Wrigley Field’s ivy walls date back to 1937, when Chicago Cubs executive Bill Veeck (working under his father, then the team’s president) oversaw the planting of Boston ivy along the outfield brick as part of a larger renovation. The vines have been maintained and replanted over the decades, surviving harsh Chicago winters and at least one notable die-off, to remain one of the most recognizable features in all of baseball.
Nearly every ballpark has a signature visual detail — the Green Monster in Boston, the ivy in Chicago — but few have become as tied to a team’s identity as Wrigley’s outfield walls. This is the story of how they got there, why they’ve stuck around for the better part of a century, and how they actually affect play on the field.
How the ivy got there in the first place
Wrigley Field opened in the 1910s under a different name and went through several rounds of renovation before it became the park fans recognize today. The ivy itself is generally credited to a renovation effort in the late 1930s, a period when the Cubs’ ownership was investing in the ballpark’s appearance and atmosphere. Bill Veeck, who would later become famous as one of baseball’s great promotional minds, is the name most closely associated with the project, though he was part of a broader team effort under his father’s direction as club president.
The idea was simple: cover the outfield’s hard brick wall with something softer and more attractive than exposed masonry. Boston ivy was chosen for its hardiness and its ability to cling directly to brick without extensive support structures. Bittersweet vines were reportedly planted alongside it in some tellings of the story, though the ivy is what endured and became the defining feature.
What’s often lost in the shorthand version of this story is that the wall itself — the brick — came first, and the ivy was a deliberate design choice layered on top of it later. The result was a look that set Wrigley apart from the concrete, symmetrical multipurpose stadiums that would dominate ballpark construction in the decades that followed.
Why it has lasted so long
Ivy is not maintenance-free. Chicago winters are hard on vegetation, and the Wrigley Field grounds crew has had to nurse the ivy back after seasons of cold damage or drought stress. There have been stretches where the wall looked thin or patchy heading into a season, prompting concern among fans and reporters that the tradition might be fading. Each time, the ivy has come back, aided by replanting and careful cultivation rather than any kind of miracle.
Part of the reason ownership has kept investing in it, generation after generation, is that the ivy has become inseparable from Wrigley Field’s brand. It shows up on broadcasts, in photographs, on merchandise, and in the memories of generations of fans who grew up watching games there. A concrete outfield wall would function exactly the same way under the rules of the game, but it wouldn’t carry the same weight. That’s part of a broader pattern in ballpark culture, where physical quirks — walls, dimensions, distinctive features — become part of a team’s story in ways that outlast any single era of players. You can see a similar dynamic at play with Fenway Park’s famous left-field wall, another feature covered in more detail in our piece on Fenway Park’s Green Monster.
How the ivy actually affects the game
The ivy isn’t just decoration — it has real, rule-relevant consequences for outfielders and for how batted balls are scored. Because the vines cover a hard brick wall, a ball that gets lost in the ivy is treated as a ground-rule double under the park’s local ground rules, rather than requiring an outfielder to hunt for it while baserunners keep advancing. This is one of those situations where a stadium’s physical quirks intersect directly with the sport’s rulebook, similar to how oddly shaped foul territory or unusual wall heights around the league create their own local ground rules. Fans interested in how these kinds of rule interactions work in general might enjoy our broader coverage in Rules Explained.
Outfielders playing in front of the ivy also have to manage a genuine hazard: the wall is close, it’s hard brick underneath the leaves, and depth perception can be tricky when the vines make the wall’s exact location harder to judge in the heat of a play. Chasing a fly ball into the ivy has produced its share of memorable, occasionally dangerous moments over the decades, and outfielders who play regularly at Wrigley learn to respect the wall rather than trust the ivy to cushion an impact.
There’s also a scoring wrinkle that fans sometimes don’t realize: if a ball becomes lodged in the ivy and an outfielder signals that he cannot retrieve it, umpires award a ground-rule double rather than letting the play continue as a live ball. This has occasionally sparked debate among broadcasters and fans about whether a particular ball was truly stuck or just difficult to find quickly, but the underlying rule keeps the game from turning into an extended search-and-rescue mission in front of thousands of spectators.
The ivy as part of a bigger ballpark story
Wrigley Field belongs to a small group of parks that opened in the early twentieth century and are still hosting Major League games today, which places it alongside Fenway Park as one of the sport’s living links to the dead-ball era and the decades that followed. Readers curious about what the game looked like in that period, before home runs became a central offensive weapon, can find more context in our explainer on the Dead Ball Era. The ivy itself wasn’t part of that earliest era — it came later — but the brick wall underneath it and the park’s general footprint reflect design choices from a very different age of stadium building.
The broader appeal of parks like Wrigley is tied up in exactly this kind of history: quirky dimensions, distinctive features, and decades of accumulated stories from fans and players alike. That’s a theme we return to often in our Ballparks & Fan Culture coverage, and it’s part of why old ballparks tend to generate more affection than newer, more symmetrical facilities, even when the newer parks offer better sightlines or modern amenities.
It’s also worth remembering that Wrigley Field has hosted its share of legendary moments and legendary characters over the decades, from famous power hitters to disputed calls that entered baseball folklore. One of the most debated moments in the sport’s history — Babe Ruth’s alleged “called shot” — happened at Wrigley Field during a World Series game in the early 1930s, several years before the ivy was even planted. If you want the full story behind that moment and what evidence actually supports it, our piece on Babe Ruth’s Called Shot digs into what’s fact and what’s legend.
Why the ivy still matters today
Modern ballparks are frequently designed with retro touches specifically because parks like Wrigley Field proved how much character a distinctive physical feature can add to the fan experience. Brick facades, asymmetrical outfields, and manual scoreboards have all found their way into newer stadiums partly because of the enduring popularity of parks built generations earlier. The ivy is arguably the purest example of this: a simple planting decision from the 1930s became one of the sport’s most photographed and most talked-about backdrops.
For fans making a first trip to Wrigley Field, the ivy is often one of the first things people mention wanting to see in person, right alongside the manual scoreboard and the neighborhood feel of the surrounding streets. It’s a reminder that some of baseball’s most enduring traditions weren’t the product of some grand plan but grew, quite literally, out of a practical decision to make an old brick wall look a little nicer.
Frequently asked questions about Wrigley Field’s ivy walls
When was the ivy planted at Wrigley Field?
The ivy is generally traced back to a renovation in the late 1930s, most commonly associated with the year 1937, when the Cubs’ ownership updated the outfield wall as part of a broader ballpark improvement effort led in part by Bill Veeck.
What happens if a baseball gets stuck in the Wrigley Field ivy?
If a batted ball becomes lodged in the ivy and an outfielder cannot retrieve it, the local ground rules at Wrigley Field call for the play to be ruled a ground-rule double rather than allowing the play to continue as a live ball.
Is the ivy real or artificial?
The ivy at Wrigley Field is real, living Boston ivy planted along a brick outfield wall. It requires ongoing care from the grounds crew, and sections have occasionally needed replanting after harsh winters or periods of poor growth.
Why did the Cubs plant ivy instead of leaving the wall as brick?
The ivy was added during a 1930s renovation largely for aesthetic reasons, to soften the look of a plain brick outfield wall. Over time it became one of the park’s defining features and a key part of its identity among fans.
Does the ivy make outfield play more dangerous?
Outfielders do have to be careful near the ivy because it covers a hard brick wall and can make the exact distance to the wall harder to judge during a play. Players who regularly patrol Wrigley’s outfield generally learn to track the wall carefully rather than relying on the ivy for cushioning.