but he’s obviously no judge of ballparks.

Fortunately, Cubs manager Lou Piniella isn’t jumping on the bandwagon. He liked the Yankees’ new digs, he said, but he can’t wait to get back to Wrigley.

“My favorite time of year is when the ivy turns green,” he said. “It’s really a great environment to play a ball game.”

One of the ballpark’s quirks is the way the ivy planted in 1937 occasionally snares a ball hit to the outfield, but Piniella’s favorite feature is the wind.

“It’s like playing the British Open over there,” he said. “You’ve got to adjust to the weather.”

Certainly, the old ballpark might need some tweaking here and there. Some of the facilities could certainly use an update.

But build a new ballpark? Why on earth would anyone want to do that?

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune