Ivy at Wrigley Field? It was snatched from Indy

The ivy clings there, coating the outfield walls. Making Wrigley Field different from any other Major League ballpark in America.

The home of the Chicago Cubs is getting away with something grand: live greenery adorning its walls — walls that under professional baseball stadium regulations are now required to be padded.

Nobody has fussed, even as balls sometimes get caught in the ivy, hidden from outfielders.

Nobody has ever made Wrigley add the padding to meet modern day standards. The field is grandfathered in because that ivy has been sprouting there for nearly 80 years.

It's been sprouting since 1937, when owner P.K. Wrigley heard a whisper about a minor league ballpark that had ivy adorning its walls. He liked that idea. He liked it a lot.

And what Mr. Wrigley wanted, Mr. Wrigley got. Within months, the walls of his ballpark were lush with leaves, splendor the nation will see as the Cubs take on the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 of the World Series Friday at home at Wrigley Field.

He had one wish: 'Stay alive to see the Cubbies win'

That idea for ivy was snatched from little old Perry Stadium on West 16th Street in Indianapolis.

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It was 1931 when Perry Stadium opened, named after Indianapolis Indians owner Norm Perry. For reasons unknown, even to historians, ivy was planted on the walls of Perry.

"It does beg the question, where did the ivy come from in Indianapolis?" said Bruce Schumacher, vice president of corporate affairs for the Indians. "I honestly don't know that."

Even Schumacher's dad, Max, born one year after Perry Stadium opened, and who started as a ticket manager for the team in 1957 and is now president and chairman of the board for the Indians, said he doesn't know why ivy was planted on the walls.

But it surely wasn't a fluke or some passing fancy because that ivy remained as the stadium was renamed Victory Field in 1942, a reference to World War II. It remained as the field was renamed Bush Stadium in 1967, after former MLB player and Indianapolis native Donie Bush, who served as president of the Indians from 1955 to 1969.

It remained until 1996, when the Indians' ballpark moved to West Maryland Street and took back the name Victory Field.

But after 65 years of blooming, the ivy was abandoned along with Bush Stadium. The English ivy wasn't part of the new ballpark, but not for lack of trying.

When the new Victory Field was being designed, owners and the city explored having ivy-covered walls, Bruce Schumacher said.

"We were told that professional baseball standards now required padded outfield walls," he said.

So, the Cubs and Wrigley Field can keep those ivy walls, for now.

If the team ever builds a new stadium, just like the Indianapolis ivy, the Chicago ivy will likely also be gone. Unless the Cubs can convince the MLB that the history and nostalgia of that 79-year-old  greenery is worth breaking the padded-walls rule.

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The story of the Chicago ivy is well documented, much better than Indianapolis' ivy.

The Cubs played their first game at Wrigley Field (then named Weeghman Park) on April 20, 1916. There was no ivy on the walls; there was no ivy for the next 21 years.

But during the 1937 season, P.K. Wrigley and Cubs president Bill Veeck decided to renovate the outfield. A new scoreboard was installed, old bleachers were ripped out and new ones went up.

And, the Cubs decided, this ballpark needed some beautifying — with Wrigley saying he wanted to make the stadium greener to reinforce the idea that Wrigley Field was a park and not a stadium, Cubs historian Ed Hartig told MLB.com.

Veeck wrote in his autobiography "Veeck as in Wreck" he had the perfect idea about how to make that happen.

I ate off the floor at Victory Field

"Since I had always admired the ivy-covered...walls at Perry Stadium in Indianapolis," Veeck wrote, "I suggested we appropriate the idea for ourselves."

Wrigley loved that idea. And the ivy was planted. And it has remained for 79 years. All because of a ballpark in Indy.

"Indy has a much greater baseball history than people realize," said Jake Query, co-host of the Query & Schultz afternoon sports show on on Fox Sports 97.5.

The only trouble the ivy has ever caused over the years is when the balls get hung up in the green.

Most major league teams get ground rule doubles when a ball bounces into the stands. At Wrigley, it's a bit more tricky, when the ball gets caught in the ivy.

If an outfielder can't find the ball lodged in the ivy, he has to raise his hands to let the umpire know the ball has disappeared. The ground rule double is sometimes — and sometimes not — granted by the umpire.

If the outfielder tries to retrieve the ball from the ivy or if the umpire goes out and determines the ball is not actually lost in the ivy, the ground rule double may not be granted.

Schumacher said a similar rule was employed all those decades ago at the old Perry Stadium.

Another bit of Indy history still in play at Wrigley Field.

Follow IndyStar reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.