Centennial of ‘Red Summer’ will pass with few noting moment’s significance

Come Saturday, a raft will float out in Lake Michigan and will cross over the invisible dividing line between 29^th and 26th streets – a boundary that back a century ago was the cause of bloodshed and the race riots of 1919 that have come to be known as “Red Summer.”

National Guard tries to restore order to South Side

That is, for those of us who have any historic recollection at all. Many more will likely let the moment pass by without any note of what happened some 100 years ago that day.

FOR THOSE WHO need to be reminded, it was in the afternoon of July 27 that a young black man named Eugene Williams went swimming in the lake off of 29^th street – the portion of the beach where black people were permitted to be.

But while swimming, he drifted north. When he tried to come ashore near 26th Street, he had ventured into the portion of the beach that locals intended to be for white people.

White people, who’d probably have thought of themselves as proud Sout’ Siders, reacted poorly. They began flinging rocks, boulders and anything else they could grab ahold of at Williams – driving him back into the water.

Where he eventually drowned.

Amongst the more honest accounts of what happened a century ago

BLACK BEACH-GOERS AT 29^th Street saw what happened, and reacted violently too. Pretty soon, it was an all-out race riot on the beach with Chicago police making arrests amongst the black people. That eventually spread to various parts of Chicago. With the Bridgeport neighborhood becoming the center of some of the most violent activity against black people.

It wasn’t just in Chicago. The years after the First World War saw many movements of hostility against black people, with many whites seemingly eager to let blacks know they “didn’t belong.”

A Tribune accounting of how large an area the riot covered

The death tally in Chicago alone reached the hundreds, with the National Guard eventually having to be sent in to restore order. In fact, those troops wound up using Comiskey Park as their home base – primarily because the White Sox’ ballpark was in the middle of the area where the most intense violence occurred.

In his Mayor Daley biography “Boss,” writer Mike Royko got deep into these happenings, trying to put together an argument that the future mayor must have been aware of what was going on in his neighborhood, if not directly involved – even though Richard J. himself always claimed to have no personal memories of that summer.

WHICH IS TYPICAL of how Chicago came to forget about the deaths. It was a thing of the past; something ugly and not worth remembering any longer.

And anybody who’s bothering to recall what happened? They’re probably trouble-makers themselves!

Bodies were found in all kinds of places in Chicago

So I’m kind of glad to learn the Chicago History Museum is sponsoring a program for Saturday meant to remind people of just what happened on the beach that summer a century ago.

They’re even planning to have people on a raft float across the invisible barrier. Only this time, no people on shore waiting to throw stones.

THERE IS ONE aspect of all this I find amusing – the fact that the entirety of the beach in that portion of the Lake Michigan shoreline is now named for Margaret T. Burroughs.

BURROUGHS: Beach now in her honor

The same Margaret Burroughs who was the artist and poet and who later went on to found the DuSable Museum of African-American History. I knew her late in life when she served on the Chicago Park District board and was devoted to preserving the memories of black culture in Chicago.

I’m sure that all the individuals who threw rocks a century ago would be appalled at the notion of “their” beach being “taken over” in such a manner.

Just as I’m sure the descendants of those individuals are now appalled at anyone trying to remind us now how bad the behavior was back then. For it seems that the old cliché, “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it” think the answers to our modern-day problems lie in their ignorance.

  -30-   

Schaller’s Pump a disappearing part of the old Sout’ Side Irish part of Chicago

Schaller’s Pump is a Bridgeport neighborhood tavern that could claim the distinction of being the oldest in the city of Chicago – tracing its lineage from 1881 until Sunday, when it closed for good.

One-and-a-third centuries of Bridgeport drinking now complete

It could also claim its current ownership by George Schaller and his family, which has held the property since the days following Prohibition. We’re bound to get a few sentimental reports in coming days (the Chicago Tribune kicked in with theirs on Monday) about this “cultural” loss to the city.

YET LET’S BE honest. There were elements of that place near 37^th and Halsted streets that weren’t exactly the most welcoming aspects of Chicago. It wouldn’t shock me if a great number of Chicagoans had never been there and probably wouldn’t have given much thought to setting foot in a place that viewed itself principally as existing to serve the people of Bridgeport.

The pea soup, meatloaf and Prime Rib on weekends? I never experienced them.

Personally, I only visited the place once. It was back in 1999 and several of my work colleagues and I wound up going together to a ballgame – at then-New Comiskey Park to see the White Sox take on the visiting Chicago Cubs.

