Game 15: Chicago Cubs

The second to last game was a day game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.  There were two things that seemed to be necessities when going to see the Cubs play.  The first was that the game had to be a day game.  Wrigley was the last field to incorporate lights at the stadium, doing so in 1988.  We’re not sure exactly why it took so long for the Cubbies to plant lights in the stadium giving them the ability to play night games, but we like to think that it’s because they tried to preserve the glory of the Wrigley day game.  We also heard that we needed to sit in the bleachers for at least one game in our lives.  The seats behind the iconic ivy are general admission and are known or having lots of young people out there looking to have a good time regardless of the outcome of the game.

A photo of us outside the stadium.

We arrive at the game an hour early and claim our seats in left center field about halfway up the bleachers.  If there is one thing we learned after going to batting practice, it’s that most of the homeruns go to either right center or left center.  While at the time, we weren’t too concerned with homeruns, we were more than happy with our view.  The Cubs were taking on the Mets for the final game in their series.

The first couple innings go by without too much action, and we begin to talk to the people around us.  We are sitting next to a bachelor party full of Mets fans, some A’s fans from the Bay Area, and some long time Cubs fans.  Meanwhile, the Mets put up a couple of runs early.  The Cubs run into some trouble.  The Cubs starter gives up a homerun that goes to left center, about 50 feet to our left. The homer was the closest that any of us had ever been to catching a homerun.  It is Wrigley tradition to always throw any homer run ball hit by the opposing team back out onto the field, and within seconds the ball was chucked toward second base.  We turn our focus back to the game and our conversations as we enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.  The Mets fans are getting excited and the Cubs fans are starting to become depressed, when another hit starts flying our way.  This time another Mets player hit a bomb about 30 feet to our right this time.  This ball got thrown back onto the field instantaneously, and gained the title of closest homerun that we had been near. 

The view from our seats. 

With the Mets running away with the game, I remember looking around stadium and thinking about all of the history that has occurred in the second oldest MLB stadium still standing.  The stadium also has many signature characteristics that make watching a game feel like you just stepped out of a time machine.  The stadium still lacks a video board and instead has a huge manual scoreboard located in center field.  One aspect we really appreciated was the lack of advertising around the park.  While the elimination of all advertisements from any park in use today is near impossible, Wrigley has the fewest number of ads when compared to the parks we’ve seen.  Another classic Wrigley touch, which is not necessarily part of the field itself, is the rooftop seating located on the buildings located behind the right-field wall.  Since Wrigley is so old, the neighborhood around Wrigley has grown alongside the ballpark in a fashion similar to Fenway Park.  Restaurants and bars can be found all around the park with numerous Cubs fans filling the joints before and after the game.

Our attention was then forced back into the game when the Mets had the bases loaded and were threatening to score again.  With one swing of the bat, we saw a ball heading our direction.  It had the distance and had the height; it was definitely a homerun.  It was coming our direction and Jake and I jumped for the ball.  We went up and we went down, but unfortunately, we didn’t come up with the ball.  It landed two rows behind us, and was subsequently thrown back onto the field.  Sad as we were, we did find ourselves on the Sportscenter replay, which was some sort of a consolation prize.

Jake and I are jumping for the ball. Can you see us?

Overall, the day game at Wrigley in the bleachers was a great experience, even if the Cubs lost 17-1.  We all agreed that this was definitely one of the best games of the trip and a great experience that we will never forget.

As I think back about the game, I can’t help but think about the bachelor party that was sitting next to me.  During the game, they made a couple of comparisons to Wrigley Field being heaven. This prompted me to think of a modified version of the Field of Dreams quote that I feel accurately describes the field:

Is this heaven?

No, this is Wrigley.

The view from behind home plate.