Dad, daughter build mini Wrigley Field

Entering the basement of Stephanie White's Schaumburg townhouse, two words come to mind: holy cow.Instead of your standard rec room -- with a ragged couch, berber carpeting and maybe a pool or foosball table -- it's a downsized version of Wrigley Field.Brick paneling bursting with artificial ivy lines the walls with outfield dimensions inset.Official Cubs bases dot the brown and green carpeted diamond, and yellow poles mark "foul territory" at the room's right and left corners. Over a flat-screen TV in center field is a miniature replica of the green old-school scoreboard detailing National and American League standings. And just where you might expect fans to get the rowdiest -- the outfield bleachers -- is a full bar, stocked with the Cubs' brew of choice, Old Style."We even put in track lighting to make it look like Wrigley during a night game," White said.The project -- no can of corn -- cost nearly $5,000 and two months of steady work by the 24-year-old credit union teller and her dad Bill.White grew up in Bartlett playing and watching baseball with her father on a daily basis."Baseball was our favorite way to spend quality time together," she said. When she bought her first home last winter, Dad helped create a visual way of remembering their bond -- even though he's a St. Louis Cardinals fan at heart."I love the architecture of Wrigley Field, but the Cardinals are my team. Stephanie's always going to rib me for that," Bill White said.The mini-Wrigley idea first started as a joke. "I mentioned that her basement was such a good size that we should turn it into her own Wrigley Field," he said. "We just looked at each other, started grinning, and got serious about it."Like any winning team, the Whites began with a strategy.White studied pictures of the North Side stadium from all angles, and her dad made measurements to scale for the 15 #189;-by-16-foot room.Most of the supplies were bought at home centers.Bill White, who runs a sign business in addition to working in maintenance in Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 and serving as a fireman in Bartlett, created some of the specialty signs like the rules posted for Bleacher Bums, such as "Absolutely no ties allowed" and "Visiting balls must be thrown back."From February until mid-April, Bill White devoted nearly all of his free time to the project. "I'd go over most weekdays (to work) on my lunch break and come back in the evenings for four or five hours. We worked every weekend too," he said. "We tried to have it ready by opening day, didn't quite make it."So much time together might spark a few fights between fathers and daughters. But for the Whites, constructing their mini-Wrigley "was a lot of fun; I don't recall us getting in one fight," White said. Now, the space might be considered the Northwest suburban answer to the haunting prophecy repeated in the movie "Field of Dreams": If you build it, they will come."We've had a lot of family and friends over to watch the games, and they do double takes at all the little details --our hot dog warmer and popcorn machine, and the blue tarp we have for the field during rain delays," White said."The only thing we're still looking for is stadium seats."As the pennant race draws to a nail-biting close, the Whites plan to host a Cubbie celebration."We've been saying all year we'd have a huge bash if they win the division," White said.If not, like any good Cubs fan, she'll wait till next year. 512303bSchaumburg's Stephanie White in her miniature Wrigley Field located in her basement home with her dad, Bill White of Barlett who designed the smaller version of the famous Wrigley Field scoreboard.Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer 512299Stephanie White and her dad, Bill of Bartlett, stand in their own “Field of Dreams.”Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer