Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Personalized Cubs Bricks Found Near Landfill Will Be Replaced, Team Says

By Ariel Cheung | May 20, 2015 7:44am
 Customized bricks outside Wrigley Field.
Customized bricks outside Wrigley Field.
View Full Caption
Flickr/Pirate Alice

WRIGLEYVILLE — We'd call it Brickgate if we weren't so tired of the "gate" suffix being attached to every  minor scandal in the news.

On Tuesday, The Pontiac Daily Leader reported the discovery of Wrigley Field personalized pavers in the central Illinois city. Rumor was that some Pontiac residents picked up the pavers at the local landfill.

Word (and outrage) spread pretty quickly, even getting some attention from national outlets like Deadspin, who decried the discovery of bricks dedicated to loved ones — one inscribed to Nick with "love forever" from Grandma.

"Well, the Cubs just made a sucker out of your sweet grandma, because they threw that brick in the garbage," wrote Deadspin's Samer Kalaf.

Luckily, the Brick Brouhaha should calm down fairly quickly, now that the Cubs have assured fans (again) that their beloved bricks will be replaced during the renovations.

In March, the team said the pavers would be relocated to the area outside the Budweiser Bleachers on Sheffield and Waveland avenues. The Cubs sent letters to owners of the bricks explaining the replacements should be ready by Opening Day 2016.

About half of the 12,000 bricks were damaged in the removal and disposed of in Pontiac, said Cubs spokesman Julian Green. Due to the damage, the pavers could not be returned to their owners, he said.

However, Green said the bricks ending up in the hands of Pontiac residents was certainly unintended.

"I want to make sure to point out our vendor believes these pavers were taken from the site by unknown individuals without authorization. We knew they would be damaged during the removal process, which is why we communicated we were replacing them in the first place, but we did not anticipate someone taking them for misguided purposes," Green said in an email.

The Cubs and Wrigley Field are 95 percent owned by a trust established for the benefit of the family of Joe Ricketts, owner and CEO of DNAinfo.com. Joe Ricketts has no direct involvement in the management of the iconic team.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: