I'm having a hard time with something. I don't like the stance the Cubs and Major League Baseball are taking against the City of Chicago, in reference to Wrigley Field. Here's the USA Today article discussing Wrigley's possible status as a historical landmark.

What's bugged me about the whole Wrigley expansion thing is the spite it carries. It's indicative, I think, of the problems baseball in general has, and the way it puts itself above the people.

The couple of times I've been to Wrigley, what's always charmed me about the place is the way it's smack in the middle of the city. There are businesses up and down the road on either side of the stadium, and a fairly upscale neighborhood just beyond the outfield wall. To me, Wrigley was part of the neighborhood, not necessarily a zone unto itself.

So many stadiums now are just off to themselves nowadays, zones for entertainment. But there on the North side, you walk one block, and you're in a street lined with drugstores, small grocery stores and the like. The next block, Wrigley Field. The block after that? Wrigleyville.

Personally, I think Wrigley should be established as a historical landmark, and the stadium itself should not be changed. I don't like adding seats and blocking off the view from the outside. I always thought that was part of the charm.

Is the gripe the seats across the way? Here's what I'm thinking. Can the Cubs rent the tops of the buildings across the streets from the owners, and charge admission themselves? Would that change things? You pay 9 bucks and you watch the game from across the street?

What worries me is the cryptic statement by Bud "I'm the most inept person alive" Selig that such a move by Chicago to put the historic landmark stamp on Wrigley would "precipitate the loss of Wrigley."

I'll tell you. I think the environment at Wrigley was one of the best in baseball. At most Major League Baseball stadiums you're absolutely inundated by music, noise and other advertising. On the ubiquitious big screen, on marquee advertisement billboards...on the seats themselves. They show cartoons between innings to keep people's attention. There are video game corners and swimming pools and anything else you can think of. But at Wrigley, it's baseball. And everyone who's there is there to watch baseball.

The Cubs are part of Wrigley, and Wrigley is part of the Cubs. I'm going to support Chicago in this endeavour, and not the Cubs. They're wrong. Quit paying Sammy Sosa 19 million dollars and you won't have to cut yourself off from the neighborhood to make ends meet.

I apologize if I've rambled.

Gracias.

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