Rolling Meadows resident relishes her Cubs memorabilia collection
By any measure, Jean Wenzel of Rolling Meadows is a huge Cubs fan. Her collection of photos, autographs and collectibles rivals that in any man cave out there.
Among her favorite items is a photo of her uncle, Jim Di John, a rookie outfielder with the Cubs, standing next to Babe Ruth, in 1935, during Ruth's final game at Wrigley Field.
She also cherishes a shot of Gabby Hartnett, taken by her mother in the 1930s, standing near a dramatically different view of the first baseline at Wrigley Field.
But she has one prized possession that elevates her collection: a photo that features her mother and grandmother at Wrigley Field, which now hangs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The photo captures her mother, Rose Hoffman, and her grandmother, Sophia Hoffman, attending a Cubs game in 1932 during a Ladies' Day promotion.
“My mother was always a big Cub fan,” Wenzel says, “but I never realized how deep her loyalty ran until I saw that calendar.”
The calendar she refers to initially came out in 1982 — exactly 50 years after the original photo — and was published by the Cubs organization as a promotion, featuring all types of ardent fans.
When the 10th anniversary edition of the calendar came out in 1992 and was promoted on WGN radio, Wenzel ordered copies. Little did she know she would have a personal connection to one of its images.
“Flipping through the calendar — which had pictures of Wrigley Field way back when — I came across the month of May, where the picture showed a Ladies' Day audience,” Wenzel says. “I immediately recognized my grandmother and then my mom, who was 16 at the time, sitting in the first row.”
When she mailed the calendar to their home in Florida, her mother called to say how surprised she was to see the photo again after so many years. She still remembered when it was taken and that it appeared in the Chicago Tribune the next day.
That's not the end of the story, however.
The original image and glass plate negative made it to the major leagues, so to speak, to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its photo archives.
According to Ken Roussey, photo archives assistant, the image currently hangs on the second floor of the museum as part of its “Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball” exhibit, which also includes uniforms worn by early women professional players.
“The photo was chosen because our exhibits aim to tell the story of the full baseball experience and, in this case, the fan experience,” Roussey says.
He explains that Ladies' Day promotions started in the 1880s in New York, and by the 1930s, Ladies' Day at Wrigley Field became very popular. On Ladies' Day, women were allowed free entrance to the game and it helped draw record crowds to the ballpark, he adds.
“Essentially, the idea was to create more female baseball fans in hopes of increasing ticket revenue during the rest of the season,” Roussey says. “For us, the photo helps tell the story of the evolving fan experience at the ballpark.”
Wenzel reasons that because her mother was such a big fan back in her teenage years, she must have stood in line early in the day in order to grab her front row seat.
“She probably convinced my grandmother to come with her,” Wenzel says.
Both remained lifelong Cubs fans and it kept them young. Sophia Hoffman, a native of Germany and former Morton Grove resident, lived until the age of 99. Her daughter, Wenzel's mother, who eventually became Rose Di John, lived to be 93.
DiJohn spent her last years at Addolorata Villa, a senior living community in Wheeling, where Wenzel hung her calendar photo outside her door. Di John died in 2008 and never lived to see the Cubs win the World Series. But she did make it into the Hall of Fame.