Help needed - Wrigley Field team flags

[RTK]

Try asking here;


http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/

I used to sit in the right field bleachers for a number of years with the guy, Al Yellon, who runs it, one of his bleacher mates is named Mike, the guy is a wealth of Wrigley knowledge. If they don't know, someone will I suspect.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by RTK

Try asking here;


http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/

I used to sit in the right field bleachers for a number of years with the guy, Al Yellon, who runs it, one of his bleacher mates is named Mike, the guy is a wealth of Wrigley knowledge. If they don't know, someone will I suspect.

Thanks, Rick. I sent Al an email....

[RTK]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

Thanks, Rick. I sent Al an email....

Please let me know what they say. I haven't seen those guys in years. I stopped going to games every weekend & holiday after the strike. Those guys have been mentioned in a couple books on the Wrigley bleachers. I really miss chatting baseball with them during batting practice.

[vintagesportscollector]

Rob, any chance your flag could be Seals related?

[Darner]

Found this picture on the web showing Wrigley Field flags with city names. Not sure what year this is from. The picture was labeled 1967 but it shows National League East teams and divisions weren't formed until 1969.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by Darner

Found this picture on the web showing Wrigley Field flags with city names. Not sure what year this is from. The picture was labeled 1967 but it shows National League East teams and divisions weren't formed until 1969.

Thanks for that picture, Ed! Nothing I found showed city names.

Preliminary info from Rick's buddy is that city names w/o any kind of team colors were first used, followed by city names on flags in colors that "made sense," followed by today's flags with team names in team colors. I will pass on anything more I learn.

[whitehse]

I used to work in the Stadium Operations department at Wrigley back in the 1980's and am pretty familiar with these flags as the Stadium Operations group is the one that oversaw the grounds crew which are the people responsible for the flags.

First of all Denny Graziano is a Chicago area dealer who I believe specializes in Sports championship rings but back in the day he sold a large amount of Chicago sports memorabilia. I have known his for decades and he is a good guy.

Your pennant and others just like it used to be sold at the Cubs fan convention every year to collectors just like yourself as game used. If they still do it I have no idea but back in the day these were easily purchased from the team. The pennant you have flew over the scoreboard as these were the pennants that displayed the city names. And in case you were unaware....the order of these pennants are changed on the flag pole each day in order to show the standings for the teams in the division. It is rare to see a Chicago team pennant at the top of the pole!

The other pennants you are seeing with the team name are those that fly on the roof of Wrigley Field and can be seen inside and outside the ball park. Usually the team name flags are spread out on their own flag pole with a Cubs logoed pennant interspersed between the team pennants.

So the long and short of it is.....

City name-Flew over the scoreboard to indicate team standings in the division on that specific game day.

Team name- Flew over the roof of the old ball park around the top of the upper deck.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by RTK

Try asking here;


http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/

I used to sit in the right field bleachers for a number of years with the guy, Al Yellon, who runs it, one of his bleacher mates is named Mike, the guy is a wealth of Wrigley knowledge. If they don't know, someone will I suspect.

I heard from Mike (thru Al)...I hope he doesn't mind me copying and pasting what he had to say. It actually kind of contradicts what Andrew had to say and I'll get to that in a moment...

From Mike: "Wish I could be a bit more definitive, I have not bought a WF flag in many years. All the scoreboard/yardarm flags I am familiar with have the grommet-type anchorage (the lower photo "GIANTS"). The oblong metal ring (top photo "SAN FRANCISCO") is from other parts of the park (rooftop, marquee, etc). It has also been some years since they have hung city-name flags from the CF board, they went to team-name flags at least from the early '80s. My guess is the lower photo flag is from the CF board, the upper photo is a WF flag, but not from the CF board.

Some of the short-duration flags that are hung from the CF board (W flags etc), use a modified clip structure, the flags that are reused from day-to-day use the grommets."