Chicago Cubs trashing personalized pavers from Wrigley Field

After initially telling fans that they would preserve customized bricks purchased in 2006, the Wrigley Field keepsakes have been spotted in landfills around the Chicago area.

For a team that has not won a World Series since 1908, a 106 year drought entering the 2015 season, the Chicago Cubs have long had a reputation of having the most faithful fans in baseball. However, the recent handling of some of the renovations to Wrigley Field may test the dedication of some members of that fan base.

In 2006, the Cubs began selling customized paver bricks. The program was designed to allow fans the opportunity to purchase a brick, at the measly cost of $160, and personalize it with family messages or dedications. The bricks would then become a permanent addition to the fan areas on North Clark Street and West Addison Street, just outside of the historic stadium, making the fans a part of one of baseball’s most historic franchises. It is a common practice around Major League Baseball, with the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners all offering similar programs.

Unfortunately, permanent may be only a temporary thing in the world of the Chicago Cubs.

According to Paul Westermeyer of the Pontiac Daily Leader, some of those bricks have been displaced as part of the ongoing renovations project that Wrigley Field has been undergoing and have begun to pop-up in local landfills around the Chicago and Pontiac areas. Pieces of history that people thought would tie their families to Wrigley Field for the park’s lifespan have been tossed aside like yesterday’s trash.

While this is certainly belittling to the 1000’s of fans that have purchased the Wrigley bricks over the last nine years, it is mostly surprising because of the negligence in which it has been handled by the team. The Cubs sent a letter out to the fans in November if 2014 (h/t Carrie Muskrat, MLB.com), stating that the bricks would be preserved per the following:

"“As a Wrigley Field personalized paver owner, we appreciate your support of the Chicago Cubs. As you are likely aware, work is now underway to restore and expand beautiful Wrigley Field.“We are taking great care to preserve and protect your paver as work continues in and around the ballpark. As part of this process, your paver may need to be moved and will not be accessible during this offseason. We will provide you with an update closer to Opening Day.“We appreciate your continued support and patience as we work to restore and expand Wrigley Field to provide better facilities for our players, more amenities for our fans and continued economic benefits to Chicago and the Lakeview community.”"

However, finding said pavers in the local landfills hardly constitutes taking “great care to preserve and protect your paver”. Instead, it exhibits negligence and a general lack of respect for those customers who contributed their hard-earned dollars to the team. That’s not to say that some issues are bound to pop up during a renovation project as broad the one Wrigley is currently undergoing.

To some degree, the Cubs anticipated a few minor issues by releasing the following statement in March of 2015:

"“Our plan is to replace and relocate all personalized pavers following the 2015 season. We anticipate the new pavers will be in place by Opening Day 2016. The original pavers will not be available for distribution and we will communicate specific locations once the design lays are finalized with those personalized pavers.”"

So the question comes to how the Cubs handle this moving forward. Is the team keeping an accurate list of the personalized pavers that were in the renovation areas so as to replace all of them as necessary? What happens to those fans that felt they had a more favorable location than others? What could the Cubs have done differently to ensure that these bricks were in fact preserved as originally intended?

Given the reach of this story, it would be shocking if the Cubs did not respond with a statement as to the progress of the paver program and what reparations the fans will receive. However, given the lifespan of today’s stadiums, should anything of the sort really be considered a “permanent” in an environment that isn’t built in the same fashion?

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