Visiting players feel a little more at home thanks to Wrigley Field upgrades

May 14, 2024

Conditions haven’t been ideal for baseball all across the league this April, but this spring, conditions have markedly improved for teams visiting Wrigley Field.

A new weight room, a batting tunnel and a small video room? Perhaps that’s why the Cubs have won only three of their first seven home games they could actually play. Don’t worry, though, it’s not like the visitors have a spacious new clubhouse or the guarantee of hot water just yet. They’re not staying at Hotel Zachary.

While the Cubs’ clubhouse and training rooms were renovated before the 2016 season, the visitors had to wait until this season to get even a little love. Along with expanded dugouts on both sides, the Cubs excavated the area just inside the visitors’ dugout to add a small video room, weight room and a batting tunnel. Major League teams are encouraged, if not required, to give visiting teams some of the same professional amenities. (Visiting players had the option of using a small weight room on the home side previously.)

It wasn’t that long ago that Cubs pinch-hitters were practicing with a net in their tiny clubhouse. The visitors could do that too, if they wanted to hike back to their domain, which is actually located on the second level of Wrigley Field. Teams would sometimes put up signs directing players to the clubhouse and it wasn’t uncommon to see training tables in the hallway outside the clubhouse stairs.

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Starling Marte called the previous accommodations “uncomfortable,” because players had nowhere to go and warm up, especially in the cold weather.

St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong said the players would use what little space there was just inside the dugout to get loose, but his problem was there wasn’t anywhere to hit. Before games, players would go to the outfield hitting cage, which was refurbished a few years ago.

“It was tough, especially for guys not playing, trying to go in there and get ready for your pinch-hit or whatnot, not having a batting cage or not having anything to kind to kind of swing,” Wong said. “It was tough because you literally go up there and have to warm up swinging the weight and then you’re right into the game. So I think just having that definitely brings us some kind of advantage to going in and facing tough pitchers.”

Will it make a difference? The Cubs treated their visitors like garbage for a century and didn’t get much of a homefield advantage, so probably not.

But the visitors’ new additions come in handy not only in cold weather, but with injuries too. Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham was held out of the lineup Thursday after he felt right groin tightness during Tuesday night’s game, but passed tests on it Wednesday. The Cardinals were being cautious, as Pham pinch-hit in the seventh inning of the Cubs’ 8-5 win. Thanks to the proximity of the weight room and batting tunnel, the trainers can quickly run some tests before clearing Pham or any other player to enter the game.

Renovated visitors training room and batting tunnel pic.twitter.com/EVm5olhqrj

— Lauren Comitor (@laurencomitor) April 6, 2018

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny wouldn’t call the previous lack of amenities a disadvantage, but he acknowledged that it often messed with players’ routines and warming up.

“That was part of being in a stadium with a lot of nostalgia, you’re not going to have all the creature comforts,” Matheny said. “We still don’t, if you haven’t noticed, up here a little bit. But as far as the work area goes, it’s getting much better.”

The cramped visitors’ clubhouse — a rectangular room about the size of a decent two-bedroom apartment with a small kitchen, training area, communal bathroom and a small manager’s office — isn’t as far down the Cubs’ list of priorities as the press box, but it still has to wait to be upgraded until next offseason. While the visitors will undoubtedly welcome friendlier confines (almost everyone I spoke with was well aware of the impending renovation), several players said they appreciate the historical significance, especially the legendary players that have been in that room.

“It’s going to be amazing,” Wong said of the upgraded clubhouse. “This is the only thing left that they’ve gotta fix. As you can see, it’s tight quarters in here, guys are shoulder to shoulder. But then again, it’s still fun because you know that there were a lot of greats before that used this, and it’s a cool thing to know that I’m in the same place where Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, all these guys probably came and played.”

Babe Ruth never dressed in this visiting clubhouse, which used to be located on the third-base side, while Mickey Mantle never played at Wrigley Field (he was voted onto the American League team for the second 1962 All-Star game at Wrigley, but didn’t play). But you get Wong’s point. Plenty of modern-day greats have walked those steps.

While visiting players enjoy more space and modern amenities, most of them appreciate the quirks of Wrigley Field. Or they just don’t whine about them.

“It is what it is, I can’t complain,” Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco said. “Because this has been here for a long time. A lot of players have been here, they do good. I’m just here to play and not complain.”

The 2015 Mets were likely the last team to go all out in celebrating a pennant in the tiny visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field. Last year’s Dodgers celebrated in a makeshift workout room near the clubhouse and next year, that area will be totally renovated. (Pool photo via USA TODAY Sports)

The visiting team amenities are never going to be equally as nice as the home side and that’s especially true at Wrigley. Unlike the Cubs, the visitors have just one batting tunnel, and the weight room isn’t exactly Equinox. But the one recent upgrade both sides have in common are the expanded dugouts, which now have two rows of seating and are about 30 feet farther down their respective lines from their previous locations.

Both Cubs manager Joe Maddon and his players talked about having to make minor adjustments in terms of sight lines, and it appears one change has already been made — a wooden ledge has been added under the railing, so that players can stand on it and be level to lean over the fence. During Thursday’s game, almost no one was utilizing the front-row bench on either side.

Wong said the expanded dugout makes the biggest difference of the recent upgrades.

“Just having more room,” he said. “The fact that they didn’t change too much, just added a little more square footage is awesome because you want to continue to have the nostalgia of Wrigley, and playing in Wrigley. But to have a little bit of more modern amenities, it’s cool.

“I liked how they put the benches, there’s like two levels of benches so you can have guys in the back kind of hanging out and the guys in front watching the game so it’s a good layout and definitely helps the flow of things for sure.”

Wong said the sight lines are fine, which is something that Maddon mentioned as a potential issue when he first got a look at the new home dugout. His view basically went from the on-deck circle to his new third base coach, Brian Butterfield.

Matheny, meanwhile, wasn’t too concerned about it.

“I just found I can yell a little more and they don’t hear anything,” he said.

(Top photo: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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