CHICAGO -- Pete Crow-Armstrong has seen what the atmosphere is like at Wrigley Field for a weekday game in the middle of summer. The old place is packed and the sun-soaked fans who fill the bleachers make for a raucous environment. The Cubs center fielder also has seen how things get ratcheted up in an October setting.
Imagine an All-Star Game.
“It’s going to be crazy,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Crow-Armstrong just experienced his second straight trip to the Midsummer Classic -- the latest in Philadelphia, which was fitting given the country's 250th anniversary. Next year, the All-Star Game is coming back to the Friendly Confines for the first time since 1990, ending a drought for a franchise already famous for ending one.
The Cubs put an end to their 108-year World Series drought in 2016, and Crow-Armstrong now leads a team trying to get the ballclub back to that stage this fall. And as the budding face of the franchise, the center fielder is looking forward to seeing the All-Star Game return to Wrigley Field for the first time in nearly four decades.
“Wrigleyville is fun Monday through Sunday,” Crow-Armstrong told reporters at the All-Star Game media day event in Philadelphia earlier this week. “I’m interested to see how packed it is, how hard it ends up being trying to get around. But knowing [Cubs chairman Tom] Ricketts and our front office and the people that will probably have a big hand in planning that, I’m sure it’ll be great.
“Wrigley’s a beautiful ballpark, and I’m glad that it’ll be on display for everybody to see.”
When the Midsummer Classic arrives at the corner of Clark and Addison Streets, it will make Wrigley Field only the third ballpark to host the event four times, joining Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium and the old Yankee Stadium. The All-Star Game was also held at Wrigley in 1947, ‘62 and ‘90.
During the 1990 All-Star Game, the Cubs had a trio of players on the National League squad. Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson were in the starting lineup, while Shawon Dunston was a reserve.
“It’s the greatest ballpark in existence. It truly is,” Dawson said last August, when it was first announced that the game would be coming back to Wrigley Field. “The city, the fans, they’re all looking forward to it. There’s a lot of work to be done yet, but it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting.”
A lot of work has been done to get to this point, too.
When the Cubs hoisted the World Series trophy in 2016, the team was in the midst of an extensive six-year renovation project for the ballpark and the surrounding neighborhood. Near the end of that sweeping makeover -- one that prioritized maintaining the stadium’s classic look while also modernizing a ballpark built in 1914 -- the team began trying to secure another All-Star Game.
The Cubs finally got their wish last year.
“The amazing transformation that has taken place at Wrigley Field and, indeed, Wrigleyville,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last summer, “will provide a great setting for one of our most important events.”
Crow-Armstrong was asked about the Home Run Derby coming to Wrigley Field again.
“I hope the wind is blowing out,” he quipped. “If we get a bad wind day, the Derby will be interesting.”
That was certainly the case in 1990.
The last Derby at Wrigley Field featured a list of famous sluggers that included Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr., Cecil Fielder and Darryl Strawberry, among others. There were five total homers launched on a day when the wind was blowing in. Three of those came off the bat of Sandberg, who won the event in front of his home crowd.
Wrigley Field can also play like a bandbox on days when the wind is blowing out. In each of the past two years, the Cubs have hit a franchise single-game record of eight home runs -- first on the Fourth of July last season and then again on July 1 this year. The ball can fly when the conditions are right
Would Crow-Armstrong take part in the Home Run Derby at the Friendly Confines?
“There’s a lot of people that could probably sway me to do it,” he said. “I’m not totally closed off the idea.”
There is still a year to go, but Wrigley Field has next.