As we approach the start of the 2021 Major League Baseball season, here's a selection of the Hot Stove Season around Wrigley Field in Chicago. Technically, the 'hot stove' is keeping players active over the winter months in off season leagues in warm climates. I always thought it was the fans huddled around the space heater reading about the player trades.

EOS 1v, EF 35L, Fuji Neopan Acros II 100
Jan 2021

Wrigley Field in Snow by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50983606613_20a95bd0f1_h.jpg

MLB Hall of Famer Billy Williams was the 1961 National League Rookie of the Year and was a six-time NL All-Star.

EOS 1v, EF 35L, Ilford Delta 400 (exp 03/2006)
Jan 2021

Hot Stove Season
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Murphy’s has been a fixture in Wrigleyville for more than 80 years. From its post prohibition origin as Ernie’s Bleachers, selling hot dogs and beer by the pail, to the home of the Bleacher Bums in the 1960’s as Ray's Bleachers. Today, the bar continues as a hub of the neighborhood and a haven for Cubs fans, becoming Murphy's Bleachers in 1980 when Chicago Police Detective Jim Murphy purchased the bar.

EOS 1v, EF 35L, Ilford HP5+ 400
Jan 2021

Hot Stove Season
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Wrigley Field has been the home of the Chicago Cubs since the Cubs played their first home game at the park on April 20, 1916. The park first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park. It was renamed Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926, before being renamed Wrigley Field in 1927.

EOS 1v, EF 35L, Ilford HP5+ 400
Jan 2021

Hot Stove Season
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"Sweet-Swinging" Billy Williams played 18 seasons in the MLB with a career .290 batting average and 426 home runs. Williams was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. His uniform number 26 is retired by the Cubs.

EOS 1v, EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, Kodak Pro Image 100
Feb 2021

Sweet-Swinging Billy Williams
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Harry Caray sang "Take Me Out to the Ballpark" during the seventh inning stretch with the microphone held out to the fans, to pick up the voices of the crowd as the fans sang along with Harry.

EOS 1v, EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, Kodak Pro Image 100
Feb 2021

Harry Caray
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51014815072_addf89e3c4_h.jpg

The 2020 Cubs finished 34-26, 1st in the NL Central. Because of the expanded postseason format, the National League Central became the first division in MLB history to have four teams qualify for the postseason in the same year.

EOS 1v, EF 24-105 f/4L IS II, Kodak Pro Image 100
Feb 2021

Wrigleyville in Snow
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998513837_e43e922d87_h.jpg

Assuming the 2021 season starts with no additional Covid delays, the Cubs 2021 home opener is April 1 against the Pirates.

EOS 1v, EF 24-105 f/4L IS II, Kodak Pro Image 100
Feb 2021

Wrigley Field
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998513877_7889e45a5d_h.jpg

Harry Caray, a Chicago legend who infamously coined the term "Holy Cow!", stands 12-feet tall in white bronze atop a granite base outside the Bleachers entrance to Wrigley Field.

EOS 1v, EF 24-105 f/4L IS II, Kodak Pro Image 100
Feb 2021

Harry Caray in Snow
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998400636_936f75fcd1_h.jpg

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While it definitely isn’t beach weather yet, the Chicago Park District has announced the city’s lakefront, playgrounds and indoor pools will reopen after they closed nearly a year ago during initial COVID-19 shutdowns in the Spring 2020.

Frozen Chicago by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968068796_24cfc5d27b_h.jpg

This set of images captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM. The files were processed in Adobe Lightroom 6.

Frozen Lake Michigan
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968179752_a5f9318b5b_h.jpg

At the time of these images on Saturday Feb 20, 2021, Chicago had experienced 12 straight days with more than a foot of snow on the ground. On Monday we completed a two-week period that is the city’s longest run with more than a foot of snow since the winter of 1978-1979. The winter average in Chicago a 5-inch depth of snow.

Frozen Chicago
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The Chicago Fire Department uses an icebreaker to plow through Chicago River keeping the river open during temps at 0F or below.

Marina Towers
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The Christopher Wheatley is 95-feet long and reinforced with steel and concrete, making it heavy enough to turn up to a foot and a half of ice into a jigsaw puzzle. The CFD slices the ice from Lake Michigan to Wolf Point where the river splits north and south.

Frozen Chicago River
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968069991_cf0b4ab15b_h.jpg

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The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated railroad") is the rapid transit system serving the City of Chicago and some of the surrounding suburbs. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the "L" is the fourth-largest in total route length and the third busiest rail mass transit system in the US, 102.8 miles (165.4 km) as of 2014.

Chicago, IL
Feb 2021

CTA L Tracks by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50997697333_730aeffa2b_h.jpg

The "L" reference has existed since the first lines opened in Chicago in 1882. The reasons for "L" rather than "el" have been lost to history, but theories point to "L" being another way for the Second City to differentiate from NYC that also had an "el" system in the late 1800s.

CTA L Tracks
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The "L" system consists of eight rapid transit lines laid out in a spoke & hub distribution paradigm focusing transit towards the central Loop in downtown Chicago. The "L" gained its name because large parts of the system run on elevated track. The "L" system was entirely above ground until the first subway sections were added in 1943.

CTA L Tracks
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A French artist visiting the downtown Loop around 1900 commented that “The sky is made of iron, and perpetually growls a rolling thunder … below are wagons of every size and kind, whose approach cannot be heard in the midst of the noise; and the [street]cars, with jangling voice which never ceases, cross and recross.”

CTA L Tracks
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998399446_d5af19a498_h.jpg

This collection of images all come from an EOS 1v, the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM and fresh rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100 or Kodak Gold 200 (shot at ISO 100). The scanned JPEGs were processed further in Adobe Lightroom 6. Specific details are available from the Flickr host pages via the URL links that are the title of each image.

CTA L Tracks
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The "L" provides 24-hour service on the Red and Blue Lines and is one of only five rapid transit systems in the United States to do so.

CTA L Tracks
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Much of the system uses riveted steel-plate that resembles of the Eiffel Tower (1889) and the original Ferris Wheel (1893).

CTA L Tracks
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998399551_606259cc1e_h.jpg

Currently, there are 144 operating CTA stations, and 6 abandoned ones. The most stations there have ever been on the "L" system at one time is 227. Ridership peeked in the 1920s just before the automobile became widely affordable. Since 2005, yearly ridership has again started to increase, including several recent all-time ridership records.

CTA L Tracks
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998399491_790d5e90d0_h.jpg

The "L" operated as a network of private businesses until 1947 when the City of Chicago purchased the majority of the private rapid transit operators and consolidated them under the newly-formed Chicago Transit Authority. The CTA was required to be financially self-sufficient. All maintenance and upgrades had to be paid for out of the fare box—out of the pockets of transit riders. This resulted in constantly increasing fares and some service cutbacks. Still, Loop commuters were using the CTA at rates near 80% as late as the mid-1950s.

CTA L Tracks
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50998512907_43c58a495f_h.jpg

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Graceland Cemetery is of the style known as a “rural” or “garden cemetery.” Garden cemeteries incorporate naturalistic elements like trees, lakes and ponds, terraced lawns, and weaving paths and plots to create a park-like atmosphere.

Graceland Cemetery and Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery
Chicago, IL
January 2021

Getty Tomb by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50994305207_3bfb1cacd6_h.jpg

Peter Schoenhofen (1827-1893) was a well-known Chicago brewer and owner of Schoenhofen Brewing, one of the largest of Chicago's 60+ breweries in the 1880s. The Egyptian Revival is an architectural style of motifs and imagery generally attributed to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt.

Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50991273077_cb71c2756c_h.jpg

Film: Kodak T400 CN (expired June 2005) and Ilford Delta 400 (expired March 2003)
Camera: Canon EOS 1v
Lens: Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

Both expired film rolls loaded as ISO-100 and shot with EC +1/3, an effective ISO-80. The scanned JPEGs loaded to Adobe Lightroom 6 and processed further.

Graceland in winter
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The William McKibben Sanger (1844-1877) Monument features a bronze female figure in a gesture of prayer who leans forward from a Celtic cross across the front of the dark granite Egyptian pyramidal base. The monument shows characteristics of the Arts & Crafts Movement which was popular at the end of the 19th century in Chicago.

William McKibben Sanger Monument
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Originally four independent cemeteries were established on land purchased by the Hebrew Benevolent Society and Congregation B’nai Sholom, the plots popularly known as Jewish Graceland form the oldest surviving Jewish Cemetery in Chicago, dating to 1851. Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery is directly across the street from Graceland Cemetery on North Clark Street in Chicago.

Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery
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At one time the wealthiest man in Chicago, Marshall Field started out as a store clerk. He became a partner in Potter Palmer’s dry-goods store in 1865. The female personification of “Memory” emanates an air of melancholic solemnity and strength. Marshall Field (1835-1906) is not named on the monument itself but he, his family and his descendants are identified with a row of simple headstones placed in front of the statue.

Graceland in winter
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50994306382_7205333ea1_h.jpg

Martin L. Ryerson (1818–1887) was a wealthy Chicago lumber baron and real estate speculator. The mausoleum is constructed from large blocks of highly polished Quincy granite, and was inspired by Egyptian funerary traditions and the Egyptian Revival style.

Ryerson Tomb
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Dr. Christopher D. Manuel (1964-2005) was a professor and an attending anesthesiologist at Chicago' Rush University Medical Center. The inscription below the flute player reads:

For all we know this may only be a dream
We come and go like ripples on a stream
For all we know tomorrow may never come
For all we know.

Graceland in winter
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50994195016_652da94a96_h.jpg

Tobias Allmendinger (1832-1889) had the vision and connections to invest in the early north side of Chicago. Beginning in the 1870s and into the 1880s, he purchased the land north and east of the Chicago River, locations now of the Hancock Tower, the Water Tower Plaza and the former Playboy Building. Mr. Allmendinger also owned real estate along Lake Michigan that became Chicago's Gold Coast.

Tobias Allmendinger Mausoleum
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A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person, and many times, their close family members.

Mausoleum Row
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50993494418_352fc4143f_h.jpg

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North Avenue Beach is one of Chicago's most popular beaches, and features a unique and popular beach house. Like much of the shoreline from Hollywood Avenue on Chicago's northside down through the city and all the way to the Indiana stateline, the shoreline that is North Avenue Beach has been extended into Lake Michigan by landfill. In some places the shoreline has been extended by nearly a mile east into Lake Michigan.

Breakwater Light Tower by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968068521_88f2c9dc4f_h.jpg

This set of images captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM. The files were processed in Adobe Lightroom 6.

Frozen Chicago
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968068541_e23e307f9c_h.jpg

In the late 1930s, a major landfill addition created new acreage in Lincoln Park between Fullerton Avenue and North Avenue creating most of what is now the North Avenue Beach.

North Avenue Boathouse
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The breakwater at North Avenue Beach curls around a protected area in front of the beach house. The view of the city here is known as Photography Point.

Frozen Chicago
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968178817_76ba665815_h.jpg

These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

Icicles can form during bright, sunny, but subfreezing weather, when ice or snow is melted by sunlight or some other heat source (such as a poorly insulated building), and refreezes as it drips off under exposed conditions.

Frozen Wrigleyville by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50967366048_9d4be6eeb6_h.jpg

The temperature at O’Hare International Airport, the Chicago's official recording site, reached 33F at 11:51 AM, Sunday Feb 21, 2021. This reading was the first time the temperature reached above 32F after 17 consecutive days of below freezing conditions. That's 400 consecutive hours below freezing.

Frozen Wrigleyville
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Chicago’s coldest temperature was recorded on Jan 20, 1985, at -27F. The city's record number of consecutive days below freezing is 43 days set between Dec 28, 1976 until Feb 8, 1977.

Frozen Wrigleyville
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50967489258_1b7910f841_h.jpg

This set of images were captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM. The files were processed in Adobe Lightroom 6 with an HDR effect from Topaz Adjust.

Frozen Wrigleyville
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50967489113_7b4ab39f8b_h.jpg

These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

A few images from a walking trip that started in Lincoln Park, Chicago, working south along Lake Michigan at 6:30 AM at 6F.

Tesla Model 3 by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968178327_1e70d04095_h.jpg

The loosely woven pattern of the Tortoise Shell Pavilion arcs near the boardwalk along Lincoln Park's South Pond.

Tortoise Shell Pavilion
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968178367_5df3967f2b_h.jpg

Civil War hero and two-term President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) is memorialized with this equestrian bronze sculpture. When the sculpture was dedicated in 1891, more than 200,000 people attended the ceremonies.

Grant Monument
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This set of images captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM. The files were processed in Adobe Lightroom 6.

Pedestrian Overwalk
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968178532_a366f2bfbc_h.jpg

The old North Avenue Beach Boathouse opened in 1940. The remodeled replacement opened in 1999.

North Avenue Boathouse
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50968068171_9d8ec75f71_h.jpg

These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

Chicago’s longest string of subzero days is 10, logged more than a century ago in January 1912.

Frozen Lake Michigan by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50924384636_c7799c3e85_h.jpg

Chicago is currently in a stretch of cold where temps are forecasted to stay below 40F well into late February 2021, a cold stretch we haven't experienced since 1985.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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Ice balls can usually be seen in late December and early January when temperatures fall into the teens and single digits. Cold temperatures cause heavy lake-effect snow to form a layer of floating slush on the lake. Wave action sculpts the slush into spheres.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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All images shared in this post were captured starting around 7:00am Saturday February 6, 2021 along the shore of Lake Michigan at Chicago's Belmont Harbor. The RAW images were processed in Adobe Lightroom 6 with an HDR effect from Topaz Adjust. The EF 70-200mm f/4L was used with an EOS 5DIII.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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Chicago's Lake Park was renamed to Lincoln Park in 1865 after Lincoln’s assassination.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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Archery exploded in popularity in the 1870s and several locations were founded in Lincoln Park. The Lincoln Park Archery Range has been located near Belmont Harbor since the 1930s.

Lincoln Park Archery Range
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During the Great Chicago Fire, started on the night of October 8, 1871, the fire swept through the city along a four-mile corridor. Three hundred people died, 100,000 were made homeless and 17,500 buildings were destroyed. Chicago roared back to life following the disaster. The city centre was laid out on a new grid. New forms of fireproof construction went rivet-on-rivet with the latest building materials and components.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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Charged with bringing their city back to life and pre-eminence, and to outdo New York, Chicago’s architects used the newest mass-produced, high quality, low-cost steel to build sky high. Until the mid-19th century, five stories had been the normal maximum height of commercial and residential buildings. The world’s first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Company completed in 1884. Chicago now has 52 building standing 600 feet or taller (183 meter). The former Hancock Tower is 100 floors and is now the 5th tallest building in Chicago and the 13th tallest in the USA.

Frozen Lake Michigan
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Snowmen appear in European literature as far back as the 1300s. In North America they tend to have three spheres representing the head, torso, and lower body, while in the UK they tend to have only two.

Future so bright gonna need shades
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These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.