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Image above by Nick Ulivieri

Wrigley Field's infamous bleacher bums will have to find another place to watch their beloved Chicago Cubs for the first half of the upcoming regular season.

The stadium's outfield bleachers are among the most well-known seats in Major League Baseball, and the Cubs have been renovating them in advance of Opening Day on Sunday, April 5. According to officials with the franchise, the bleachers were supposed to be ready in May, the Chicago Tribune reported, but the completion date on that project has been pushed back to June. It's part of a Wrigley Field renovation project that might not be done until 2018, and the organization says that's due, in part, to a frigid winter.

"Just take this winter for example, and we have found not only the problem with the weather but the water pipes that we had no control over. It could be four years, it could be five. It’s hard to say," Dennis Culloton, a spokesperson for Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, told Sports Illustrated.

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Culloton did not expand on his statement that weather was playing a factor in the delay, and a request to gain further comment from the franchise went unanswered. One thing's for sure – Chicago's winter, like the winter for so many other towns east of the Mississippi River, was snowier and colder than average.

According to weather.com meteorologist Linda Lam, Chicago has received 50.1 inches of snow this season, which is 15.3 inches above average. February tied the Windy City's all-time record for the coldest average temperature for that month. With an average temperature of 14.6 degrees, Chicago's month of February tied with Feb. 1875 for the coldest on record.

It isn't just Wrigley Field that's scrambling to get ready at the end of a long winter. Boston's Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, sprinkled black sand all over its snow-covered field in hopes that it would absorb more sunlight and quickly melt the 110.3 inches of snow has fallen on the city so far this season.

Yankee Stadium, located in the Bronx, has also had its share of weather-related headaches in the first week of spring. According to the New York Daily News, dirt patches covered half the field after the frigid winter killed much of the grass, and new sod had to be installed. A Major League Soccer game is scheduled to be played at Yankee Stadium this weekend, and the Yankees will host their home opener Monday, April 6.

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