By Dan Campana and Rob Carroll
Triumph Books
192 pages
( Insights shared by Reed Johnson, Cubs outfielder 2008-09, 2011-12)
"I think fans really make Wrigley. When I first got over there in 2008, in one of my first at-bats, I grounded out to second base. There was a runner on second or third base, and I had moved the guy over. As I'm running back to the dugout, the whole stadium was cheering. You don't usually hear that. The normal baseball fan is into the home run or the obvious play that kind of just stares at you. But I feel like the fans there really understand the game – they recognize the importance of advancing runners and those kinds of things, and I think that's really what makes that place special aside from it being one hundred years old.
"... I remember hitting a home run to left center and thinking, "Man, this place is just a porch.' You play in April, May, or June, when the wind is blowing dead in, and the place plays bigger than any other field you've ever played in. Then, throughout the summer, the place plays completely different. You've got to check the flags all the time. There's been games when I've taken batting practice in eighty-five degree weather only to come out for the game and it's fifty-five degrees and the wind is blowing in the complete opposite direction."
