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Wrigley renovation moving slowly

 
Record cold has caused delays in construction at Wrigley Field, with steel girders still on the ground beyond the leftfield wall.
Record cold has caused delays in construction at Wrigley Field, with steel girders still on the ground beyond the leftfield wall.
Published March 3, 2015

CHICAGO — When the Cubs open their season at Wrigley Field next month, players and fans alike may feel a bit like a homeowner who lives in a house where workers are tearing apart the kitchen.

Media members were led on a tour Monday of the bowels of baseball's second-oldest ballpark, which has become a forest of beams and pipes on a dirt floor amid a massive renovation. Many of the steel girders that will support a huge new video board are still lying on the ground beyond the leftfield wall because record cold in February made it difficult for steel workers to do their job.

But Cubs officials said the concourse will be open for business and the video board will be working come opening day on April 5 against the Cardinals.

To get everything done, Cubs officials will ask the city for permission to work around the clock, said Crane Kenney, the team's president of business operations. And though the team has said for weeks that the bleachers won't be open until May, on Monday officials said only the left and centerfield bleachers will open in May. The rightfield bleachers won't be open until June.

"It is going to be a little dusty and a little dirty this year," Kenney said.

Wrigley is in the first phase of a project that will cost $375 million to renovate the stadium itself and $575 million when a nearby hotel, plaza and office complex are complete.

CARDS ACE FEELS GOOD: Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright bumped fists and smiled after a short bullpen session, his first since he strained his abdominal muscle a week ago. Wainwright didn't use maximum effort for most of the 30-plus pitch session but did turn it up for the final five pitches — one of which had bullpen catcher Jamie Pogue hooting and hollering behind the plate. "That was perfect," Wainwright said. "That's what I wanted."

NEW PITCH FOR HARVEY: Mets ace Matt Harvey might be returning from elbow surgery with another nasty pitch. Throwing batting practice for the second time this spring, the right-hander showed off an impressive curveball that neither David Wright or Curtis Granderson was able to hit. "I always threw sliders and I don't know where this curveball came from, so it's nice having that develop," said Harvey, who had Tommy John surgery in August 2013.

D'BACKS: The team will wear a black patch with "KAYLA" on it in spring training games today through Sunday in memory of Kayla Mueller, the young Arizona woman who died in captivity in Syria.

DODGERS: National League MVP and Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw will start on opening day for the fifth straight season, taking the mound at home April 6 against the Padres.

TIGERS: Shortstop Jose Iglesias played in his first game in more than a year in a 12-2 win over Florida Southern in Lakeland. Iglesias missed last season with stress fractures in both legs.