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How Big is Wrigley Field anyway?

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Update June 2008 This page comes up for a lot of Google searches, but the post is from 2004. For the permanent Wrigley Field Seating Capacity page, click on the link.

Determining Wrigley Field's seating capacity is like figuring out your true weight. When you step on the scale, you see a number, but you have to ask yourself did you just have a drink? Are you wearing clothes? Did you just eat a steak dinner, or did you starve yourself for the last 12 hours to get that number down?

Everybody knows that Wrigley Field has a seating capacity somewhere above 38,500 and below 40,000 but a sampling of sites around the web illustrates the difficulty in pinning down the exact number.

• Cubs.com - 39,345
• Sportsline.com - 38,957
• ESPN.com - 39,558
• Ballparks of Baseball.com - 38,965
• Baseball Digest.com - 38,884 (dated in 2000)
• The Baseball Cube - 38,902

Now, of course all of these numbers could be accurate, depending on the number of bleacher tickets the Cubs decide to sell. However, while perusing some older newspaper clippings, I finally caught a break as to the actual seating capacity at Wrigley. I found an article written about the Cubs recent expansion this offseason. While the articles I had read earlier had said, about 200 seats, this article specifically said 213 seats were added, and then used the capacity number from Cubs.com 39,345. However, this number has not been updated since last year, leading me to believe ESPN.com is accurate in reporting 39,558 as the correct seating capacity at Wrigley. (39,558 - 213 = 39,345). UPDATE 2005: The Cubs added another 80 seats this year bring the Wrigley Field capacity to 39,638

Checking the Cubs 2004 Attend-O-Meter we find that the Cubs are at 1,254,580 fans through 32 home games. Using our newly found seating capacity number, the Cubs are opperating at 99.1% capacity so far this year. This is second only to the Red Sox who are filling Fenway at a 101.1% clip.

Now for Something you care about: Cubs lost to the Angels 2-3 last night. The homer-less Cubs lost another game, driving their record to 5-13 when not going yard.

Steve Stone was apparently suffering from PMS on last evening's broadcast. He lambasted the Cubs on multiple occasions for not hustling, but failed to mention that the only reason the Cubs scored their two runs were because of hustling players.

In the 1st inning, Todd Hollandsworth hit a weak ground ball to the right side that looked like a sure bet for right field. However, Adam Kennedy made a fantastic play to get to the ball and would have thrown out Hollandsworth, except he was hustling down the line. Corey Patterson scored from third on the infield single.

In the 2nd inning, Jose Macias nearly grounded into a double play, but Paul Bako hustled into second and forced a weak throw from Angels Shortstop Alfredo Amezaga. Macias was also hustling and barely beat out the play at first. Although Ramon Martinez would have scored from third regardless of whether the Angels had turned two, the hustle was evident.

On the mound, Maddux pitched pretty well, but took the loss as the Cubs couldn't solve John Lackey. Maddux pitched 7 innings allowing 7 hits, no walks, 3 (earned) runs, and striking out 6.

Yesterday was the 33rd time this year the Cubs had given up less than 4 runs. They are 26-7 in those games which is a .788 winning percentage.

Posted by Byron at June 12, 2004 8:53 PM | | |

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