<P> After the 2005 season, the plants were temporarily removed during reconstruction (see below). Over the following winter, a lounge was constructed in the upper part of this area and new rows of juniper bushes were placed in the lower part . </P> <P> By the end of 1937, the dimensions were set: 355 feet to the left field corner, a few feet behind where the corner wall tangents the foul pole; 368 to fairly deep left - center; 400 to the deepest part of center (at the right edge of the batters background area); 368 to right center; and 353 to the right field foul pole . There are other intriguing distances that have never been posted . In the original Encyclopedia of Baseball, by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson, 1951, measurements of 357 feet to the left field "well" and 363 to the right field "well" were revealed . That would put the closest point of the left end of the bleachers no more than about 350 feet from home plate, a fact many pitchers have cursed over the years . Left - center in general is shallow . Straightaway center is probably about 390 . Deep center and the right field area in general are better balanced . But the shallowness of the left - center power alley, really too cozy for major league standards, and the resultant increase in home runs in the decades since 1937, suggest that the Chicago Tribune's original skeptical assessment was correct . </P> <P> The "basket", an angling chain - link fence that runs along the top of the outfield wall, was installed at the start of the 1970 season . During the 1969 pennant race, there were several incidents of fans interfering with fly balls and even falling onto the field . There was also the first and only incident of a fan running the field and escaping without prosecution . A famous photograph was taken of the incident and published in the Chicago Sun - Times . The basket was intended to deter or prevent that kind of problem . Security cameras were also installed at that time . The "basket" angles away from the wall, and is also higher than the wall in order to provide some balance for the pitchers . However, over the years a number of baseballs have been hit "into the basket" for home runs that previously would have been outs, or off the wall, or possibly interfered with by fans . The basket only exists where there is seating . During the 1980s, when the bleacher seating was extended over the "catwalks", i.e. the bleacher ramps in extreme left and right fields, the basket was likewise extended . </P> <P> Lights were scheduled to be added to Wrigley Field in 1942, but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, then - owner Philip K. Wrigley (son of the late William) donated the necessary materials to the war effort . Baseball boomed after the war, allowing P.K. Wrigley to procrastinate on the issue . He eventually decided never to install lights for a variety of publicly stated reasons, so Wrigley Field remained a bastion of day baseball until the Chicago Tribune Company era, which began in 1981; the first night game was not until 1988 . </P>

When was the basket installed at wrigley field