Wrigley bleachers now blast from past

We all have seen the White House, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip and other American landmarks destroyed in various scifi movies.

Now we have a real-life version of a Wrigley Field Apocalypse, and it’s very photogenic.

The idea of a new Wrigley has been debated for years, but now that it’s happening, Cubs fans owe it to themselves to make a trip to Wrigleyville to get a good look at the bleachers coming down. Even though we knew it was coming, it’s a jarring sight.

A trip to the ballpark Friday morning found a dozen or so people milling around, taking photos with cameras and smartphones from behind a fence on Waveland Avenue. Most of the outer wall of left field already was torn down, leaving chunks of broken-up granite and twisted guard rails lying in piles on a street Cubs fans turned into a giant mosh pit during the 2003 National League Championship Series.

Unfortunately, the workers installed green netting around the fences surrounding the project, forcing the photographers to find small openings or to hold their cameras high over the fence and just take random shots without framing them.

Being a devoted tree climber, I decided to trek up one on a Waveland Avenue parkway for a better view. It was my own makeshift rooftop club, albeit with a capacity of one and no payout to the Cubs.

From my perch up high I realized the Cubs were denying fans a beautiful bird’s-eye view of the renovation while also missing out on a great revenue-enhancing opportunity for the organization.

All the Cubs really need to do to aid the curiosity-seekers and make a little money is set up some temporary bleachers on the street, much like ones they use in football stadiums. They could charge viewers a dollar or two for a perfect view of the wreckage and maybe put it toward signing free agent Jon Lester.

The Cubs could sell the naming rights to a brewery, sell hot chocolate and hot dogs on the corner of Sheffield and Waveland avenues, and put up a few port-a-potties.

Whether you supported the modernization of Wrigley or not, it’s fascinating to see the ballpark resemble a war zone, and TV just doesn’t do it justice. These bleachers aren’t just any cheap seats. They are a piece of Chicago history, built in 1937 after a 12-year period with no bleachers.

“The old bleachers in left field were the happy target of Hack Miller, Cub slugger of a decade and a half ago,” the Tribune reported in 1937. “They were torn out when it developed that the Cubs had fewer sluggers who could reach the area than were on the rosters of visiting teams.”

It seems some things never change.

One change would be most welcome for Cubs fans: It’s called winning. Judging from the number of sports writers who told me during the playoffs that “next year the Cubs will be here,” the consensus is they’re well on their way to reaching nirvana. Three years into team president Theo Epstein’s rebuild, we’re now in the first inning of the long-awaited renovation of Wrigley Field.

Even if it’s painful and jarring at times, change is a necessary part of progress. Watching the demolition at Wrigley reminds me of a story back in 1995. On a cold February afternoon, while a wreckers’ ball was tearing into the west wall of the old Chicago Stadium, Rocky Wirtz’s car was being towed for being illegally parked.

“We’ll get another one,” Wirtz said as he viewed the empty parking space.

Things turned out OK for Wirtz, who eventually succeeded his father as the Blackhawks’ chairman and has watched them win a couple of Stanley Cups while playing in the new building.

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts is hoping a modernized Wrigley Field also will bring his Cubs to the Promised Land — and perhaps even make him as lovable as Wirtz and his Blackhawks have become in Chicago.