Quick Rick Fuhs (Transcript)
Robby Incmikoski: My man, Quick Rick. Rick Fuhs, how many years with the Cubs in 2025? How long have you been there?
Rick Fuhs: I've been working 47 years, but they got me down for full-time for 45 years. So I had two years part-time and doing the balls and strikes for 36 years. I started in 1989—balls and strikes.
Robby Incmikoski: And what was your first year? I know you were maintenance, had a maintenance job. Is that right? Your first year?
Rick Fuhs: The first year I started was 1978, and the cool thing about it—I worked with all my friends out there. What they needed was guys that helped sweep the garbage. Cardinals were in town. They had a big crowd, and they said, "Bring as many guys as you can." So my friend Roger Beard, who I grew up with—a close friend of mine—he says, "They're bringing—bring as many guys in as he can." And so he called me. "Do you want to work?" I said, "Yeah." So that's how I got my foot in the door. And we swept garbage for the first few years, you know.
And then once the Tribune bought the Cubs from the Wrigley family, they took the broom out of our hand, which was great, because I didn't like to sweep anyway. But they took the broom out of our hand, and they had a regular crew that did all the cleaning at night. But that's how I got my foot in the door—sweeping the garbage.
Robby Incmikoski: How do you get from sweeping the garbage to doing the ivy and the scoreboard? Take me through that.
Rick Fuhs: Well, with a little luck. First of all, the ground crew—we were grandfathered into all the maintenance and bathrooms, scoreboards, clean press box. We did everything there. We washed the stands. And so my job back in the early days was to clean the press box, which was cool. I got millions of stories. I sat there with Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd, and we would talk about baseball or whatever came to our mind. And that was the early days of me working there. And that was the old press box, which was located where the suites are now at Wrigley Field.
So we clean the press box and Harry Caray would be happening, and Lou and Vince and Jack Brickhouse—the morning consisted of cleaning all the beer cans up. There were tons of beer cans laying on the floor and around the counter. They liked to drink during the game. And whatever they didn't drink, the technicians or the camera guys would finish it up. And so that was the job. We cleaned the press box and made sure it was ready to go for the next game.
Really good stories. We used to sit with Lou Boudreau, Vince Lloyd. I remember that was a fun thing.
Robby Incmikoski: Rick, do you ever sit back and think—all these decades you've been with the Cubs—what is my life like? What has been my life that I make my living at one of the most prestigious ballparks in the United States of America?
Rick Fuhs: Yeah, well, when the Cubs are playing really good ball, I'm excited to get to the ballpark. When people walk in and they run up them set of stairs to look at the grass or the players in the field, the ivy and the scoreboard, and they're in awe of what they see, I'm lucky enough I can walk in there. I don't take it for granted, but I appreciate working there, and I know how lucky I am to be able to operate an old scoreboard and trim the ivy. That's one of the jobs I've attained.
I keep pinching myself and say, "How did I get here? And how lucky?" It's just the way it laid out. I got lucky to be picked for the scoreboard, first of all. And then the foreman said he knew I was a good worker, and he said, "You want to try trimming the ivy?" I said, "Yeah, I'd love to." So then I started doing that in the early '90s, which was kind of cool.
One of the cool things is when a lot of the guys didn't like to water the ivy because it was time-consuming. It would make it grow faster. But I was out there every morning, even during batting practice, and I remember there was a strip of grass that was in front of the ivy, and then it was dirt between that strip of grass and the ivy. And if I'm watering it, the balls are rolling up into that dirt. Guys started running to the hitting instructor. He says, "Rick, Rick. You can't be watering the ivy during batting practice. Look what it's doing to the baseballs." And that guy was Billy Williams. So, wow, yeah. I mean, that's the early '90s. He was the hitting instructor.
And so the job was handed to the newest guy on the field job. So I went from the press box, and then I got the field job in the early '90s. And it's because it's a hard job—the ivy. So that job was handed to the newest guy on the crew, or on the field crew, and he had to clean the dugouts. He had to take care of both bullpens, which was a lot of work before and after a game.
Robby Incmikoski: Did you go to college?
