With Opening Night (why are the Cubs opening at night…again?) just hours away, we’re getting our first good looks at the renovations to Wrigley Field that were mostly made on the outside this offseason. Quite frankly, the park has never looked better.  Gone are those awful concrete baffles that blocked views in and out of the park and made it look…dirty.

In, is ornate steel grillwork and clay tile like the park originally had.  They even restored the marquee on both sides with the original green viewable from inside the park and the iconic red on the outside.

It doesn’t hurt that just what might be baseball’s best team calls the park home, and the guys detoured from O’Hare to Wrigley last night to check out their new ludicrously big clubhouse.

Wrigley’s always been a beauty, even if at times it relied more on its charm than on its overall aesthetic.  As our old buddy Chuck to Chuck immortalized on his blog, the old park has inspired many to put pen to paper to honor it.

As we watch tonight’s game and bask in the complete revitalization of our favorite baseball franchise, we can think back to the words of Baseball’s Poet Laureate Vin Scully just before the start of the 1989 NLCS.

Wrigley’s facelift comes just in time, for another extended closeup come October…and dare we dream, November.

“This time…this time it will be better.”