A pox on both Target Corp. and the Chicago Cubs for what they've done to Wrigley Field — in the interest of mutual greed.
"Can you believe this?" cried my wife, a Chicago native and lifelong Cubs fan when she read the July 20 story reporting that Target had painted its logo in the middle of the hallowed ivy that has covered the red brick outfield wall at Wrigley since the earliest days of the park, second-oldest in Major League Baseball. Even though painted environmental green instead of the customary red, the huge logo is nonetheless a crass, artistically disruptive promotion for Target's new store in downtown Chicago.
When my wife-to-be and her sister were kids, they regularly rode their bikes from the South Side to Grandma's house on the North Side, walked a short way to Wrigley and basked in the bleachers behind that pristinely ivy-covered wall on summertime Ladies' Days.
I, too, was a Cubs fan growing up in Illinois. Many weekends my dad and I rode a chartered bus to Wrigley. We reveled at Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks and pitied outfielders scrambling to retrieve base hits trapped in that ivy.
Is nothing safe anymore? How long before Target paints its bull's-eye on the similarly iconic Green Monster left-field wall in Boston's Fenway Park, the oldest major-league stadium?
Don't bet against it.