Rick Fuhs: I did. Funny story is I went to Wright Junior College. I was studying to be an environmental biologist. My mom really wanted me to stick it out and keep going to college. But when I went to college, it was right down not too far from my house, off of Austin Avenue there. And I walk in and some days were great. I learned. I really wanted to be like a forest ranger, environmentalist, biologist, or whatever. But I walked in and they had a baseball game on the TV in the hallways. So I sat down and I started watching some of the game, and it was playoff time—was October.
Then I said, "Oh my God, look at this great game." I said, "I don't want to miss it." So I went over to the bar and watched the rest of the game. So next day, different game's on—same thing. TV's on in the hallway there at this school. They should have never done that. But so I left. I only went to school for a month, and I said, "You know what? I'm at Wrigley. I got a job. I got a nice job. I'm just going to see where it leads me." And it led me to 47 years and a pretty good job. People would be envious of having to work at Wrigley Field and do what I'm doing.
Robby Incmikoski: I look at this as it's an illustration that you can do good things without necessarily having a college degree, if you find something you love to do in your life, and clearly you've done that, right? I mean, am I interpreting that properly?
Rick Fuhs: Absolutely perfectly. My mom always wanted me—she knew that I could be someone, you know, she wanted to push me. She wanted me to go to college, which I did. I started out, it was just a junior college, but the second or third year, we were going to move into a better school.
My dad always told me, he says, "Get out of that job at Wrigley. You don't want to be sweeping garbage your whole life." He says, "I don't think that's for you." My dad was a manager for Illinois Bell. He was a pretty sharp guy, very talented artist. He could do—you know, the jack of all trades, master of none. But he was the jack of all trades, master of all. He could do anything. He could tape, he could do electrical, carpentry, everything. And he was an artist. He was really good. So he thought maybe I should get out of there. But then, when they won the World Series, he says, "I'm glad you didn't listen to me."
And being—I don't beat my own drum here, but Harry Caray used to mention how good I was at posting the balls and strikes. How fast I was. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk to the engineer, and I'm going to get exactly to perfection how that old system worked, and it was electro-magnetic, and I want to text it to you. And the new system is fiber optics, and it goes out there and makes the targets. I'll explain that to you. So I'm gonna show you some illustrations, send it to you, and you can look at it and hopefully put it in the book.
And my dad said he was happy that I stuck it out. And Harry was—he either liked you or he didn't. And he liked me. So the first time he mentioned me on his broadcast, he says, "I don't know how he does this. He's got the ball or the strikeout before the umpire even calls it. He's got such an insight on the game." I remember him perfectly, because I recorded it and go back and listen to it. The next day I seen him, and he goes, "Rick, I made you a celebrity." And I go, "You sure did. I was at a bar and everybody was buying me a drink." We had a laugh about that, but Harry was a good guy. And then once he got on something, he would keep talking about it. So he mentioned me throughout that whole season, which was great. It was good for—when you work hard and you're doing the balls and strikes, it's a nice little reward.
Robby Incmikoski: Let me ask you this. First of all, how the hell did you learn how to take care of ivy?
Rick Fuhs: Okay, so again, that was a job that was handed down, or it was handed to the guy that was lowest on the field crew, and the guy before would teach you how to cut it. You would get up on a scissor lift, and you started left field foul, and then you would do the whole top from left field to right field. And he would teach you how to cut it. We use clippers to trim the top.
And you go for like a brick line, and you trim along that brick line, and you get a nice and crisp look, and then you cut it back a little bit, some of the leaves, so they don't blow off and affect the cut. But everybody teaches everybody once they get the job. Mike Conway was the guy that did it before me, and then he taught me how to do it.
But it's a lot of work, and then trimming around the doors and then the numbers. I'm driving, and we're getting some traffic here, but it's a job that takes sometimes two days, but I try to get it done in one day, usually eight to 10 hours, if it's full. The hardest time to cut it is probably like mid-June all the way to mid-September, and then it kind of starts to go dormant—September to late September, into October. So that's when leaves start changing color.
Yeah, it's handed down—here's your clippers. You're the new guy.
Robby Incmikoski: And how long does it take? And how frequently?