It’s actually the only time I ever have gone to see a Sox/Cubs game (too many knuckleheads feel compelled to show up, which is why I usually catch those games on television or by reading a box score). Afterward, the batch of us decided to try to hit an area bar for a quick drink.

WHICH IS HOW we wound up walking over from Shields Avenue to Halsted Street and spent a bit of time at Schaller’s Pump. Bridgeport ain’t like Wrigley Field with the Cubby Bear Lounge located across the street,

The place was (I recall) in a good mood, largely because the White Sox that particular night had come from behind to beat the Cubs.

Our group took up a separate table and was pretty much watched quietly by people who wondered if we’d cause trouble because it was pretty obvious we weren’t Bridgeport native.

Will Sox fans have to drink in stadium bar now?

I do recall one guy asking me “what the story was” about our group, which had several younger obviously-suburban women and also some of the non-white types that a certain element of Bridgeport had long feared coming into their neighborhood.

WHEN TOLD THAT we were a batch of people who worked together, he kind of sighed, rolled his eyes then focused his attention back to his beer.

Like I already said, it helped that the White Sox won, so people were in a good mood. If the Cubs had won, maybe his reaction would have been more harsh.

But people were happy, particularly when the one colleague of mine who had worn a Cubs jersey into Schaller’s Pump was immediately told upon entrance to take it off (he did, and the bar’s staff kept it behind the counter; returning it upon his departure).

There also was the semi-humorous moment; when the bar’s patrons – upon seeing a televised recap of how the Sox beat the Cubs that night wound up bursting out in song. Giving us a genuine take on “South Side Irish,” which one of my work colleagues mocked by referring to it as the “Band Aid jingle.”

A GOOD THING that the Schaller’s crowd didn’t hear that wisecrack. It might have been contemplated as “fightin’ words.”

But no, there wasn’t a fight. In fact, we had our drink there, then moved on. Which probably kept the night from escalating into an incident.

Sox' ballpark doesn't have a Cubby Bear-like bar across the street

Although I recall one of my former colleagues saying she had now “experienced” the South Side, and I recall her asking me what it had been like to have “grown up” in the area. Even though the part of the South Side I call home is about 60 blocks further south and way to the east.

We of South Chicago and the East Side (and the 10^th Ward in general) think of Bridgeport as being “way up North,” which is a thought that I’m sure would grossly offend the 11^th Ward locals who now won’t have Schaller’s to hang out at to console themselves.

  -30-

Balcer not standing in way of next generation of political Daleys

The political retirement of James Balcer, a long-time alderman from the 11th Ward, is so typical of the way electoral politics works in this city.


I'll take Balcer's word for it that he's not being pushed out of his post so that a member of the Daley family can be in the City Council -- which is going to be the likely end result of this come the February 2015 elections.


FOR PATRICK THOMPSON, a member of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board whose grandfather was the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and whose uncle is the retired Mayor Richard M. Daley, wants to move up to a more prominent post.


Going from the board that oversees water sanitation plants to being on the City Council is a significant step up -- particularly since it would mean Thompson could bypass the usual "first step" for an aspiring political person. Which is a seat in the state Legislature.


So to avoid a political fight, incumbent Alderman Balcer is stepping aside. He's not seeking re-election. He's saying that 17 years in the council is long enough.


Particularly since Balcer has always made an issue of the fact that he served in the Marine Corps back during the Vietnam War.


SO THE FACT that he says he wants to focus his time on getting treatment for vertigo and post-traumatic stress disorder that date back to his late 1960s military service is sort of believable.


Although I suspect that if he wanted to, Balcer could have figured out a way to get treatment and remain in the City Council.


But there were other interests that wanted the post, and Balcer has always been a loyal enough soldier (politically, as well as militarily) to not want to engage in a fight.


In fact, it is the way most government officials wind up getting elected. The blatant, public political infighting that takes place between Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican opponent Bruce Rauner is rare.


MOST CANDIDATES FOR public office have the political organizations they are aligned with use their power to crush anyone who dares think of challenging them. The idea of an actual fight in the streets to sway voters to back them is the last thing they want -- particularly for those who have been around awhile like Balcer.


So Balcer can easily decide it's time to retire. No one had to come right out and tell him to get lost. Because I do think that if it had come down to a fight between the two, Thompson could have won.


