WEST SIDE GROUNDS
University of Illinois Medical Center
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Read about the history of the Cubs.
Read about the Cubs’ west side grounds.
Some people are surprised to learn that Wrigley Field has not always been the home of the Chicago Cubs. More than 100 years ago, a ballpark on the West Side provided the backdrop for their two most successful seasons.
That ballpark was called the West Side Grounds, and it sat where the University of Illinois Medical Center is located today.
From 1893 to 1915, the Cubs played 22 seasons at West Side Grounds under various names: the Chicago White Stockings, the Chicago Colts, the Chicago Orphans, and finally as the Chicago Cubs (officially adopting the name in 1907, though playing earlier under the Cubs nickname).
It was here that a pitcher named Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown (who as a child had lost parts of two fingers in a farm-machinery accident) helped lead the Cubs to four pennants between 1906 and 1910 – and beat the Detroit Tigers in two, back-to-back World Series (1907 and 1908).
It was also at the West Side Grounds that the legendary Cubs infield of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance became a finely oiled double-play machine, striking fear and dismay into opponents.
The three were immortalized in a famous poem, written from the perspective of the hapless New York Giants and titled Baseball’s Sad Lexicon, by Franklin Pierce Adams:
These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
The Cubs moved to the North Side’s Weeghman Park (now Wrigley Field) in 1916. The West Side Grounds were demolished in 1920.
Alas, the magic didn’t follow the team to its new home on the North Side. As of 2013, the Cubs had not won another World Series since 1908 – the longest drought in baseball history.