Rick Fuhs: It takes about a good solid eight hours. And how frequently would be like every two weeks to two and a half weeks right before the team comes back. And if it's really hot out and it's growing really fast, we'll trim around the numbers and doors to keep them looking neat during the course of the homestand or something like that.
Robby Incmikoski: Right now, when you encapsulate your whole job—I don't want to say description, but what you do—you're a member of the grounds crew, you do the scoreboard, you do the ivy. What is a typical day like for Quick Rick? Say it's a night game. What is it like?
Rick Fuhs: Okay, so for a night game, we usually get to the ballpark around one o'clock in the afternoon, and one of my jobs is I go out to the visiting bullpen, and I take care of the visiting bullpen. I fix the holes with the clay, manicure the mound, make sure it's ready for the pitching staff once they come out, once they warm up in there, and then once they get it game-ready for the starting pitcher. And then after the game, fix it. Same routine, day in and day out, trying to get it ready.
We set up for batting practice before the game. I usually bring the equipment up, and then what I'll do is I'll put that Ernie Banks flag up on the left field pole, which is September again. I'll leave the other flag for someone else to do on the right field pole.
And in the morning, I'll check the scoreboard, make sure everything's working properly. I'll run through all the numbers, hits and errors and stuff like that, make sure that's working properly. And then we're working on the infield during batting practice, getting it manicured perfectly for the infielders once they're taking their fielding practice and stuff like that.
And then we get ready for the game, and then I go up to the press box, and then the balls and strikes, and then after that, back into the bullpen. Just constantly doing something, trying to get ready for the game or during the game.
Robby Incmikoski: Right now, after a Pirates-Cubs day game. What time today, Rick?
Rick Fuhs: Today, I got here at seven after a night game too. It was kind of tough. The reason why I live out by O'Hare—if I come at eight, if we had the option to come at seven or eight, if I come at eight, I'm driving in traffic for an hour or plus. I come at seven, it's like 35 to 40 minutes. So I figure I'll just come early. And got there early, and it was a tough game for the Cubs, and they had their chances, but they just couldn't—Paul Skenes pitched a heck of a game. And then they had their chances in the sixth and seventh inning. We lost.
Robby Incmikoski: We're just talking about your role, not today's game. Yeah, so when you're on the scoreboard, make sure I understand this correctly. You're calling balls, strikes, outs, errors, or hits. Is that right?
Rick Fuhs: Correct. Put the batter number up, then I'll put the ball or the strike up on the batter's hitting, and then I'll post outs up as they happen. And then if there's a hit or an error on the play, I post that up. And if there's a hit and an error—what's called a hit and error—and I'll have to clear the ball, and I'll have to clear the strike, because the hit goes up where the ball is, plus goes up in the middle, and then the strike, and then the error ball for a striker.
So there's little—there's every button something for the score panel. The red button is clear. During the inning, you never want to clear the house. The middle button clears the ball, strike and batter number. And at the end of the inning, you hit the bottom button on the left, which is red, and then the one in the middle that clears everything. So you want to start the next inning fresh with nothing on the scoreboard, no balls or strikes.
Robby Incmikoski: Now, are you watching the umpire, television, live feed? Where are your eyes during the games?
Rick Fuhs: My eyes are directly on the umpire at home plate, as he's calling the ball or strike, and then if the ball is in play, I have to post outs. So I'm watching them. If it's at second base, they turn a double play. I got to put the first out and I got to put the second out, which comes first. So I'm watching every umpire depending on where the play's being made. So most of the time, I'm watching the home plate umpire.
Robby Incmikoski: Do you think you know every umpire in Major League Baseball's ball or strike calls like their hand gestures? Do you pretty much know who the umpire is that day and what you're looking for in terms of their body movements?
Rick Fuhs: I do. I have it written down. I've got—what I do is, I got a scoresheet. Like, for instance, Palino Pitt was the umpire behind home plate today, and he calls a real fast strike to the right. He moves his foot to the right, so he's very easy to read. Some guys are a little more difficult. Cedar Strohm is a little difficult.
The all-time hardest guy ever is Tim McClelland.
Robby Incmikoski: Tim McClelland. Why is that?