The "Daley" connection still carries some pull; even if we're currently in a lull between Daleys similar to the period of the 1980s between the two Mayors Daley. Rahm Emanuel's legacy could wind up being that he kept the office warm in between the Daleys -- just like former mayors Bilandic, Byrne or Washington (be honest, that is part of Harold's legacy).


There will be those Bridgeport residents who will vote for Thompson because of his family connection. Balcer might have had his home neighborhood's respect, but the whole idea of Daleys in government does sway some voters -- no matter how irrational the concept is.


BALCER MUST REALIZE how much it would hurt his image if he had tried to come between that. Even if he had managed to win against Thompson, it would have created resentment.


Now, people can go about speculating how long it will be until Thompson tries running for mayor -- although considering he's 45, he has plenty of time to have a political life. His biggest mistake would be to try to rush the process (which is one his uncle Rich made back in 1983 when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor).


He will have to bide his time and wait for the right moment, just as how Balcer had enough sense to realize his "right" moment to retire has come and that he had little to gain from provoking a political civil war in the 11th Ward.


  -30-

Does your neighborhood “matter enough” to get mention by Old Navy?

I still remember a dispute I had once with one of my editors at the City News Bureau of Chicago of old with regards to identifying neighborhood names within stories.

 

The t-shirt take, ...

I believed then (and still do) that telling where something happened in Chicago is significant, and that since Chicago is such a neighborhood-oriented city it helps to know the 77 official (and 120-plus unofficial) neighborhoods that comprise the city.

MY EDITOR DISAGREED, saying she believed that some neighborhoods just weren’t well-known or significant enough to be worth mentioning.

Lincoln Park and Bridgeport? Yes.

Clearing? Probably not, as opposed to just thinking of it as the place where Midway Airport jets.

And as for the East Side? Hell no, because it’s too confusing for those marketing-oriented geeks who want to think of Streeterville as the New East Side, compared to the neighborhood so named because it is the community located east of the Calumet River.

I COULDN’T HELP but remember this decades-old newsroom discussion on Monday when I read a Chicago Tribune report about the “controversy” arising over a new t-shirt being sold at Old Navy stores.

Personally, I don’t shop there. So I wouldn’t have known firsthand. But it seems the store that likes to think it is hip and happening (or whatever cutesy terms are used to mean the same thing these days) has a new Chicago-oriented t-shirt.

It is an outline of the city limits, with neighborhood names printed on it in a crude approximation of where those neighborhoods are located.

You can wear a trendy map of Chicago on your chest, if you so wish!

EXCEPT THAT THE map is so crude that there’s no way one could use the illustration to tell where anything is in the city.

Also, the map only designates 21 neighborhoods or communities – far fewer than the aforementioned number of neighborhoods that actually exist within Chicago.

 

... as opposed to the real thing!

Which means most people don’t even get to see their neighborhoods included.

Live in Rogers Park, Logan Square, Sauganash, Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Canaryville, South Shore, Pullman or Hegewisch – just to name a few? Forget it, you’re not on the list.

I WOULDN’T HAVE realized how significant some think Lincoln Park was, except it comes across as SO BIG on the map. While Hyde Park is so dinky – it barely fits into the South Side mix.

Personally, as someone who is a native of the 10^th Ward (South Chicago, with relatives in the East Side, South Deering and Hegewisch), I find it comical that the entire southeast corner of Chicago gets designated as “Lake Calumet.”

Although considering that the key element that unites the 10^th Ward neighborhoods is their proximity to Lake Calumet and the Calumet River, that’s not the most inaccurate description of the area.

I’m more intrigued by the description of “Polish Village,” which according to the t-shirt is northwest somewhere between Belmont Heights and Lake View.

NOW I’M AWARE that there are still traces along Milwaukee Avenue of the Polish ethnic neighborhoods of old that used to dominate the Northwest Side. Although I’ve never heard of a specific community bearing that name.

If anyone can tell me of a neighborhood by that name, I’d like to know. Otherwise, I’m going to presume it a generic name for the area. (It is one of the unique aspects of Chicago that even at age 49, there are still new things I learn about the city).

 

Is the whole of North Side "Wrigleyville?"

Then, there is the area on the t-shirt designated as “Stockyards.” Which refers to the area just south of the Bridgeport neighborhood where stockyards used to exist, but is now the Chicago Stockyards Industrial Park.

It’s kind of a shame that the actual neighborhoods around there didn’t get included.

AS IN THE Back of the Yards and Canaryville neighborhoods.

