Column: Another Chicago Cubs home season ends at Wrigley Field, where traditions still matter

The Chicago Cubs’ final regular season home game at Wrigley Field on Sunday afternoon was probably not unlike the end of their first season at the ballpark 107 years ago, albeit with more fans and richer players.

The Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 before an estimated crowd of 5,000 on Oct. 1, 1916, then prepared to meet the White Sox in the City Series, the exhibition games that mattered most to Chicagoans. On Sunday, the Cubs beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 before a crowd of 37,060 and prepared for a season-ending six-game road trip that would decide their postseason fate.

Even if the Cubs make it into the playoffs, chances are they won’t have a home game unless they win the National League wild-card series and advance to the NL Division Series, where they would start out on the road.

So people who call the ballpark home from March through the end of the regular season said their goodbyes Sunday, hoping they’d be back again in mid-October, knowing the odds were stacked against it.

The day began early in the morning with several tour groups walking around Wrigley listening to a history of the ballpark. One tour guide spread the myth that the Cubs were robbed of a potential playoff home game in their loss to the San Diego Padres in the 1984 NL Championship Series because they hadn’t installed lights.

I stifled the urge to correct the misguided guide and continued on to the field, where bench coach Andy Green was throwing batting practice to the grounds crew and the mascot, Clark the Cub. Head groundskeeper Dan Kiermaier said Green offered to throw to them before the final home game a few years ago, and it became a final-day tradition.

“Small way to give thanks,” Green said. “Those guys work hard for us all year long.”

A barefooted Justin Steele threw a football to teammates in the outfield, doing his best Patrick Mahomes imitation with a behind-the-back pass. Father Burke Masters conducted mass for Wrigley employees before security guards and ushers celebrated their colleagues who had completed an anniversary season.

Cubs stars Christopher Morel and Adbert Alzolay surprised one of their favorite security guards, Paco, with a birthday cake near the home dugout. Morel gave a speech in Spanish lauding their friend, who was touched by their generosity.

One of my early Tribune assignments was to gauge the mood of Cubs fans at the final home game of the 1983 season, when the team was playing out the string. Marv Rich, a self-described bleacher bum since 1943, said the Cubs’ lost season was not going to ruin his winter. “Cubs fans are Cubs fans for life,” Rich said. “It gets in your blood and never leaves.” The article ran under the still-relevant headline: “Cubs fans never lose hope.”

Forty years later, I was back in the bleachers again for another Cubs finale. Before the game, the regulars set up a potluck brunch on the seats in the left field bleachers, bringing in everything from Michael’s Pizza to White Castle sliders to giant shrimp, with chocolate chip cookies, donuts and enough treats to last a week. This also was an “end of Wrigley” tradition, as fans and security personnel alike stood in line together for the free bleacher smorgasbord.

By the time the game began at 1:20 p.m. on a perfect, 73-degree afternoon, many fans were already sunburnt and satiated. This was a hugely important game for the Cubs in their quest for the postseason, but everyone settled in for the equivalent of one last group hug.

They’d seen better Cubs teams at Wrigley over the years, and many, many worse ones. But the 2023 Cubs provided them with one of the most up-and-down seasons imaginable.

From the so-called “Stropener” on March 30, when Marcus Stroman outdueled Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes in a 4-0 win, to Sunday’s home finale, it was a wild ride from beginning to end. Morel’s three-run, walk-off home run in a 4-3 win against the White Sox on Aug. 16 was one they’ll remember for years to come. The 8-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates last Thursday, leaving the Cubs 3-10 over a 13-game stretch in the pennant race, was one most hope to forget.

In between there were plenty of memorable moments, from Cody’ Bellinger’s “Belli Bombs” to the collision between Drew Smyly and catcher Yan Gomes on April 21 that spoiled Smyly’s perfect game bid in the eighth inning of a 13-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ross confirmed afterward he would not have lifted Smyly during his no-hitter, no matter the pitch count.

“Oh, yeah, I was going to ride him harder than Yan did,” Ross said. The Cubs turned a photo of the collision into a T-shirt, with Ross’s crack on the back, and dispensed them throughout the clubhouse. One of the keys to clubhouse culture is the ability to laugh at themselves from time to time. It’s a long season, after all.

Sunday’s game was much like the roller coaster season. The Rockies took a 2-1 lead in the third inning and added another in the sixth on Nolan Jones’ solo homer. Patrick Wisdom’s two-run shot gave the Cubs the lead again in the bottom of the sixth, and one inning later the grounds crew came together to sing during the seventh-inning stretch, another last-game tradition that began many years ago.

Afterward fans sang their victory song and the players responded by tipping their caps. Then the stands cleared and people went home, or perhaps went in search of the Bears game at a local watering hole.

Traditions still matter here, no matter how trivial they may seem to outsiders.

It’s what makes Wrigley a place like no other.