Address | 425 E. 42nd Place Los Angeles, California |
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Coordinates | 34°0′27″N118°15′58″W / 34.00750°N 118.26611°W |
Owner | William Wrigley Jr, City of Los Angeles |
Operator | City of Los Angeles |
Capacity | 22,000 (1925) 20,457 (1961) |
Field size | Left Field – 340 ft (104 m) L.C. Field – 345 ft (105 m) Center Field – 412 ft (126 m) R.C. Field – 345 ft (105 m) Right Field – 339 ft (103 m) Backstop – 56 ft (17 m) |
Surface | Natural grass; Ivy (walls) |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1925 |
Opened | September 29, 1925 |
Closed | 1969 |
Demolished | 1969 |
Construction cost | $1.5 million ($26.1 million in 2017 [1] ) |
Architect | Zachary Taylor Davis [2] |
General contractor | A. Lanquist [3] |
Tenants | |
Los Angeles Angels (PCL) (1925–1957) Hollywood Stars (PCL) (1926–1935, 1938) Pepperdine Waves (NCAA) (1948) Los Angeles Angels (MLB) (1961) |
Wrigley Field was a ballpark in Los Angeles, California. It hosted minor league baseball teams in the region for more than 30 years. It was the home park for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), as well as for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB) during their inaugural season in 1961. The park was designed by Zachary Taylor Davis, who had previously designed both of the Major League Baseball stadiums in Chicago: Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field. [2] The ballpark was also used as the backdrop for several Hollywood films about baseball, the 1960 TV series Home Run Derby , jazz festivals, beauty contests, and civil rights rallies. [4]
Called Wrigley's "Million Dollar Palace", Wrigley Field was built in South Los Angeles in 1925, and was named after William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum magnate. [3] Wrigley owned the first tenants, the original Los Angeles Angels, a Pacific Coast League team, and their parent club, the Chicago Cubs. In 1925, the Angels moved to Wrigley Field from their former home at Washington Park, which was also known as Chutes Park. Wrigley's Major League stadium (originally "Weeghman Park," then "Cubs Park") on the north side of Chicago was renamed "Wrigley Field" one year later, in 1926.
Wrigley Field in Los Angeles was built to resemble Spanish-style architecture and a somewhat scaled-down version of Chicago's Cubs Park as it looked at the time. It was also the first of the two ballparks to bear Wrigley's name. At the time, he owned Santa Catalina Island, and the Cubs conducted spring training in that island's city of Avalon (whose ball field was located on Avalon Canyon Road and also informally known as "Wrigley Field").
The playing field was aligned northeast (home plate to center field) at an elevation of 185 feet (55 m) above sea level. The boundary street in right field (east) was Avalon Boulevard, with a small parking lot. The other boundaries of the block were 41st Place (north, left field), 42nd Place (south, first base line), and San Pedro Street (west, third base line and a larger parking lot). Not only did L.A. Wrigley get its name first, it had more on-site parking than the Chicago version did (or does now).
Lights were added to the park in 1930. Chicago's Wrigley Field did not get lights until 1988, when night games were added to the Cubs' home schedule for the first time. [3]
The ballpark's dimensions were cozy but symmetrical, giving a nearly equal chance to right and left-handed batters in the Home Run Derby series. The only difference was that the height of the left field wall was 14.5 feet, whereas the right field fence was only nine feet high.
For 33 seasons, 1925 to 1957, the park was home to the Angels, who were a farm team of the Chicago Cubs. For 11 seasons, (1926–1935, 1938) the park was also the home of another PCL team, the Hollywood Stars. In 1930, the Angels and Stars combined to draw over 850,000 fans, more than the two major league teams in St. Louis (Browns and Cardinals) drew that season. [3] The Stars eventually moved to their own new ballpark, Gilmore Field, just west of the Pan Pacific Auditorium. Angel players of note included future Dodgers Manager and Hall of Fame member Tommy Lasorda, future Phillies, Expos, Twins and Angels Manager Gene Mauch, actor Chuck Connors, Gene Baker, and Andy Pafko. The parent club, Chicago Cubs were the first major league team to play at Wrigley, when they played the Angels in a spring training game in 1926. [3] Years later, on March 20, 1949, the major league Cubs played the defending world champion Cleveland Indians in a spring training game before 24,517. [3]
On February 21, 1957, the Dodgers bought Wrigley Field, the Angels franchise and their territorial rights for $3 million (as well as a team in Fort Worth, Texas). [3] L.A. Wrigley's minor league baseball days then ended when the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League transferred to Los Angeles in 1958. The Pacific Coast League Angels franchise were forced to relocate, ending up in Spokane, Washington, [5] as the Indians, with a brand-new stadium.
The use of Wrigley, and enlarging it, was studied by the Dodgers, [6] [7] as well as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the Los Angeles Coliseum. [3] The Dodgers opted for seating capacity over suitability as a baseball field, and instead set up shop for four seasons in the 93,000-seat L.A. Coliseum [8] (which had a 251-foot (77 m) foul line in left field) while awaiting construction of the baseball-only Dodger Stadium, which has a seat capacity of 56,000. [9] [10] The decision to play at the Coliseum was vindicated when the Dodgers won the 1959 World Series over the Chicago White Sox, with all three games played at the Coliseum attracting over 92,000 fans including the World Series single game attendance record of 92,706 for game 5 of the series.
