Remember how we were so impressed with the Chicago faithful and their ability to start cheers and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"? Well, we have to take some of that back after Tuesday night's game. But first I should give you some background. We walked over to the field around 2pm, which is 5 hours before the first pitch, and snagged a couple tickets for the bleachers. The unique thing about bleacher seats at Wrigley is that they are all General Admission, which means that it's all first come, first serve. So we waited in line for a few hours until the gates opened at 5 o'clock. And then, it was literally a mad dash up the ramps to get the best seats possible. Next time you see a clip of Wrigley on Sportscenter, find the door amongst the ivy in right-center field, and that's where we were sitting. And we had the front row. Pretty sweet. We were even lucky enough to get a ball tossed to us from Giants' rookie pitcher, Patrick Misch. I guess there is a plus side to wearing Giants' attire in a stadium full of Cubby blue.
The game was great for me, because the Giants' finally won by taking a two run lead in the 8th on an RBI walk and RBI swinging bunt. Now, the Wrigley faithful have every right to be angry. Their bullpen just blew the game on two non-hits, and they lost to the lowly Giants. But even the worst teams win 50-60 games every year. These fans were pissin' and moanin' and whining all throughout the streets. They yelled at me "Go Home," and "Giants Suck!!" I kindly replied, "Yes, I know," and kept walking but I was surprised to discover that Cubs' fans are just your classic sore losers.
Dan retaliated by wearing Giants' colors on Wednesday, which was probably he discovered to be a bad idea around the 5th inning, when the score was 9-0 in Chicago's favor. The Giants did scored a run in the ninth inning to cut the deficit to 11 runs, but we only know that because we turned the television on when we got back to our home stay just in time to see Pedro Feliz cross the plate.
We will be driving up to Madison, Wisconsin today to stay with Uncle Ron, who we've already seen in Boston, actually. After Brewers' games on Friday and Saturday we will drive to Cincinnati on Sunday to visit Maya, Dan and Manny (their dog). Our original plan was to catch the White Sox game on the way down, but that plan flopped when we discovered that the Sox were out of town that day. We could stay until Monday night to see a game at US Cellular Field, but we decided that getting to Cincinnati was more important.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Wrigley Field
Throughout our travels, the most common question we get asked is, "So, which ballpark is you favorite?" Up until now, the answer has been pretty simple. Fenway, without a doubt. But Wrigley is putting up a pretty good fight.
I can only imagine that watching a game at Wrigley is the closest you can get to experiencing baseball in the 1920s. I will admit that it was a little difficult to get accustomed to a game without any type of jumbotron, but after a few innings, it didn't really matter. I actually wondered why they didn't just put a jumbotron across the street in left field. There are seats all around there on top of buildings, and there is a roof completely covered with the Budweiser logo. Plus, the nice part of the Chicago skyline is behind right field, so it doesn't seem like it would take that much away from the Wrigley experience. But I'm not going to make any suggestions to the architect, especially now that the Giants are in town.
Speaking of which, the Cubs beat the Giants yesterday, and Barry Bonds wasn't in the lineup. What a surprise! Even though my team took second place, as my uncle would say, it was a great game. It was a 1-1 tie until the 8th inning and both teams were riding on the backs of matching solo homeruns and outstanding performances by their respective rookie pitchers. Unfortunately, the Giants' bullpen once again fell short by allowing a game winning 2-run double by Aramis Ramirez in the bottom of the 8th.
There was a plus side to seeing the Giants lose, however, aside from the heckling on our way out of the ballpark. We got to see the full force of the Cubs fans. I actually don't think I have ever heard any crowd louder. They knew exactly when to get the "Let's go Cubbies" cheer started. And without falter the entire stadium was on there feet in the 8th inning when the game was on the line. Dan and I were both impressed.
In fact, Dan was so impressed, that he decided to get a Wrigley Field shirt in Cubbies blue, which he plans to wear at the game today. We are walking to the field early today so that we can stand in line to get bleacher seats. So, if you have a chance to watch the game, look for Dan in blue and me in my Giants jersey. We'll be the ones catching Barry Bonds' 752nd homerun.
I can only imagine that watching a game at Wrigley is the closest you can get to experiencing baseball in the 1920s. I will admit that it was a little difficult to get accustomed to a game without any type of jumbotron, but after a few innings, it didn't really matter. I actually wondered why they didn't just put a jumbotron across the street in left field. There are seats all around there on top of buildings, and there is a roof completely covered with the Budweiser logo. Plus, the nice part of the Chicago skyline is behind right field, so it doesn't seem like it would take that much away from the Wrigley experience. But I'm not going to make any suggestions to the architect, especially now that the Giants are in town.
Speaking of which, the Cubs beat the Giants yesterday, and Barry Bonds wasn't in the lineup. What a surprise! Even though my team took second place, as my uncle would say, it was a great game. It was a 1-1 tie until the 8th inning and both teams were riding on the backs of matching solo homeruns and outstanding performances by their respective rookie pitchers. Unfortunately, the Giants' bullpen once again fell short by allowing a game winning 2-run double by Aramis Ramirez in the bottom of the 8th.
There was a plus side to seeing the Giants lose, however, aside from the heckling on our way out of the ballpark. We got to see the full force of the Cubs fans. I actually don't think I have ever heard any crowd louder. They knew exactly when to get the "Let's go Cubbies" cheer started. And without falter the entire stadium was on there feet in the 8th inning when the game was on the line. Dan and I were both impressed.
In fact, Dan was so impressed, that he decided to get a Wrigley Field shirt in Cubbies blue, which he plans to wear at the game today. We are walking to the field early today so that we can stand in line to get bleacher seats. So, if you have a chance to watch the game, look for Dan in blue and me in my Giants jersey. We'll be the ones catching Barry Bonds' 752nd homerun.
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