{"id":3005,"date":"2014-04-09T21:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T02:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2014-04-09T22:52:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T03:52:47","slug":"lifelong-wrigley-fan-celebrates-the-most-beautiful-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/04\/09\/lifelong-wrigley-fan-celebrates-the-most-beautiful-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifelong Wrigley fan celebrates \u2018the most beautiful place\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wrigley<\/a><\/a>It would be hard to imagine anyone in television better than Bob Vorwald to capture the majesty and the magic of Wrigley Field<\/a> on its centennial.<\/p>\n

The veteran Chicago sports producer and longtime director of production at Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9<\/a> has fashioned \u201cWrigley 100: A Century Celebration,\u201d a beautifully crafted two-hour homage to The Friendly Confines, premiering at 7 p.m. April 20 (with a rebroadcast at 4 p.m. April 26 on Channel 9 and WGN America). It\u2019s narrated by Steve Cochran, morning personality at WGN AM 720.<\/p>\n

A lifelong Cubs fan who grew up in southwestern Wisconsin, Vorwald attended his first game at Clark and Addison on his seventh birthday in 1969.<\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/a>

Bob Vorwald<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was amazing walking up those stairs and seeing how incredibly green and wonderful everything was,\u201d he later recalled in Wrigley Field: 100 Stories for 100 Years<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Dan Campana and Rob Carroll. \"We got there early, and when the gates went up, we found some seats in the terrace behind home plate. The Cubs won 5-4 that day, and it was just the most exciting thing I\u2019d ever seen in my life. That first day was magical. I got an autograph from Ron Santo and Ernie Banks, and it was just something I\u2019ll never ever forget. It was the most beautiful place I\u2019d ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1982, just before his junior year at Northwestern University, Vorwald landed a job as a sports assistant at WGN, where he worked for legendary sports editor Jack Rosenberg and got to rub shoulders with broadcast giants Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray. Since 1998, he's been director of production.<\/p>\n

When WGN marked its 60th anniversary of Cubs broadcasts in 2008, Vorwald not only wrote and produced a great two-hour special, \u201cCubs Forever,\u201d but he authored a highly acclaimed companion book, Cubs Forever: Memories from the Men Who Lived Them.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the latest special, which he called \u201can 18-month labor of love,\u201d Vorwald taped more than 60 fresh interviews and combined them with others he\u2019d saved from earlier projects. Some of the rare footage he found, dating as far back as the 1920s, has never been shown on television before.<\/p>\n

Though heavy on baseball history, \u201cWrigley 100\u201d also gives football its due, considering that the field doubled as home of the Bears from 1921 to 1970. What narrator Cochran calls \u201cthe greatest individual performance in Wrigley history\u201d happened on December 12, 1965, when Gale Sayers scored six touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n

Some of the sharpest observations of being a fan at Wrigley Field come from Lin Brehmer, morning personality at WXRT FM 93.1. \u201cI lived in the neighborhood; I had a sign \u2018No lights in Wrigley Field.\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cNow I want to tell you what kind of committed guy I am. As soon as they put lights in Wrigley Field, I said, \u2018Hey, I think I can get season tickets now!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The spirit of the place is summed up by Major League Baseball historian John Thorn, who recalls a line from Larry Ritter\u2019s The Glory of Their Times:<\/em> \u201cThe best part of baseball today is its yesterdays,\u201d and then adds: \u201cAnd that\u2019s on sale every day at Wrigley Field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a brief preview:<\/p>\n