Rick Fuhs: He would stand there and he would wait like three seconds before he'd call a strike, and I'd already put a ball up. So he was in the umpires' room, and I was friends with Jimmy Farrell, who was the assistant to the umpires. I was talking to him. He always laughed. He goes, "You know who's behind the plate today," and I go, "Tim McClelland," and we laugh.
So I said, "Why does he take so long to call the ball or strike?" And he says, "Come in the room. You meet him." So I went in the room. All the umpires were there, and Jim goes, "Go ahead, Rick, ask him." And I said, "All right, Tim. Why does it take so long for you to post a ball or strike?" And he said, "The reason is I want to screw up all the announcers, all the media people, all the radio and TV announcers, and the scoreboard guy too," because he knew I was doing the scoreboard. He said he just liked messing with the media and the broadcasters and stuff like that.
So, but he took like a good two, three seconds before he would call a ball or call the strike. But he was laughing, and I think it was Phil Cuzzi in the room, and he said, "Yeah, I seen him. There was a game where the ball was right down the middle, and he's standing there, he's called the ball, and then I'm like, 'Why? Right down the middle?' And all of a sudden he calls the strike." They were laughing. But umpires are pretty cool guys. I'm lucky.
There's a guy—he's the longest senior employee at MLB baseball, and his name is Larry Young, and when he comes—he's the supervisor of the umpires, and when he comes to the Cubs park, Wrigley Field—he likes to sit with me. So he'll sit with me and chat a little bit. He's doing his work. I'm doing my work. But what a great guy he is. He tells me a lot of stories about umpires and stuff like that.
Robby Incmikoski: Now, let me ask you this. I know you've been asked this a million times, but how often do you make mistakes? I mean, you're Quick Rick.
Rick Fuhs: Yeah, I pride myself on not making mistakes. They say, "Well, you're fast." I pride myself on not making mistakes. But it happens. A lot of times the mistake will be putting the wrong batter number up, or I'll have a ground ball to first. I'll have two and one, and what it should be one, two.
So the umpire will hold his hands up, or his fingers, and he'll tell you the right count. I got some binoculars. I can't see him. I just look right through the binoculars. And every once in a while, I'll make a mistake. I try not to, but it happens.
Robby Incmikoski: Right? I mean, it's a hard job. How many pitches are you calling a game? 300 roughly?
Rick Fuhs: Somewhere around there every single day. Yeah, it was probably 300 today, because it was—even though it was a long game, so at three hours, the best thing they did for me was putting the clock in. It's going to give me a few more years of work in there, because I'm not as tired doing the balls and strikes. The clock has moved the game so much better, faster. I love that. I try to get to come over sitting there all day. No, a three-hour game is a long game where it used to be five-hour games.
Robby Incmikoski: How did you get the nickname Quick Rick?
Rick Fuhs: I think it was—think it was—could have been the Tribune. There was a call. Jim Quick was the umpire right behind him, and I think it was the Tribune. Maybe was Paul Sullivan, not 100% sure. It was maybe Paul Sullivan, the reporter. And then the play happened where it was I had ball four up, and Jim Quick only had ball three. So they were conversing with the umpires, and so I had the right count up, and it was in the Cubs' favor, so I just left it.
And they overturned it because no one was keeping track of the count. The umpire wasn't keeping track. So they called up to the press box. And actually what I did was I flipped it back to ball three. And as I did that, Bob Rosenberg, the official scorer, saw that, and he said, so they called him and said, "What's the count?" He goes, "I'm not in charge of that. You guys are in charge of that." So he looked at scoreboard. At that point, I had ball three up. I flipped it back, but then I flipped it back to ball four, and I was yelling, "Bob Rosenberg, it's ball four. That's what I had." Well, I was right. I had ball four, and that was the correct count, but they said they called it a quick call by Jim Quick, and then I got the nickname Quick Rick or something like that. That's great. Yeah, I had the right count. The umpire didn't, but they never—in today's game that would have been overturned, but that nickname just stuck with me.
It didn't go in the Cubs' favor. Actually, I kind of screwed that up talking about that. I'm trying to drive, and there's a guy cutting me off. It's not easy talking in an interview while you're driving. My web guy sees this transcript of this interview, he's gonna go—what? My name is Rick, and then it's done quickly, I think.