Personally, I think those are two of the most off-beat neighborhood names in all of Chicago. Definitely more interesting than those North Side-oriented people who want to say they live in Wrigleyville – no matter how far away from Wrigley Field they actually live.

  -30-

Political people want to keep Cubs at the 'humble abode' of Elwood J. Blues

How much will structure change after renovation?

There’s one inherent fact to comprehend when it comes to the way Chicago political people interact with the professional athletic teams that represent this city.

They don’t want change!

THE WHITE SOX will always be at 35^th Street, while the Bulls and Blackhawks (who’d have ever envisioned so many wins in this strike-shortened season?) will play their games on Madison Street.

The Bears will be in Soldier Field. While the Cubs will forevermore be the team that plays at Clark and Addison streets.

Think about it. The White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks moved to new stadiums in the 1990s that were located across the street from their old buildings – allowing for minimal change in the way we think of those teams.

The Bears play in that flying-saucer contraption located within the old Soldier Field, no matter how hideous it makes the overall structure look.

SO NOW THAT the Chicago Cubs are trying to engage in serious negotiations about a renovation of their stadium so that the 99-year-old building will survive a few more decades, the Cubs have the serious drawback in negotiations that they can’t seriously play a threat to move.

Even though I suspect some of their northwest suburban base of fans would probably prefer it if they no longer had to make the trek to the Lake View neighborhood and could instead go to a place like Arlington Heights or Schaumburg.

Of course, that would go contrary to the trend of modern-day stadium building – which comes up with structures that like to pretend they’re based on the classic ballparks of old but are usually built on the fringes of downtown.

TUNNEY: Talking tough, because he can!

But we’ve never had that attitude in Chicago. When the White Sox tried back in the 1980s to talk of building a new stadium in DuPage County, or when others tried to talk of a multi-purpose stadium for the White Sox and Bears in the South Loop – they were non-starters!

THE POLITICAL PEOPLE back then only wanted to talk about construction that would keep a sports team at 35^th Street near the Dan Ryan Expressway – as though it is written in stone that the ball club can go nowhere else.

Even though a modern facility probably would have fit in better at a different location than it does on the fringes of the old-school Bridgeport neighborhood.

The same attitude is going to prevail with the Cubs – which will limit the amount of change that will be permitted to the structure to make it competitive with the new stadiums that are overglorified shopping malls with sports themes, or perhaps baseball-themed amusement parks.

Where the game on the field is secondary to the whole spectacle of being present in the building.

THE RICKETTS FAMILY that now owns the Chicago Cubs wants to do a significant overhaul of the old building, but city officials are making it clear they’re not about to give in on much change.

Alderman Thomas Tunney of the 44^th Ward has said he wants assurances of more parking (which Wrigley Field now notoriously lacks), better police protection and guarantees that the renovated ballpark wouldn’t become an architectural albatross that overwhelms the neighborhood – such as what U.S. Cellular Field sometimes does to the Armour Square neighborhood.

And Mayor Rahm Emanuel seems determined to treat the Cubs as he might have once treated Republican politicos who were trying to undermine Barack Obama’s presidential authority.

What brought this thought into my mind was reading the assorted Internet comments being posted. There are those who think the Cubs ought to tell the city to “Shove it!” and move to a suburban location.

AS THOUGH LIFE were that simple.

Particularly since I suspect many suburban officials like the idea of having the amenities of life’s entertainment nearby without having them within their own boundaries. Because then, they’d be responsible for their maintenance.

It may well be only Chicago city officials who would want to take on a project such as a $300 million overhaul of Wrigley Field (with another alleged $200 million to upgrade the surrounding neighborhood).

Which may well mean that Chicago gets the upper hand in these negotiations.

WHILE I DON’T have a problem with professional sports teams playing in city- (or state-)owned stadiums, I only wish these governments could negotiate worthwhile deals that make it viable for them – as well as the teams!

Not selling out the house to benefit the Cubs could well be a major accomplishment for the Emanuel administration. Let’s only hope that city officials don’t forget that fact.

  -30-

 

Crime occurs anywhere

The one thing I have learned more than anything else from a quarter century of being a reporter-type person is that crime can occur anywhere.

There’s no getting away from it. Stupid, bizarre, hostile, hateful acts cannot be hidden from. It’s not just a product of the Englewood neighborhood – which is what one might want to believe after hearing the day’s latest testimony in the trial of the man accused of crimes in connection with the death of actor Jennifer Hudson’s mother.

