Ah yes, thank you for coming so quickly sir. I was in the middle of a shower when some guy with a knife came and tried to kill me. I'm not sure I'll be coming back unless you take care of that situation. Or unless you get free WiFi.
Our trip overall was very awesome- aside from the fact that we had a bout with a half-sleeping cabbie who enjoyed braking at the last second. And the fact that we hoofed it around the city about 4 miles on our first day because we were idiots.
This trip was all about Wrigley field, and it didn't disappoint. It was my first trip to Wrigley. Actually, it was my first major league game that did not take place in old Tiger Stadium. I've never been one of those guys who wants to see games in every major league stadium. I didn't even care if I saw another baseball game again.
But my dad, who retired in June, wanted to go, and he asked me if I wanted to go. I figured it'd be a neat opportunity, so I said 'sure'.
It hadn't even been ten minutes after the game and I was already excited about our next trip (hopefully Fenway)! That one game restored baseball in my soul. I still don't want to see every ballpark- but I want to see as many as I can. Walking into Wrigley made me feel like a little boy again- that's the magic of the ballpark.
I'd pit baseball right up there with hockey as being sports you HAVE to see live. They work on TV...but not nearly as much as they do when you are there in person. The crack of the bat, and you swear that every single fly ball is going to leave orbit. Of course, it ends up being a routine infield fly-ball...but it's just so amazing. Football and basketball are cool, but you can totally get by just watching those on the tube. Baseball? Hockey? If you get a chance, see a game.
We had an absolutely beautiful day- it was probably lower-to-mid 80s, no clouds, low humidity. We sat in section 202, which, as we found out, was underneath another section. That means that we got to sit in the shade (maybe like a half inning of some sun seeping through), with a nice cool cross breeze. We had very minimal obstruction (couldn't see 3rd base very well).
Probably the coolest feature of the stadium was the way the outfield bleachers were set up. In the stadium itself, there weren't a significant number of bleachers. But on top of the buildings across the street, there were bleacher sections set up. Looking at it from where we were, it looked like the stadium was bigger than it actually was, but it was really neat to find out that the top half of the outfield sections were not even in the stadium!
The game itself was great. We saw Ryan Howard hit a 3-run homer. We saw Cubs fans throw the ball right back. We saw last year's AL Cy Young winner, Cliff Lee, pitch 8 innings of strong ball for the Phillies (oh, by the way, we got to watch the defending World Series champs). We got to take part in the 7th inning singing of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame', led by Jim Belushi. Congratulations baseball- you have been returned to my heart. Fenway (or another ballpark), here we come!
The old school hand-operated scoreboard. Needless to say, we were scoreboard-watching the Tigers, as they beat the BoSox 2-0.
(Sigh)...those ivy covered walls were so beautiful!
If you get a chance to see a game in Wrigley, I HIGHLY recommend it. Even if you don't like baseball, the chance to take part in this piece of history. And who knows, maybe you'll become a baseball convert like me.
In the next couple days, in honor of the upcoming college football season, I'm going to post a diatribe on the state of the NCAA bowl system (of course, I'm not really sure what diatribe means, but I obviously wanted to use it. So I did.)
PIC:
Norman Bates: http://www.legendsofhorror.org/images/bates/ppic1.jpg
2 comments:
that's pretty awesome dude, did you guys see anything else in chicago while you were there? i have a friend who lives in wrigleyville
Yeah, we saw the Field museum, Shedd aquarium, and almost went on Sears (or whatever moniker it officially goes by now...Willis?) Tower twice (too long to wait). We went to Navy Pier too...ate at some great places, had my first Chicago-style pizza. Great time. Loved Wrigley, made me fall in love with baseball again.
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