CHICAGO — Del Mar residents Grant and Jacqueline Larson had never been to Wrigley Field before Tuesday, when they attended Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series between the Padres and Cubs.
Their first impression?
“Amazing,” Jacqueline Larson said. “I’m so glad to be here to cheer on the Pads.”
The Larsons were among a smattering of brown-and-gold-clad fans who traveled to watch the start of the Padres’ latest playoff push. As 90-game winners, the club traveled to play the Cubs, who won 92. The Cubs took Tuesday’s opener of the best-of-three series, 3-1.
For Grant Larson, Tuesday’s trip brought his Padres fandom full circle. He first started following the club in 1984, when — while working for Triple L Enterprises, the company that handled operations at the old Jack Murphy Stadium — he witnessed the club’s come-from-behind NLCS series victory over the Cubs.
Larson stood with Cubs ace Rick Sutcliffe late in Game 5, when visiting clubhouse attendants took the celebratory champagne out of the visiting clubhouse and to the home side. it wasn’t long before the Padres were popping bottles.
“I have history with 1984,” Larson said. “That’s when I became a Padre fan.”
Every time is special
Michelle Frost fell in love with the Padres in 1974, when she relocated from Los Angeles and enrolled at UC San Diego.
Tuesday, she was among the first fans through the gates when Wrigley Field opened to fans. She walked along the plaza level before finding a spot on the first-base side of home plate, where she took in batting practice.
“This could be the year,” said Frost, who calls herself a Padres superfan. “I didn’t think it was for the longest time, but now they seem to have found their way, found their bats.”
Unlike many of the Padres fans in attendance Tuesday, Frost is a Wrigley Field veteran. She lived in nearby Evanston in the late 1980s — “I came out here for a job and a relationship,” she said — and spent many afternoons in the upper deck of right field.
Frost married into a family of Cubs fans. She loves games at the “Friendly Confines.” But her loyalties never changed. Frost sported a Padres City Connect-themed Hawaiian shirt and matching visor to Tuesday’s sun-soaked game.
“Wrigley is good,” she said, “on any day.”
She said it:
“You can’t put a price on your experiences sometimes. I’m retired; what else am I going to spend my money on?” — Frost, who said she spent about $350 to attend Tuesday’s game
FILE – In this Oct. 14, 2003, file photo, Chicago Cubs left fielder Moises Alou’s arm is seen reaching into the stands, at right, unsuccessfully for a foul ball along with a fan Steve Bartman during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins in Chicago. The Cubs went on to lose the series. As the Cubs take on the Mets in the hopes of getting to the 2015 World Series for the first time since 1945 and winning it for the first time since 1908, Cubs fans swear that this team will win, because of the way they play and not because a curse was lifted. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
Bartman, meet Ferris
A $575 million renovation completed in 2019 slightly altered the layout of Wrigley Field, moving the bullpens from foul territory to underneath the bleachers and adding much-needed player and fan amenities.
Which means the seat that Cubs fan Steve Bartman sat in during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS doesn’t actually exist anymore.
But if you walk down the third-base line concourse, sweet-talk a few ushers and tell them you’re a visitor from sunny Southern California, you’ll be escorted to the spot where Bartman interfered with Cubs outfielder Moises Alou as he tried to catch a foul pop during that fateful game.
The Cubs were ahead 3-0 in the eighth inning during what became known as “The Bartman Game”; the visiting Marlins went on to score eight runs in the inning to win the game and even the series. They won 9-6 the following day to continue the Cubs’ championship drought.
Once located in Aisle 4, Row 8, the place where Bartman sat is now a gray concrete step.
But that’s not all. The famed Ferris Bueller seat, the spot where the titular character and his friends took in a game in the 1986 movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” is located just steps away. Look for the only No. 19 in the section – every other row ends with seat 18.
Eddie Vedder gestures to the crowd before performing during the seventh inning stretch during game one of the NL Wild Card Series between the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Where Vedder’s loyalties lie
Eddie Vedder grew up in Encinitas and made his fame in Seattle, which is why the Padres’ annual interleague series with the Mariners is now called The Vedder Cup.
So why was Vedder sporting a powder blue Cubs jersey and leading fans in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on Tuesday?
