 When it comes to baseball, I cheer for three teams: the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros and whoever is playing the New York Yankees... ba da bump bump. I'm kidding; the team I cheer for when the Astros and Rangers have fallen out of contention is the Chicago Cubs. The poor Cubs
fans have suffered through 99 years without a World Series title,
survived countless heartbreaks including losing the 1945 World Series
and being 5 outs away from another trip in 2003, but that's not why I
cheer for them. No, the reason that I cheer for the Cubs harkens back to a hot summer day in Chicago almost five years ago. It
was the day of my first and only trip to Wrigley Field and as it turned
out it was also one of the best sports experiences of my entire life.
I was living in New York at the time and was heading to Chicago to
attend the wedding of my wife's best friend. It was August 14th,
2003, I remember the date because the plane that I boarded that day was
one of the last planes to leave La Guardia Airport before a massive
power surge would black out most of the Northeast, and all of
Manhattan, leaving 21 million people in the dark for the almost two
days. When I arrived in Chicago
the airport was buzzing with news of the blackout, and even though no
one knew the cause, much to everyone's relief, a terrorist attack had
already been ruled out. With that out of the
way, I had a clear conscious and was ready to hit the ground running.
My sister-in-law and her friend picked me up at the airport and we
headed straight to Wrigley Field to catch the Cubs vs Astros. I
was excited about the game, but mostly I think I was just excited that
I didn't have to hang out and do wedding stuff all day with my wife and
the bride-to-be (Not that I mind hanging out with my wife or her best friend should they ever read this!).
As I exited the terminal I was greeted by a stretch limousine that
was actually waiting for ME! I
felt like I should be going to the prom or maybe a power lunch with a
bunch of Japanese businessmen, but was greeted instead by my
sister-in-law and her friend with beers in hand. Talk about service! As
I entered the car, I thought to myself, "This is the only way to
travel." However,
I'll be the first to admit that limos are pretty sweet, but if you're
going to stock a luxury car full of alcohol then someone needs to
invent one with a private bathroom for its guests. I mean, it kind of
takes the magic out of riding in a limo when you're pulling over to pee
at a truck stop every 15 minutes. That
being said, when we finally arrived at Wrigley Field we were fully
lubricated and ready to watch the Astros beat the hell out of the Cubs.
We
got out of the car and the first thing we saw was the famous Wrigley
Field marquee, which is only about a million times better in person. I
could feel the goose-bumps crawling up my arms as Cub fans were
chanting and entering the stadium. We didn't have tickets, but I was
told that it wouldn't be a problem since it was a day game on Thursday
afternoon. With
our task at hand we quickly made the rounds and eventually found a
scalper willing to part with three tickets for face value no less.
Feeling
better once we had our tickets and in need of refreshment, we decided
to pass some time by killing a beer at the world-famous sports bar
Murphy's Bleachers. I don't care who you are, or
if you even like sports, once you're surrounded by that many Cubs fans
in such a charged atmosphere, you can't help but get excited, and we
were no different. I felt like a little leaguer
on opening day getting ready to walk out on to the field for the first
time, the only difference was that this time I had a pretty good buzz
and probably wouldn't cry if my team lost the game.
Let me say that the pictures of Wrigley Field just do not do the
place justice. Much like Yankee stadium, when you walk in, it's almost
like you can feel its history seeping into your skin. What's even
better is that the tickets we had purchased were SIX rows behind the first base line! I
couldn't believe it; here I was right off the plane, barely two hours
ahead of a blackout, and I was sitting six rows from grass at Wrigley
Field. We were so close to the field that we could almost smell the HGH pumping through the player's veins. The
atmosphere was buzzing with electricity as the game started, but then
again that might have had to do with the fact that we had been drinking
for two hours and were cooking like sausages in the 90-degree sun. It
didn't matter though, because we were having a blast, and even a
frantic call from my panicking mother to make sure I hadn't died in the
black out didn't slow us down.
Mom: "Oh my God, are you okay? Where are you?"
Me: "I'm drinking a beer, watching the Astros play the Cubs at Wrigley Field!"
...silence.
The
game itself wasn't exactly a nail-biter as the Cubs pounded the Astros
7-1, but we didn't care because we got to see Mark Prior pitch in his
prime, Sammy Sosa playing right field for the Cubs, and our first home
run hit at Wrigley Field. It was by far one of
the most amazing sports events that I have ever attended and that's
coming from someone who's been to Yankee Stadium, the Kingdome in Seattle, and the original Astrodome.
After
the game, we hit Murphy's Bleachers for a celebratory beer and couldn't
stop talking about the whole experience, starting with the limo ride,
the stadium and Alex Gonzalez's clinching two-run homer in the eighth
inning. Eventually, we called it a day and
raided the gift shop like Midwestern soccer moms at a Target opening,
spending a small fortune on Cubs and Astros gear. It
was worth it, though, and as we rode home in the limo, I think we all
realized that something special had happened for us that day at Wrigley
Field.
I
cheered for the Astros that day, but after seeing Wrigley Field and
spending the day in the midst of Cub fans, I'll always have a soft spot
for them. So this season, if by some chance the
Rangers and Astros miss the playoffs (ha ha), and the Cubs are still in
it, you know who I'll be backing. And even if
you don't agree with me think of it this way, if the Cubs were to win
the World Series not only would they be breaking a 99 year old curse
but super-fan Jim Belushi would probably be so ecstatic that he'd say
something like, "The Cubs finally won it all! Now I can die!" And then perhaps we all might be spared from another painful season of "According to Jim."
Check out my sports columns at:
www.quirkee.com and www.hogwild.net
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