Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)

Wrigley Field was a ballpark in Los Angeles, California. It hosted minor league baseball teams in the region for more than 30 years. It was the home park for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), as well as for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB) during its inaugural season in 1961. The park was designed by Zachary Taylor Davis, who had designed MLB stadiums Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. The ballpark was used as the backdrop for Hollywood films about baseball, the 1960 TV series Home Run Derby, jazz festivals, beauty contests, and civil rights rallies.

History
Called Wrigley's "Million Dollar Palace", Wrigley Field was built in South Los Angeles in 1925, and was named after William Wrigley Jr., a chewing gum magnate. Wrigley owned the first tenants, the Los Angeles Angels, a PCL team, and its parent club, the Chicago Cubs. In 1925, the Angels moved to Wrigley Field. Wrigley's Major League stadium (originally "Weeghman Park," then "Cubs Park") on the north side of Chicago was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.

Wrigley Field in Los Angeles was built to resemble Spanish-style architecture. It was the first of the two ballparks to bear Wrigley's name. Wrigley owned Santa Catalina Island where the Cubs conducted spring training in that island's city of Avalon.



The playing field was aligned northeast (home plate to center field) at an elevation of 185 ft above sea level. The boundary street in right field (east) was Avalon Boulevard, with a small parking lot. The other boundaries of the block were 41st Place (north, left field), 42nd Place (south, first base line), and San Pedro Street (west, third base line and a larger parking lot).

Lights were added to the park in 1930. Chicago's Wrigley Field added lights in 1988, when night games were added to the Cubs' home schedule.

Minor League Baseball 1925–1957
For 33 seasons, 1925 to 1957, the park was home to the Angels, which was a farm team of the Chicago Cubs. For 11 seasons, (1926–1935, 1938) the park was the home of PCL team, the Hollywood Stars. In 1930, the Angels and Stars combined to draw more than 850,000 fans. The Stars moved to a new ballpark, Gilmore Field, west of the Pan Pacific Auditorium. Angel players included Dodgers manager and Hall of Fame member Tommy Lasorda, Phillies, Expos, Twins and Angels manager Gene Mauch, actor Chuck Connors, Gene Baker, and Andy Pafko. The parent club, Chicago Cubs, was the first major league team to play at Wrigley, when it played the Angels in a spring training game in 1926. On March 20, 1949, the major league Cubs played the defending world champion Cleveland Indians in a spring training game before 24,517 people.

On February 21, 1957, the Dodgers bought a team in Fort Worth, Texas, Wrigley Field, the Angels franchise and their territorial rights for $3 million. L.A. Wrigley's minor league baseball days ended when the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League transferred to Los Angeles in 1958. The PCL Angels franchise relocated as the Spokane Indians to Avista Stadium in Spokane, Washington.

The Dodgers considered using Wrigley Field, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the Los Angeles Coliseum. The team opted for four seasons in the 93,000-seat L.A. Coliseum, which had a 251-foot foul line in left field, while awaiting construction of Dodger Stadium, with a seating capacity of 56,000.

Major League Baseball: Los Angeles Angels
In October 1960, the MLB expanded the American League from eight to 10 teams. Teams were awarded to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The L.A. franchise was awarded to Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds, and was called the Los Angeles Angels.

The home opener on April 27 was a 4–2 loss to the Minnesota Twins before a crowd of 11,931. In attendance were Vice President Richard Nixon, Casey Stengel, Ford Frick, Joe Cronin, and Ty Cobb.

On October 1, 1961, the Cleveland Indians beat the Angels 8-5 before 9,868 fans. Steve Bilko hit the last home run in Wrigley.

The 1961 Angels were led in hitting by Albie Pearson with a .288 batting average, in home runs by Leon Wagner with 28, and runs batted in by Ken Hunt with 84. The pitching staff was led by Ken McBride with 12 wins. Future World Series winning manager Chuck Tanner played in seven games. The team drew 603,510 fans.

Professional boxing
Wrigley was used frequently for boxing. Six world title boxing bouts were held there, including the 1939 Joe Louis-Jack Roper fight. Sugar Ray Robinson also boxed at Wrigley Field. Robinson won the Middleweight Championship on May 18, 1956, knocking out Carl Olson before 18,000 fans. On August 18, 1958, in a Heavyweight Championship fight, Floyd Patterson defeated Roy Harris with 17,000 in attendance.

1938 NFL Pro-Bowl
Several weeks after the completion of the season, the first NFL Pro Bowl was held at Wrigley Field on January 15, 1939. Sammy Baugh was among those on the rosters that matched the champion New York Giants against All-Star NFL players.

Pepperdine University
The Pepperdine Waves college football team played home games at Wrigley Field in 1948.

Soccer
On May 28, 1959, the park hosted a soccer friendly match between England and the United States; England won 8–1 in front of 13,000. On June 1, 1960, Scottish Champions Hearts defeated England's Manchester United 4–0 in front of a crowd of 11,000. The U.S. Men's National Team played a World Cup Qualifier against Mexico on November 6, 1960, drawing 3–3 before 9,500 people.

Movies and television filming
Being closer to Hollywood than the other major league baseball fields at the dawn of motion pictures, Wrigley Field was a popular place to film baseball movies. The first film known to have used Wrigley as a shooting location was 1927's Babe Comes Home, a silent film starring Babe Ruth. Some well-known movies filmed there were The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Damn Yankees (1958). When Frank Capra filmed the public rally scene at Wrigley for Meet John Doe in August 1940, massive sprinklers simulated a downpour because the director included one rainy scene in each movie as good luck. The film noir classic Armored Car Robbery (1950) had its title heist set at Wrigley.

The ballpark later found its way into television, serving as the backdrop for the Home Run Derby series in 1960, a popular show filmed in 1959 which featured one-on-one contests between baseball's top home run hitters, which had a revival in 1989 when it aired on ESPN, and later on ESPN Classic. Episodes of shows as diverse as The Twilight Zone ("The Mighty Casey", 1960), The Munsters ("Herman The Rookie", 1965), and Mannix ("To Catch a Rabbit", 1969) were also filmed there. Some closeups were filmed there for insertion into the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield, a film otherwise set at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. A 1932 movie short starring Babe Ruth, titled Just Pals, was also filmed at Wrigley Field.

Jazz concerts
Leon Hefflin, Sr. produced the first largest outdoor jazz entertainment event of its kind, the Cavalcade of Jazz, held at Wrigley as part of the Central Avenue jazz scene and showcased over 125 artists from 1945 to 1956. The Cavalcade of Jazz concerts were the stepping stone to success for such stars as Toni Harper, Dinah Washington, Roy Milton, Frankie Lane and others. He also hosted a beauty contest at the events. His first COJ show starred Count Basie & His Orchestra, Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers, Valaida Snow, Big Joe Turner, the Peters Sisters, Slim & Bam (Slim Gaillard and Bam Brown), and more artists on September 23, 1945, with a crowd of 15,000.

Demolition
Following the Angels' departure after the 1961 season, Wrigley Field had no regular tenants. By then the park was owned by the city, and various events were staged. On May 26, 1963, a large crowd attended a civil rights rally featuring Martin Luther King Jr. By 1966 the park was being used for soccer matches.

In October 1968, the ballpark was renamed Gilbert Lindsay Community Center as a first step in renovating the site. Demolition was underway by January 1969. The resulting city park has a ball field in the northwest corner of the property, which was once a parking area. The diamond is locally known as "Wrigley Field", and is the home of Wrigley Little League baseball and softball. The original site of the Wrigley diamond and grandstand is occupied by the Kedren Community Mental Health Center and another parking lot.