Yes, this is my play-by-play of my first trip to Chicago...and WRIGLEY FIELD!
Enjoy!
It's always been my dream. Wrigley...the ivy...the seats on the buildings across the street...Waveland Ave...the friendly confines...the Chicago Cubs. My brother, Andy and I grew up watching the Cubs. We always made plans to go, but never followed through. As you faithful readers know, it was Becky that pushed my hand and bought me tickets to the game for Father's Day...and our Anniversary (they were AWESOME seats, hence the need to spread the tickets to two special days.)
I picked Andy up Thursday afternoon, and we were off. The game was Friday, but I wanted to get there, get a hotel room, check out the area and make sure we: 1. didn't have to drive in Chicago at night, and 2. weren't late to the game.
I have a phobia of big cities, one that is getting WAY better since my Aunt Mary Ann introduced me to Mandy...Mandy being the voice that directs me on my TomTom GPS, of course! (a special thanks to you, Aunt Mary Ann, I don't know what I'd do without TomTom!!) I was fully expecting to be totally stressed the last 20 minutes of the trip, but with Mandy leading the way, it was smooth sailing! Our hotel was .4 miles from Wrigley, close to Lake Michigan, so it was very scenic driving in, which was nice. I quickly noted that Chicago was one of the "cleanest dirty cities" I've been to. (it is downtown in a big city after all.)
After a few minutes, Mandy informed us we had reached our destination. There was one problem...we didn't see our hotel! We drove down the road and stopped at a Walgreens. It was for the best, as I needed some deodorant, and Andy needed a restroom. I asked the guy at the counter, who was EXTREMELY nice, where the hotel was, and he directed me to it. I grabbed the deodorant and a cool Cubs batting helmet pen holder (on sale for 50% off $15) and started to check out.
Walgreens Guy: "I'll sell you a second helmet for 3.50 if you want another one."
Me: "SOLD!"
Walgreens Guy: "Good, I'm tired of looking at those things!"
Already the Chicagoians (or is it Chicagoites??) were proving to be nice people!
We backtracked right to our hotel. The hotel had no parking, but there was a parking garage next door attached to the hotel. In doing my research, I noticed that was where we needed to park, so I pulled in. The sign ahead of us read:
STOP! LEAVE KEYS IN THE CAR AND WE WILL PARK IT FOR YOU.
I looked cautiously at Andy, and sat unsure of what to do. I wasn't about to just leave my car without talking to someone. After about 10 seconds, an attendant came out and gave me a ticket. I gave him the keys, grabbed our stuff and left the car in his hands.
Not to worry, the hotel attendant assured me that was the way it works. I felt better. The attendant checked us in (he was very polite, too!!) and we went to our room. We made a quick call to our lady folk, and set off to walk over to Wrigley Field to take some photos and map our route for the next day's game.
As we turned the corner onto Addison, I asked Andy if we were going the right direction as I starred at the map.
Andy: "Um, yeah, I think so..." he said as he tapped my arm and pointed up ahead. There, in front of us in the distance was Wrigley Field!
(The scoreboard from outside of Wrigley Field.)
(Harry Carey statue with Wrigley in the background.)
(Ernie Banks statue.)
(The famous Wrigley Field sign.)
We made a lap around the entire stadium, taking it all in. I touched one of the outside walls and just couldn't believe I was there. At one point, we could see through to the inside of Wrigley Field! We both, without hesitation, took a quick glance and turned away.
Andy looked at me and said just what I was thinking..."we shouldn't look, I don't want to spoil it for tomorrow." He was right...taking that glance made me feel guilty. We needed to wait.
We walked down North Clark to Palermo's "Red Ivy" restaurant, a place that specialized in Chicago Style Deep-Dish Pizza. You can't go to Chicago and not have Deep-Dish Pizza, right? We were met by the third, and maybe the most, friendly Chicagoian, our waitress, Karissa. We ordered a large pizza, and she quickly informed us that we didn't want the large, we probably wanted the small.
Me: "I don't know, we are pretty big guys!"
Karissa: "Trust me, you don't want the large!"
We compromised and ordered the medium. She informed us it would be 45 minutes to cook the pizza, it was very thick after all. Andy and I chatted about sports, and watched the football game preview while we waited, which was nice because I don't get to talk to Andy as much as I would like, and the dude is an encyclopedia of Sports knowledge. Easily the most knowledgeable sports fan I know!
Then the pizza arrived. Now I'm one to admit when I am wrong, and Karissa, if you are reading this by some odd coincidence, I WAS WRONG! That pizza was HUGE!
(The pizza. Medium. REAL mozzarella cheese. EASILY the BEST PIZZA I have ever had!! I highly recommend Palermo's "Red Ivy" Italian Restaurant.)
We waddled back to the room, was talked out of a few bucks by guys on the street (I'm an easy target!) and watched the Steelers beat the Titans (then watched the 1990 Bulls beat the Cavs...it was 24 hours of Jordan on the Chicago channel to commemorate MJ's being inducted to the Hall of Fame.)
FRIDAY
I woke up too early and we had to sit around the room and wait. We had the continental breakfast and watched the Bulls take the Lakers in game 5 of the Championships for their first title. At 10, we headed towards Wrigley for the 1:20 game. I wanted to get there, walk around, see batting practice, and just enjoy the whole experience.
