St. Louis radio voice John Rooney is not a Wrigley Field fan, and he made that much clear ahead of the Cardinals’ weekend trip to Chicago.
The Cardinals enter the two-game set against the Cubs at 61-60, then move on to face the Phillies. While Busch Stadium has been drawing its share of complaints from St. Louis fans lately, Rooney aimed his bluntest criticism across the rivalry line.
Rooney, the “voice of the Cardinals,” appeared on KMOX and let loose on the North Side ballpark.
“I’ve never liked the weeds on the wall, or the little bears on the uniform,” Rooney said as the KMOX crew cracked up laughing.
“I don’t care for [Wrigley Field] at all. It’s great for the fans.
The fans love it, with the history and the feeling they get. But the working conditions are the worst in baseball.
…
“The people are very nice there. They have treated us great over the years.
I enjoy seeing Pat and Ron, and seeing Zach and all the guys next door, and Zerang, their engineer. They’re wonderful people, and that makes it tolerable to go there.
But to work there, once the game gets started and the competition heats up, then I get into it.”
Rooney has been away from the Cardinals’ broadcast for a bit, and if he’s back for the Cubs series, he figures to get a reaction.
His comments fit into a bigger argument that has long followed Wrigley Field: plenty of people love the atmosphere, but plenty of others have plenty to dislike once the game starts.
The wind is the easiest target. It can turn a routine fly ball into a warning-track out or launch a ball out of the park in a hurry, depending on which way it’s blowing. That kind of randomness makes the place a headache for players and broadcasters alike.
Then there’s the ballpark itself. The ivy is iconic, but it also swallows balls and creates another layer of trouble. The outfield baskets that can turn flyouts into homers sit in the same conversation as other quirks around the league, and they’re part of what makes the place feel so odd.
Age is part of the package too. Wrigley is old, and with that comes the usual baggage: obstructed views, imperfect seating, and a setup that has lagged behind more modern parks. As Paul Goldberger wrote in the New York Times in 1988, it’s “a place that is innocent of instant replay, of vast electronic scoreboards as cluttered with advertising as Times Square, of baseball as a business."
Even with all that, Wrigley remains one of baseball’s most recognizable parks. It’s loud, crowded, and full of the kind of scene that only adds more fuel to a Cardinals-Cubs series.
And now Rooney and the Cardinals head there looking to keep their push going in the middle of the chaos.
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