Well, here’s the dirty little secret behind the Vedder Cup: The Pearl Jam frontman is, in fact, a die-hard Cubs fan. He was born in Evanston and attended Cubs games at Wrigley Field with his grandfather. Later in life, Vedder befriended Cubs greats Ernie Banks and Jose Cardenal.
Banks, whom Vedder met at a Cubs fantasy camp, encouraged the singer to write a song about the favorite team. “All the Way,” released in 2008, became a cult hit among Cubs fans.
The song goes, in part:
“When you’re born in Chicago you’re blessed and you’re healed/The first time you walk into Wrigley Field
“Our heroes wear pinstripes, heroes in blue/Give us the chance to feel like heroes too.”
The Cubs have honored Ryne Sandberg outside the bleachers at Wrigley Field. (Ryan Finley, U-T)
For Ryno
Baseball memories linger around every corner at Wrigley Field, some more raw and painful than others.
Tuesday marked the Cubs’ first playoff game since franchise icon Ryne Sandberg died from cancer on July 28. As such, a plaque honoring Sandberg in left field was adorned with red, white and blue flowers before Tuesday’s game.
These sorts of memorials are commonplace in and around Wrigley. Fans often place green apples on the statue of Harry Caray located just outside the stadium.
Why all the fruit? It’s a nod to the legendary announcer’s saying that: “Sure as God made green apples, someday the Cubs are going to be in the World Series.”
Caray died in 1998; 18 years later, the Cubs indeed made — and won — the Fall Classic.
Really?
There were, indeed, plenty of good seats still available for Game 1.
Two hours before first pitch, the Cubs’ website offered seats starting at $99 for the 400 level (upper deck). Club-level seats were pricier, at $400. Plenty more tickets were available on the secondary market.
Would that have happened if Wild Card Series games were played at Petco Park? Unlikely. The Padres sold out a franchise-record 72 of their 81 regular-season games at their downtown ballpark.
Manfred, man
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred watched batting practice and schmoozed with Padres chairman John Seidler behind home plate before Tuesday’s game.
It wasn’t what Manfred said but what he wore that fascinated us: Manfred’s low-top Nikes had tiny MLB logos below the swooshes and red baseball seams over the top. The MLB logo was also visible above the back-left pocket of his gray chinos.
Talk about a company man.
A T-shirt for sale in a Wrigley Field gift shop shows the stadium’s iconic clock. (Ryan Finley, U-T)
Team shopping
Walk into Wrigley Field’s many team stores or any of the shops in the nearby neighborhood, and you’ll see all manner of jerseys, caps and T-shirts honoring every Cub from Ron Santo to Michael Busch.
Sticking out in the sea of blue is a logo that only those in the know can explain: A green clock, with hands set to the 1 and 4 positions.
The Cubs have traditionally played day games at 1:20 p.m. The clock logo, which mirrors one atop the stadium’s manual center-field scoreboard, is an insider’s love letter to day games — which, we have to admit, are the best.
We saw more than a few fans snag a green hat with the clock logo on it for $44.99 down the first-base line. White T-shirts with the green clock logo were $34.99 at a stand near the bleachers.
A trio of Padres fans, bottom center, look on as Cubs fans celebrate after game one of the NL Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
By the numbers
$27.98: Cost for a Chicago dog and an Old Style beer, the Wrigley Field bleacher bums’ lunch of choice.
9: Elements that make up a Chicago dog: A poppy-seed bun, sport peppers, celery salt, tomato wedges, sweet relish, sliced onions, yellow mustard, pickle spears and a Vienna beef hot dog. Absolutely no ketchup allowed. Ever.
25: Consecutive scoreless innings in the playoffs for the Padres before Xander Bogaerts drove in Jackson Merrill with a no-out double in the second inning.
0: Runs scored by the Padres after the second inning.
18-8: Pitcher Jake Arrieta’s record (with a 3.13 ERA) when the Cubs won the 2016 World Series.
0-3: Pitcher Jake Arrieta’s record (with a 10.85 ERA) when the Padres missed the playoffs in 2021. It may explain why Arrieta was wearing a Cubs jersey when he threw out the first pitch before Tuesday’s game.
21 seconds: Amount of time national anthem singer John Vincent held the word “free” — or maybe it’s “freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” — while singing Tuesday’s national anthem. A famed local singer, Vincent was the in-house act at Ditka’s Steakhouse (you can’t make this stuff up) from 2011 to 2018.
Originally Published: September 30, 2025 at 4:34 PM PDT