The Best Block in Baseball: An ode to Sheffield Avenue, a scenic street tucked beyond Wrigley Field's ivy

CHICAGO – It's 10 steps from the sidewalk outside of Wrigley Field's right-field-to-center-field stretch to the sidewalk on the east side of Sheffield Avenue. Among other reasons, it's that tantalizing proximity -- that physical immediacy -- that makes the 3600 block of Sheffield the Best Block in Baseball.

Depending upon your standards and druthers, you may have a different answer to this implied question that probably no one is asking. Quite defensibly, Fenway would have its advocates, as would newer entries like PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Oracle Park and others. Yes, Camden Yards, of course. It says here, though, that the peculiarities of Sheffield Avenue just outside Wrigley, the long-gone history that lurks behind them, and the city-ness of it all conspire to make this the Best Bloc