West Side Grounds

West Side Grounds, Game 3 of the 1906 World Series.

Home of the Chicago Cubs, 1893 to 1915

CAPACITY: 16,000

FIRST GAME: May 14, 1893, vs. Cincinnati Reds (Reds 13, Colts 12)

LAST GAME: October 3, 1915, vs. St. Louis Cardinals (Cubs 7, Cardinals 2)

HIGH SEASON ATTENDANCE: 665,325 (1908)

LOW SEASON ATTENDANCE: 202,516 (1914)

West Side Grounds was Chicago's first double-decked ballpark, with a small balcony of boxes over the wood grandstand stretching from first to third base. The park was located at Polk and Lincoln, near the site of Chicago's Columbian Exposition and during the 1893 season was only used for Sunday games.

During a game against the Cincinnati Reds on August 5, 1894, a fan tossed a lit cigar into some garbage, setting the stands on fire. Players Jimmy Ryan and Walt Wilmot used bats to hack through the park's barbed wire fence and helped fans escape onto the field. Over forty fans were injured in the rush to escape, and there was $20,000 in damages to the stands, but the park was quickly repaired. Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance formed the Cubs' double play combination here and led the Cubs to pennants in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910.