In October 1960, Major League Baseball added two teams, expanding the American League from 8 to 10 teams. Teams were awarded to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. (with the latter team a replacement for the one that had relocated to Minneapolis–Saint Paul at the same time). The L.A. franchise was awarded to Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds, and was again called the Los Angeles Angels. [3] In 1961, the major league Angels began play and, by agreement, took residence at Wrigley for its inaugural season.[ citation needed ]
The agreement had been criticized, with the Dodgers playing the 1961 season at the nearby Coliseum. Wrigley Field had been considered an "abandoned minor league stadium" in a "declining neighborhood" with "terrible parking." [11]
The home opener on April 27 was a 4–2 loss to the Minnesota Twins before a crowd of only 11,931. [3] [12] Vice President Richard Nixon and Casey Stengel were in attendance, along with Ford Frick, Joe Cronin, and Ty Cobb. [3]
The last major league game at Wrigley was on October 1, 1961, and Cleveland beat the Angels 8–5 before 9,868 fans. Steve Bilko hit the last home run in Wrigley. [13]
The Angels set a still-standing first-season expansion-team record with 71 wins finishing 71–91 (.438). Thanks to its cozy power alleys, [14] the park became the setting for a real-life version of Home Run Derby, setting another record by yielding 248 home runs; that 248 mark stood for over 30 years.
The 1961 Angels were led in hitting by Lee Thomas with a .284 batting average; in home runs by Leon Wagner with 28, and runs batted in by Ken Hunt with 84. The pitching staff was led by Ken McBride with 12 wins. Future World Series winning manager Chuck Tanner played in 7 games. [15] The team drew 603,510 fans. [16]
In 1962, the Angels moved to the new Dodger Stadium (or "Chavez Ravine", as it was known for Angels games) for four seasons until Anaheim Stadium opened in 1966, when the team was also rebranded as the California Angels. The new Dodger Stadium also supplanted Wrigley Field as the site of choice for Hollywood filming that required a ballpark setting.
Wrigley was used frequently for boxing. Six world title boxing bouts were held there, including the 1939 Joe Louis-Jack Roper fight. Sugar Ray Robinson also boxed at Wrigley Field. Robinson won the Middleweight Championship on May 18, 1956, knocking out Carl Olson before 18,000 fans. [3] [17] On August 18, 1958, in a Heavyweight Championship fight, Floyd Patterson defeated Roy Harris with 17,000 in attendance. [3]
Several weeks after the completion of the 1938 season, the first NFL Pro Bowl was held at Wrigley Field on January 15, 1939. [17] [18] [ better source needed ] [19] Sammy Baugh was among those on the rosters that matched the champion New York Giants against All-Star NFL players. [20] [21] [22]
The Pepperdine Waves college football team played home games at Wrigley Field in 1948.
On May 28, 1959, the park hosted a soccer friendly match between England and the United States; England won 8–1 in front of 13,000. [23] On June 1, 1960, Scottish Champions Hearts defeated England's Manchester United 4–0 in front of a crowd of 11,000. [24] The U.S. Men's National Team played a World Cup Qualifier against Mexico on November 6, 1960, drawing 3–3 before 9,500 people. [25]
Being closer to Hollywood than the other major league baseball fields at the dawn of motion pictures, Wrigley Field was a popular place to film baseball movies. The first film known to have used Wrigley as a shooting location was 1927's Babe Comes Home , a silent film starring Babe Ruth. Some well-known movies filmed there were The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Damn Yankees (1958). When Frank Capra filmed the public rally scene at Wrigley for Meet John Doe in August 1940, [26] massive sprinklers simulated a downpour because the director included one rainy scene in each movie as good luck.[ citation needed ] The film noir classic Armored Car Robbery (1950) had its title heist set at Wrigley.
The ballpark later found its way into television, serving as the backdrop for the Home Run Derby series in 1960, a popular show filmed in 1959 which featured one-on-one contests between baseball's top home run hitters, which had a revival in 1989 when it aired on ESPN, [27] and later on ESPN Classic. Episodes of shows as diverse as The Twilight Zone ("The Mighty Casey", 1960), Mannix ("To Catch a Rabbit", 1969) were also filmed there. Some closeups were filmed there for insertion into the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield , a film otherwise set at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. A 1932 movie short starring Babe Ruth, titled Just Pals, was also filmed at Wrigley Field.
