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Bad News For Dodgers: They’ll Finish The NLCS In Worst Clubhouse In Majors

By Ariel Cheung | October 21, 2016 6:17am
 This is what the Cubs locker room looked like in 2013. The visitors' clubhouse likely isn't much prettier.
This is what the Cubs locker room looked like in 2013. The visitors' clubhouse likely isn't much prettier.
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Provided/Chicago Cubs

WRIGLEY FIELD — When the Los Angeles Dodgers return to Wrigley Field this weekend, they can draw inspiration from suiting up in the same locker room as greats like Babe Ruth.

Unfortunately that's the only inspiring thing about the visiting clubhouse — known as the worst in Major League Baseball.

It's a stark and almost cruel contrast from the luxurious clubhouse the Chicago Cubs will return to Saturday for Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. The Cubs lead the best-of-seven NLCS 3-2 with a chance to clinch their first trip to the World Series since 1945 on Saturday.

The 30,000-square-foot clubhouse and its circular locker room, unveiled for Opening Night 2016, is "the most expensive of all the clubhouses built in the modern age," according to the Cubs (the team won't say just how much that is, though).

RELATED: What's It Like To Live Large In New Cubs Clubhouse? Take A Look

And it shows: The underground clubhouse features a 200-seat ampitheater, a fitness center, hydrotherapy room and a cushy man cave fit for (dare we say it?) World Series champs.

The Cubs were thrilled with their new home away from home, but team chairman Tom Ricketts didn't seem to be as concerned with the visitors' clubhouse back in April.

Asked about the ancient visiting clubhouse by USA Today, Ricketts responded with a laugh, "Um, we're going to maintain the historical integrity of it."

"This is where Babe Ruth got dressed. Come on, it's not good enough?"

Ricketts did say, however, that "maybe we'll even give them hot water. Well, at least to American League teams."

The Cubs said in April the plan is to remodel the visitors clubhouse next year.

It won't come too soon: In a 2011 Sports Illustrated poll of major leaguers, players listed Wrigley as the worst visitors clubhouse.

RELATED: Watch The Cubs Check Out Their Huge New Clubhouse

The smallest in the majors, the clubhouse carpet "seems perpetually dank," overhead pipes present a danger to taller ballplayers and there is a lack of a batting cage close to the dugout, a Wall Street Journal reporter noted in a 2012 story.

Put 25 reporters in there, and it gets even more jammed. There's no place to hide out," one player told the Journal.

Then again, it doesn't look like the Dodgers will be missing all that much during the remainder of the NLCS. Their own clubhouse, built in 1962 and seen in this Fox Sports video, is decidedly meh:

 The Chicago Cubs unveiled the new clubhouse at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.
Cubs New Clubhouse Features Huge Locker Space, Spa Room
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Then again, what could compare to this?

The clubhouse locker room. [DNAinfo/Ariel Cheung]

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.

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