WHICH IS WHY a pair of crime stories from Thursday managed to catch my attention.

A part of me suspects that the people who live in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the far northern edge of Chicago (up against Evanston) think they’re immune to what some would like to think of as the miseries of urban life.

Or maybe they think that living so far north puts them far away from South Side life.

Yet the Chicago Tribune had an account of a jewelry store robbery on Devon Avenue with a twist – the robber didn’t get away because the store owner managed to get his pistol and shoot the would-be robber in his left hip.

THE STORE OWNER had his pistol confiscated by police, but he’s not facing any weapons-related charges. The robber, once he recovers from his bullet wound, will face an armed robbery charge.

It seems that in this particular robbery, the store owner’s wife and two grand-daughters were present, and the would-be robber even snatched some cheap jewelry (a butterfly necklace and a purse) from the 4-year-old grand-daughter.

It seems this robber was snatching at anything that had any potential for value – even the junk jewelry that a young child might wear just for fun.

In one way, this robbery had an element from the past – the image of an elderly store owner with a pistol located within easy reach of one of his hands. No high-tech security systems for this particular store.

YET ON THE other hand, the store had security cameras, and the would-be robber was sophisticated enough (even though when you really think about it, any robber or burglar is nothing more than a thug) to remember that fact.

At the moment he was shot, the Chicago Tribune says the man was messing around with a computer to try to deactivate the surveillance video.

Erase the evidence. Take it with him, along with that butterfly necklace that probably would have made him the laughingstock of the pawn shop world when he tried to “cash in” his ill-gotten prizes.

And I’m sure this store owner will gain some friends from the people who are just a little too eager to own firearms, since the Tribune reported that the man tried explaining to his grandchildren about the incident that, “not all guns are bad.”

IT’S JUST TOO bad that the man’s other dream (that his granddaughters will be capable of forgetting this incident someday) is not likely to come true. Because crime really is something that can happen anywhere.

Anywhere even includes the South Side neighborhoods, although it amazes me the way some people perceive the Bridgeport neighborhood – the one that has figured out how to maximize its political influence on account of the fact that so many mayors and so many Daleys grew up there.

Although the current resident of that famed house in the 3500 block of South Lowe Street is Patrick Daley Thompson (the Daley nephew and grandson), who later this year will take his seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board.

Yet the Chicago Police Department had its attention focused on Thursday two blocks to the east – on Parnell Avenue, to be exact.

A 25-YEAR-OLD MAN’S body was found in an alley in that block with a gunshot wound to his head.

Police didn’t identify the man right away, nor did they know up front who did the shooting – or why!

In fact, there is the potential that this will become yet another of the many shootings that take place so often that one tends to blend into another in just about every place possible.

It’s not just limited to the Englewood neighborhood.

  -30-

Night baseball – How much is too much of Cubs for Lake View neighborhood?

It has been 20 years to the day that the Chicago Cubs played their first official night game at Wrigley Field, yet there is a part of the Lake View neighborhood psyche that is still stuck having to argue against the merits of baseball under moonlight.

Officials with Chicago’s National League ball club are preparing for yet another fight with the City Council over whether the strict city codes regulating night games ought to be loosened.

WHILE I CAN understand why the Cubs would want to have changes in the laws that limit the number of night games they can play each season, this is a case where I hope our city officials (particularly those who represent Lake View and the blocks around the ballpark that have informally come to be known as Wrigleyville) take a hard line and don’t change a thing.

The simple fact is that the concerns of neighborhood residents have to come before those of the ball club, and part of what gives Wrigley Field its “charm” (which has always been lost on me) is that it is such an integral part of its surrounding neighborhood.

Anything that hurts the neighborhood’s character will trickle down and hurt the ballpark atmosphere. It would be shortsighted to automatically give in to the Cubs just because they would like to be more like every other major league baseball club.

This postcard from the mid-1940s shows how integrated Wrigley Field was (and remains to this day) to its surrouding residential neighborhood of Lake View.

Under current city ordinances, the Cubs can play no more than 30 of their 81 home games each season after dark. While most teams play somewhere from 55-60 night games per year, the Cubs total already is an expansion from the original city laws that only permitted 18 night games per year.

BUT THE PART of the ordinance that the Cubs are most interested in having changed is the provision that forbids any of those night games from being played Friday or Saturday nights.