Leon Hefflin, Sr. produced the first largest outdoor jazz entertainment event of its kind, the Cavalcade of Jazz, held at Wrigley as part of the Central Avenue jazz scene and showcased over 125 artists from 1945 to 1956. [28] The Cavalcade of Jazz concerts were the stepping stone to success for such stars as Toni Harper, Dinah Washington, Roy Milton, Frankie Lane and others. [29] He also hosted a beauty contest at the events. His first COJ show starred Count Basie & His Orchestra, Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers, Valaida Snow, Big Joe Turner, the Peters Sisters, Slim & Bam (Slim Gaillard and Bam Brown), and more artists on September 23, 1945, with a crowd of 15,000. [30]
Following the Angels' departure after the 1961 season, Wrigley Field had no regular tenants. By then the park was owned by the city, and various events were staged. On May 26, 1963, a large crowd attended a civil rights rally featuring Martin Luther King Jr. By 1966 the park was being used for soccer matches.
In October 1968, the ballpark was renamed Gilbert Lindsay Community Center as a first step in renovating the site. Demolition was underway by January 1969. The resulting city park has a ball field in the northwest corner of the property, which was once a parking area. The diamond is locally known as "Wrigley Field", and is the home of Wrigley Little League baseball and softball. [31] The original site of the Wrigley diamond and grandstand is occupied by the Kedren Community Mental Health Center and another parking lot.
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's 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 stadium currently seats 41,649 people and is the second stadium to be named Wrigley Field, as a Los Angeles ballpark with the same name opened in 1925.
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the ballpark for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of US$23 million. It is the oldest ballpark in MLB west of the Mississippi River, and third-oldest overall, after Fenway Park in Boston (1912) and Wrigley Field in Chicago (1914), and is the largest baseball stadium in the world by seat capacity. Often referred to as a "pitcher's ballpark", the stadium has seen 13 no-hitters, two of which were perfect games. In addition, Dodger Stadium has been deemed the most popular MLB stadium on social media.
Angel Stadium of Anaheim, better known simply as Angel Stadium, is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California, United States. Since its opening 58 years ago in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels. It also served as the home stadium of the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1980 to 1994.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to Los Angeles veterans of World War I. Completed in 1923, it will become the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times when it hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics; the stadium previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, a day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team has played its home games at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
The Los Angeles Angels were a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles that played in the "near-major league" Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1903 through 1957.
Gilmore Field was a minor league baseball park in Los Angeles, California, that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939–1957 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displaced by the transplanted Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.
The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are located in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and play their home games at LoanMart Field.
Raymond Lee Walls Jr. was an American professional baseball player, an outfielder who appeared in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1952 and 1964 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. He also played the 1965 season in Japan, for the Hankyu Braves. The native of San Diego threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall, and weighed 205 pounds (93 kg). Walls wore eyeglasses on the field during his active career — a rarity for players of his era — and was nicknamed "Captain Midnight" because of his eyewear.
The 1961 Los Angeles Angels season ended with the Angels finishing eighth in the American League with a record of 70–91, 38+1⁄2 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees. It was the Angels' first season in franchise history, and their only season at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Gene Autry owned the franchise, which was created as a counterpart to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the two teams would even share the same stadium the following year when the Angels moved to Dodger Stadium.
The 2008 Chicago Cubs season was the 137th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 133rd in the National League and the 93rd at Wrigley Field. The season began at home on March 31 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs were champions of the National League Central for the second year in a row, accumulating 97 regular season wins—the most since 1945. It was the first time since 1908 that the Cubs made postseason appearances in consecutive seasons.
The 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008, in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff to win the AL Central. The Civil Rights Game, an exhibition, in Memphis, Tennessee, took place March 29 when the New York Mets beat the Chicago White Sox, 3–2.
The 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers season featured the Dodgers celebrating their Golden Anniversary in Southern California under new manager Joe Torre as they won the National League West for the first time since 2004, and returned to the postseason after missing the playoffs in 2007. The Dodgers did not peak until September when the won 17–8, which was highlighted by the acquisition of superstar outfielder Manny Ramirez. Ramirez hit .396 with 17 HRs in 53 games after the trade on July 31. They swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS to advance to the NLCS. It was their first playoff series win since 1988 when they went on to win the World Series. However, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games in the NLCS.
The 1965 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 12 to October 14, 1965. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Dodgers then defeated the Twins in the World Series, four games to three.
The 1961 Major League Baseball season was played from April 10 to October 12, 1961. That season saw the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series. The season is best known for Yankee teammates Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's prestigious 34-year-old single-season home run record of 60. Maris ultimately broke the record when he hit his 61st home run on the final day of the regular season, while Mantle was forced out of the lineup in late September due to a hip infection and finished with 54 home runs.
The 1961 Major League Baseball expansion resulted in the formation of two new Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises in the American League (AL). A new club was started in Washington, D.C., and took the existing name of the Senators, as the previous team of the same name moved to Minnesota for the start of the 1961 season and became the Twins. The second new franchise was granted to an ownership group led by Gene Autry for a team in Los Angeles who named themselves the Angels. The two new teams each paid a fee of $2.1 million and became the 17th and 18th franchises in MLB.
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Bibliography
Events and tenants | ||
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Preceded by First Ballpark | Home of the Los Angeles Angels 1961 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by First Stadium | Home of the NFL All-Star Game 1938 | Succeeded by |