Robby Incmikoski: What's the key to keeping ivy fresh? What would you say to somebody that wants to have ivy?
Rick Fuhs: Okay, to keep it fresh. Yeah, it's like a plant, so you need to water it accordingly. And if there's dead leaves, you cut them off. So if it's on your fence or your garage, like I have it on my garage at home, and it's Wrigley Field ivy, and if I see a brown leaf, I'll cut that off so it doesn't jump from leaf to leaf. Just properly water it.
At Wrigley, we spray it with a fungicide and an insecticide. I don't do that. Some of the guys that do the spraying do that just to prevent it from getting insects and fungus control. It gets done probably every two weeks.
And what the ivy doesn't like is cold, rainy nights in the early spring, because that's when you get leaf spot, or you can get brown spot, and it could jump from leaf to leaf. What it does like is the hot, sunny days, like a hot rain, or like a rainy day like 90 degrees. So we water it a lot. When it's really hot, we try to keep up, but it doesn't really need to be watered from top to bottom—it's mostly the base. But for some reason, when I water it, I just like to soak the whole ivy.
The leaves—you get into it. It's like a swishing sound when you go back and forth with the hose. It's kind of cool. Next time you're at Wrigley, get out there early and I'll bring the hose out. It's kind of cool.
Robby Incmikoski: Rick, nobody else does what you do. The scoreboard, the ivy, member of the ground crew, you've been doing it since—when's your first year you said? '78 was the first year, 1978. Yep. But my point is you've been doing it since 1978. Rick, how do you put in words your life and your career? You're one of one. Nobody else does this.
Rick Fuhs: Yeah, it's like that song, "How did I get here?" I'm lucky. I got a good job. People—I tell my friends I keep the scoreboard at the Cubs and I trim the ivy, and they go, "Wow, that's like a dream job." I look forward to going to work. I don't come home all stressed out, only when the Cubs lose, but not that I'm stressed, but I've become a big fan of them lately because they're playing such good ball, and I hate to see them lose a game. But working at Wrigley is just like—it's a fun thing to do. It's fun to go there.
I'm talking for the whole crew. Everybody just loves going to the ballpark. It's, of course, a 10-game homestand at the end, we're ready to have a couple days off, but it's like a dream job, though. Every time I go there, I'm excited to walk in the ballpark. So a lot of times I'll be there in the morning by myself, and this is mostly years back, but I would sit outside and I would just sit and have a cup of coffee and just listen. You can hear the birds chirping. You're the only one on the field, and then you can hear the train going by. You can even hear "Next stop is Addison." It's so quiet early, peaceful early morning starts. It's really loud, really loud.
Right? I mean, like I said, when I was a kid, my mom and dad took us to the game. I have two brothers, and we used to run up them set of stairs and you see the grass, and it was like you could smell the grass just being cut, and you could smell the suntan lotion in the bleachers or the—you could smell everything at that ballpark. Ballpark smells, right? And now I'm immune to it. I don't smell anything every day, but I don't take it for granted. I look at the field and our head groundskeeper, Danny Kennemyer, he does a fabulous job with his crew, along with our crew. That field's in perfect shape for every game. There's a lot of work that goes into it. He's a great boss, so everybody likes working for him.
That's cool. I love it. I mean, I've got a lot of friends that—good thing is, I see a lot of my old friends because I'm at the ballpark, they come to see me. Friends from school, my high school, grammar school, cousins, come looking for me for a baseball or chance to go into the scoreboard. The balls and strikes are operated from the press box there, right behind home plate. Yep.
So that's a good part about it. I get to see a lot of my family and friends on a regular basis, which is great.
Robby Incmikoski: How do you put it into words how cool your life is and your career, Rick, to do this and be such an impactful part of the game of baseball and the game day experience for fans? How does that resonate with you?
Rick Fuhs: Well, I mean, like I said, when I come to the park and just walking on the field, and it's so beautiful, you see the ivy and the scoreboard and the sunshine—I'm a sun worshiper. I love being in the sun. It gives me energy. And then you see the fans pouring in and how excited they are to see the ball players and get ready for a game. You see the ball players taking batting practice. And I guess I got lucky. I was in the right place at the right time.