City officials argue the youthful population that dominates Lake View comes alive on those nights. Between area residents and the young people who live elsewhere but want to pretend they’re “hip” enough to live on the lakefront, the area’s taverns and nightclubs already are crammed to capacity.

The last thing local political people want is more of an influx of people on those nights, with roughly 40,000 more people trying to be a part of the atmosphere of attending a ballgame – then sticking around afterward to pack the bars even fuller.

Alderman Tom Tunney told the Chicago Sun-Times this week that while he understands the Cubs would benefit because more people can attend games played in the evening, he sees it as too much of a “burden” for his home neighborhood.

NOW I CAN already hear the arguments of Chicago Cubs fans (an irrational breed if ever one existed) who will claim that people who live in the neighborhood mostly moved there knowing that a stadium used by a professional sports team existed nearby. They should have taken the notion that Lake View is not some isolated place like the Sauganash or Hegewisch neighborhoods before they moved there.

And I will concede that while I have never lived in Lake View, I have known people who did, and many of them chose to live there for a time because they liked the idea of being able to walk to and from a Cubs game.

But that is all irrelevant, and it is wrong for the Cubs to overlook the needs of the Lake View neighborhood when studying their own situation.

One of the reasons the Cubs draw a national audience (unlike the White Sox, whose appeal ends once one leaves Cook County and northwestern Indiana) is because they play their games in a building that is different from any other stadium in use today. If not for the building, the Cubs would have little more charm than the old St. Louis Browns.

WRIGLEY FIELD’S CHARACTER is that it sits in a residential neighborhood that is well-kept and clean. Lake View has changed throughout the decades from a German ethnic neighborhood to a flirtation with becoming a Puerto Rican enclave (most of them were priced out and moved further west to the Humboldt Park neighborhood) to its current status as the neighborhood of choice for young, educated professional people.

Part of the reason they choose to live so close to a sports stadium is because the local laws make an effort to control the potential negative effects that such a building can have (although I have heard the complaints from local residents about Cubs fans who think alleys behind their homes double as public toilets).

If those people ever moved out and Lake View took a plunge or two down the economic status scale, it would lose its appeal to the Cubs, would no longer be a desirable place to have a ballpark.

Let’s be honest, if Lake View had not in the late 1970s undergone gentrification and the Latino community had been allowed to develop there, it is most likely that the Cubs would have abandoned Wrigley Field decades ago, and people would regard it similar to how they think of Comiskey Park – a decayed building that outlived its usefulness.

THE CUBS NEED the professional crowd that dominates the neighborhood in order to keep up the illusion that Wrigley Field is a desirable address.

And if the Cubs think that the restrictions of staging their events (which is what the ball games there have become) at Wrigley Field are not worth the hassle, then perhaps it is time for them to start looking seriously at other locations – one where they could build the kind of massive structure that could accommodate their needs distant enough from area residents that excess noise would not be created.

That is why on the South Side, U.S. Cellular Field is surrounded by a block in all directions worth of parking lots, and by a railroad viaduct to the west that separates it from the Bridgeport neighborhood. It provides something of a muffler for the residents of Bridgeport and Armour Square to make life near a stadium somewhat more bearable.

Now I know the Cubs (and many of their fans) don’t want that.

THEY LIKE THE idea of playing games in a building that is a holdover to a past era when stadiums were built on whatever plots of land could be purchased at an affordable price, and the stadium quirks were dictated by the size and shape of the plot.

If that means the Cubs have to play fewer night games than other major league teams because there are people who literally live across Waveland and Sheffield avenues from the ballpark who would be inconvenienced by a batch of drunken idiot Cubs fans at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, then so be it.

After all, the Cubs like to claim the backdrop of all those apartment buildings just beyond the outfield walls and bleachers is what makes the ballpark so beautiful and unique. If they really believe that, then they need to show respect for Lake View and not talk about wanting to dump where they eat.

-30-

EDITOR’S NOTES: The Cubs already are able to play Sunday night games at Wrigley Field (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1090220,CST-NWS-wrig05web.article) because of the demands of ESPN, which likes to stage a “Sunday Night Baseball” game and often likes the Cubs to be the team that plays in it.

The first official night game by the Cubs at Wrigley Field took place when they beat (http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2008/m08/d06/c3267159.jsp) the New York Mets 6-4, one night after what was supposed to be the first night game was rained out.

The circus-like atmosphere of baseball games staged at Wrigley Field dates back to the coming of lights (http://www.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=226133), ending the era in which the Cubs took pride in being the only team that didn’t play after dark.