The All-Halloween Team #5: Vern Fear

Pitcher Vern Fear is the fifth member of my All-Halloween Team. 

The thing is, there’s not much available info on Vern Fear. His major league career consisted of four appearances with the Chicago Cubs between August 3, and September 3, 1952; no wins, no losses, with an ERA of 7.88.

So without many facts at hand, I had to think through how best to represent Mr. Fear.

And I thought, “If I were afraid at Wrigley Field, the legendary home of the Chicago Cubs, where would I hide?”

The answer: behind Wrigley Field’s equally legendary ivy, naturally.

The idea of planting ivy on the outfield walls at Wrigley Field in 1937 is said to have come from (also legendary!) baseball executive Bill Veeck (as in Wreck), Jr., though it must be noted that Veeck himself was the one who said it.

Veeck also claimed that he was the one who planted the Boston ivy — along with faster-growing Japanese knotweed — in a stealth overnight mission late in the 1937 season.  But there’s a photo of a local nursery company planting the ivy in broad daylight, which is dated nearly a month earlier.

In any case, the ivy (and knotweed) has flourished ever since, and has become famous for reasons other than its aesthetic value.

Things get stuck in it — mostly baseballs hit there, either during batting practice or during gameplay. Sometimes live balls hit into the outfield at Wrigley Field end up dislodging balls stuck in the ivy; hilarity ensues when suddenly there are two baseballs on the field.

(Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood once found all kinds of stuff in the ivy — cell phones, a French horn, former Cub and Baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson … but that was for a State Farm commercial.)

More proof that the ivy makes a great hiding spot: Cubs player  Hank “The Mayor of Wrigley Field” Sauer was so popular with fans that they would toss more pouches of his favorite chewing tobacco than he could carry as he patrolled the outfield. Sauer said, ”I loved playing in Wrigley Field,” Fans would throw tobacco to me. What I couldn’t put in my pocket, I’d store in the vines. I supplied the whole club with tobacco.”

Look for more members of the All-Halloween Team, posted here between now and Saturday, October 31, 2026!