Cotton Bogran gave me the job there in 1980. I started in '78, full-time I started 1980, and he gave me the opportunity to be on the grounds crew. And I owe a lot to Cotton. He's the guy that saw something in me that said, "Hey, he's a good worker. He deserves to be a groundskeeper at Wrigley Field." It was hard to get in there. There was only 22 members, and a lot of those guys in the old days, if a guy left, it was so hard. You had to know someone in the union, or you had to know someone, or you had a family member. They would like—the guy, Lenny Wheeler, brought his son to work there. But my luck was because of Roger Beard brought me in just to sweep some garbage and Cotton Bogran took a liking to me. And he put me on full-time.
And as years went by, I was cleaning that press box till 1989, and then all of a sudden, boom, the job opened up doing the balls and strikes. And I took it. At first, I really didn't want it. I wanted to work on the field, but the job was offered to somebody else, and my stadium manager was Frank Caparelli. He said, "You might as well take it. Pays 20 bucks a game, and I think you'd be really good." And I said, "Okay, I'll take it," and I'm lucky. I got the job, and I really excelled at doing it throughout the years, and now I can talk to people like you when you came up. I could talk to them, and I could still operate the balls and strikes while I'm talking to someone—maybe put a batter number up between batters.
I've had groups up there through the Cubs organization. Like the premier ticket people, the people that buy seats and clubs and stuff like that. They bring them up there, and then you entertain them in the area where I sit and I let them put batter numbers up. Little kids, they get so excited to see them putting a number up there. And it's—for me, it's like, I do it every day. For someone that does it the first time, and they see that number go up there, they get so excited. So I guess I get excited too, when I see a little boy or little girl or an adult do it. And it's just fun for me. Sometimes I like when people come up there, because you have two groups or three groups, and boom, you're in the seventh inning. And the game flies when you're trying to entertain people up there too. It's not easy to do, but I can do it. I can walk and chew gum, I guess. Like, I'm so used to doing it. They ask me, "How do you pay attention? How do you know what's going on and talk to us?" And I said, "Well, doing it so long."
I'm a big hockey fan. I love the Blackhawks. And 2010, 2013, '15, they won Stanley Cups. So unfortunately, some of those games were on when we had a Cubs night game, so I had a TV up there, and I could swear I never missed a drop of a puck. I watched most of the hockey when I did the balls and strikes. I don't know how I did it, but I did it, but I watched the games. At one time I cheered. And there's—I never cheer for baseball, because there's no cheering in the press box, right? Everybody looked back there and said, "Did the Hawks score a goal?" I go, "Yep." They all laugh, and they knew I was a hockey fan at the hockey game.
So yeah. And then good story about the ivy is Elmer Clayey and his son, Gordon. There's a famous photo of those guys. They installed the ivy back in 1937 on September the fourth. But it was directed pretty much by Bill Veeck Jr. He was an esteemed office employee, and he saw a couple ballparks. One was Perry Field in Indianapolis, and another one was Pasadena, where the Wrigley family owned a ballpark with that ivy on the wall, and that's where they got the idea. They had some investors coming in. They wanted it to look like a park, I guess you call it a park. So they wanted greenery. And they put a plan in—the Boston ivy and the bittersweet on the wall at Wrigley. It was headed mostly by Bill Veeck, but it was done mostly by the Clayey family, because they were the landscapers for the Wrigley family. So they had a farm, landscaping farm, and they had all these ivy plants. Brought them in, and boom, overnight, they put some stakes in and they planted the ivy. And I remember Cotton telling me a story he helped with Bill Veeck a little bit. There wasn't just one or two guys. There was a bunch of guys. That's a long wall.
Yeah, this is great, man. What a story. And I do remember Cotton telling me that he was out there planting it. And then Bobby Dorr was the head groundskeeper, and he was part of that too.
But they wanted it in before the investors came, and they put this bittersweet in, because it grew a little faster. But when you plant ivy in September, it's not going to grow fast, that's—it's going into dormancy like in October. So the best time to plant ivy would be in the spring.
So I think that a lot of the ivy league schools—they plan ivy on the walls. It's like a tradition. That's how I think they became called the Ivy League. I read that somewhere. I could be wrong, you know, I don't know.