Grow Cubs, Grow! Manhattan Woman Paints Love for Team on Lawn

MANHATTAN, IL — Manhattan residents who might have noticed helicopters overhead Century East subdivision Tuesday night were worried at first—until they realized exactly what the spotlight was shining on.

A Cubs logo painted so large on their neighbor's lawn, that it could even be spotted from the skies.

It took Karen Baker 10 hours (spread over two days) and more than 10 cans of spray paint to create the logo 27 feet in diameter. She had never done anything like it before, and completed it mostly freehand.

"I just went for it," she told Patch, noting that a friend nudged her to do it, and she decided to run with it after they won the pennant.

Though it was her first time with such an artistic show of her fandom, the Wilton Center native has been a Cubs supporter since she was a kid. Except in the '70s, she said, when they would face the Cincinnati Reds. Baker's cousin Darrel Chaney played shortstop for the Reds. Then she had a familial obligation to cheer for the opposing team, she joked.

The rest of the time, she bleeds Cubbie blue.

"My father loved the Cubs so this is for him up in heaven along with Grandma and Great Aunt Jessie who were diehard fans and could give you all the names of the Cubs players and never missed a game on tv," she said.

"I had fun doing it," she said. "Lots of thumbs up and visitors just driving by and stopping.

"But oh my hand! So very sore now!"

She's even had a few inquiries to paint more of them on commission.

"I was told people want to pay me to put one in their yard," she said. "Pricey! A million bucks!"