It was a sea of Cubs blue and it was awesome! When we finally made it in, we walked the corridors of the friendly confines and found a tunnel to our seats. When we emerged from the tunnel, the sun shone through the blue sky onto the playing field. I almost cried. Here are some pics:
(View from behind home plate.)
(Shot of the Wrigley scoreboard and ivy on the outfield wall.)
As we made our way around, we finally found our section, #34. I showed the guy our tickets and he took us down to our seats...we got closer, and closer, and CLOSER! We were indeed in the front row on the first base side. FRONT ROW!! Wow, Becky really hooked us up!!
(View of the visiting Reds dugout from our seats. Yep, we were THAT close!)
(Andy in front of the dugout.)
(Andy and I with the scoreboard in the background.)
(Various Red's players including Bronson Arroyo.)
(Red's player graciously chatting with a dad and his kids. Signed some stuff for them, too!)
(Adam Rosales, Reds #23)
(Announcer's booth.)
(Close up of the Scorebard. Welcome to Wrigley Field indeed!)
Now it's important at this point to point out how close we were to the Red's bullpen. (See next photo.)
(#33 Micah Owings warming up...don't know why, he wasn't pitching.)
When Owings was finished warming up, the bullpen catcher left the ball sitting on the field about 15 feet in front of us. (see next photo.)
(See that ball sitting at the top of the picture on the left??)
The catcher left and the ball sat there, taunting me. I wanted that ball! Just then, the Crowd Management guy came out and stood right in front of the ball. I jumped at the chance.
Me: "Excuse me, sir...can I have that ball for my son?"
Him: "Sorry, I can't give the balls away, but instead of kicking it back onto the field, I'll leave it there, and if a player comes by, ask them. They can give it to you."
I felt defeated, but I still had hope. And then, this guy came towards the ball.
(Darnell McDonald, #16.)
Me: "Excuse me, sir...can I have that ball?"
Without saying a word, he scooped it up and tossed it to me. I couldn't believe I was holding a ball used by the players, FROM WRIGLEY FIELD!!
(My Wrigley Field ball...complete with a Wrigley Field grass stain!!)
NOTE: Thank you Mr. McDonald...I know I had Cubs stuff on, and most of your teammates were throwing balls to Reds fans, but you don't know how much it means to me to have this priceless momento from Wrigley Field! You are my new favorite Red of all-time! Move over Johnny Bench!!
(Craig Tatum, um, stretching. Ouch!)
(Putting down the lines, old school style!)
(Not sure who #31 is for the Reds...anyone? NOTE: Talked to Andy, #31 is Johnny Gomes...)
Craig Tatum in the bullpen.)
(#31 again - Johnny Gomes - and #19 Joey Votto.)
(Joey Votto)
(Shot of the field during the National Anthem.)
(Close up of Derrek Lee.)
(Another one of D. Lee.)
(Cubs starter, Rich Harden.)
(Close up of the ivy in left field.)
(Close up of the Reds' Joey Votto and the Cubs' Aramis Ramirez.)
I'm not going to bore you with game stats and such, I'll simply let the next picture do the talking!!
(YES, CUBS WIN!! 6 to 4.)
Some stuff to note:
1. Geovany Soto, the Cubs catcher, hit a home run...which was cool to see.
2. Andy predicted before the game, and then again before his at bat that the Reds' Jonny Gomes would hit a home run. He did.
3. In long standing Wrigley Field tradition, the fan who caught that home run ball threw it back!! Way to go!!
4. I said "this is awesome" about 10,000 times...it was, after all, AWESOME!!
5. I got to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (a Wrigley Field 7th Inning Stretch tradition) with my brother!!
6. I got a freakin' ball!!
7. As we were leaving, we noticed a group of people gathered around a parking lot...the player's parking lot!! We saw Jake Fox leave, we saw Cubs legend Ron Santos, and I was a chain link fence thickness away from former player and Cubs commentator Bob Brenly!! I always wondered what I would do if I was that close to a "famous" person. Would I get an autograph? Tell him he should be the next Cubs manager? Nope, I just walked by and laughed like a little school girl with my brother about how "we just saw Bob Brenly!!"
We made our way back to the hotel, retreived our car (no, the mileage wasn't all jacked up like when Ferris Bueller took Cameron's dad's car to Chicago either, I checked!!) and we drove home, happy. (Unhappy that it took us two hours to go 40 miles to get past Gary, but it was rush hour on Friday!)
ALSO NOTE: For there being 40,000 fans in attendance, I can't believe how easy it was to get out of the stadium, and Chicago. There is hardly any parking around Wrigley (except a $50 lot next to the field, and $20 to park at McDonalds across the street!) Where do they all come from?!? I know, most walk, get bussed in, or take the Subway, but still, 40,000?!?
And, in case you were wondering, yes, I TiVo'd the game...and YES, we were on tv...check out a few shots of us!!
(Us, tiny. Click picture to enlarge so you can see the arrows. I'm on the left, Andy the right.)
(We're getting closer!!)
And, then, the money shot. Joey Votto fowled one over towards us...a broken bat softy...
(I'm in the green, in case you can't read the arrows.)
(No, those are NOT my arms flailing around!!)
(As close as the tv showed us!! Pretty awesome, though!!)
In the end, we spent a lot of money (thanks, dad for hooking us up!!) and we had, you guessed it, AN AWESOME TIME!! Love you Chicago, love you Cubs!!
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