Ballpark stars
Movies, TV shows have often shot scenes at Wrigley or Comiskey
The new Netflix movie “The Last Summer, ” about teenagers relishing their last summer before college, is set in Chicago but was filmed mostly in Cleveland, according to a story by the Tribune’s Tracy Swartz.
But the scenes inside Wrigley Field are real.
The ballpark has become shorthand for Chicago, though in older movies and television shows, one is more likely to see its now-gone lookalike West Coast cousin, Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field.
Comiskey Park and its successor, now going by the stage name of Guaranteed Rate Field, have had a few stirring star turns as well.
Until we see it, we’ll reserve judgment about the quality of “The Last Summer” or how memorable the Wrigley scenes are. In the meantime, here are nine memorable movie and TV scenes at Chicago’s ballparks from the last 40 years.
1. “The Blues Brothers” (1980)
A great cameo for Wrigley, even if it is fleeting. In the scene, a Nazi group is looking for Jake and Elwood Blues.
Assistant Nazi: “I called a friend at the motor vehicle department. That license plate is like a rash all over the computer. The car belongs to a known traffic menace.”
Head Nazi (Henry Gibson): “What’s his name?”
Assistant: “His name is Elwood Blues. He’s got a record a mile long . ... And he’s a Catholic.” Head: “Got his address?” Assistant: “Of course. 1060 West Addison.”
Head: “Let’s go.”
Cut to the Nazis in cars pulling up to Wrigley Field at night.
2. “A League of Their Own” (1992)
The tryout scene for the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League features most of the movie’s top characters on the field at Wrigley, named in this case for Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall) rather than P.K. Wrigley.
That includes Mae Mordabito (Madonna), Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis), Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz), Doris Murphy (Rosie O’Donnell), Kit Keller (Lori Petty) and Marla Hooch (Oak Park-River Forest graduate Megan Cavanagh).
The key moment is when Madonna and O’Donnell trash talk Davis and Petty. O’Donnell suddenly whips a fastball from a short distance straight at Davis, who unflinchingly catches it with her bare hand.
“Hey,” O’Donnell says. “How did you do that?”
3. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986)
There has been much talk about whether truants Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) and Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) would be more likely to opt for the bleachers.
Doesn’t matter. Writer-director John Hughes put them in the lower-deck corner, where Ferris catches a foul ball and briefly wonders whether he has broken his thumb.
What’s not debatable is that this brief scene (shot during a Cubs-Braves game on June 5, 1985) is burned into the collective consciousness of everyone who has ever thought about playing hooky from school or work.
“You realize,” Bueller says, “if we played by the rules, right now we’d be in gym?”
Meanwhile, Ferris’ nemesis, dean of students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), is at a pizza joint where the game is on TV.
“Everyone always assumes my dad was a Cubs fan because of Ferris,” Hughes’ son, John Hughes III, told the New York Times. But Wrigley “is where Ferris would have gone — my dad would have gone to Comiskey.”
4. “Only the Lonely” (1991)
Between directing “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2,” Chris Columbus wrote and directed this romantic comedy starring John Candy, Maureen O’Hara, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Quinn.
Perhaps the most lasting image of the film is the first-date picnic with Chicago cop Danny Muldoon (Candy) and introverted funeral home cosmetician Theresa Luna (Sheedy) on the field at an empty old Comiskey Park. Danny brings Old Style. The ballpark brings fireworks.
It was especially bittersweet because, by the time the film came out, old Comiskey was no more.
5. “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” (2009)
Conan O’Brien’s first edition of “The Tonight Show” as Jay Leno’s erstwhile replacement — on June 1, 2009 — opened with a filmed segment in which O’Brien gets ready for his new program in New York only to realize he has to be in Los Angeles.
Unable to get a cab, he starts jogging and — set to “Surrender” by Rockford’s Cheap Trick — sprints across the country a la Forrest Gump. His path takes him not only through Chicago, but also across the field at Wrigley, where security guards chase him.
6. “Undercover Boss” (2010)
Shedding his standing as a member of the family that acquired control of the Cubs, coowner Todd Ricketts grew a beard, wore fake glasses and took on the alias Mark Dawson (Mark from Mark Grace, Dawson from Andre Dawson) to get an employee’s perspective of jobs in and around the ballpark for the CBS reality series.
The tasks included cleaning restrooms and trying to organize a remote parking lot. He wasn’t very good at either job, but neither was quite as interesting as his struggle to sell hot dogs.
His solution: Buy them himself and toss them in the garbage.
His problem: His supervisor caught him.
7. “Rookie of the Year” (1993)
It’s the last game of the regular season, the Cubs are facing the Mets, and if they win they advance to the National League Championship Series.
On the mound is Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas), a 12-year-old with little talent but who dreams of playing in the majors. After breaking his arm and having the cast removed, he learns his tendons have tightened and he can suddenly throw 100 mph. But then during this big game — shot during a 1992 Cubs-Cardinals doubleheader — he reinjures the arm and loses his fastball.
There’s a long series of closeups of worried fans, the Cubs manager (Gary Busey), the mom (Amy Morton) and the announcer (John Candy again). And then the mom tells the kid to “float it,” essentially to toss an underhand and backhanded slow pitch.
He strikes out the Mets slugger, and the Cubs win.
8. “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997)
New Comiskey plays itself, thanks to the conceit of Philip Bosco playing White Sox owner Walter Wallace, father of Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz), who’s to marry Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney), ostensibly best friend of food critic Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts).
A pre-wedding gathering brings maid of honor Roberts, groom Mulroney and father of the bride Bosco along with M. Emmet Walsh (as Michael’s dad) and Christopher Masterson (as his kid brother and best man) to a ballpark suite.
That Roberts doesn’t spill a tray of beers as she makes her way up and down is movie magic.
9. “Perfect Strangers” (1986-93)
There’s no better example of Wrigley Field being used to convey Chicago than in the opening credits for later seasons of the old ABC sitcom.
Week after week, Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant cousin from faraway Mypos, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot), could not be more excited to attend a Cubs game.