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whiski_sourThe short story: Went to Wrigley yesterday for the Cubs/Giants game and despite the rain delay and the loss (1-0), I had a great time.
The long story...
We left about 1:30 for a 7 o'clock game because it's road construction season and we hit it before we even left town. It didn't slow us up too much, though, just made traffic pretty aggravating.
Of course, as a small town girl, I find all Chicago traffic aggravating and I'm glad Dad drove.
We did an off-site park and ride thing that was really sweet. 6 bucks for the parking and the bus ride to Wrigley and back. Can't really beat that.
When we got to Wrigley, we walked around the long way to look at the statues (delightfully creepy!) before getting our pink hats and going in to catch batting practice.
This is the sight that graced my eyes when I finally climbed to the top of the ramp and stepped out onto the top of the bleachers.
I know the quality isn't that great (click for a bigger pic), but the believe me, the real thing was real good.
I labeled the players I could. Some I recognized by number, some I recognized on sight. Some I didn't recognize (their numbers were covered and they didn't turn around; I'm a bad fan, I couldn't recognize them by their asses).
Justin Berg, James Russell, and Andrew Cashner seemed to have a lot of fun and made some great catches during BP. Scott Maine, Thomas Diamond, and Casey Coleman weren't slacking either. I didn't get pic of it, but Ryan Dempster and Sean Marshall took turns fielding at 2nd.
Just to be shallow for a moment, the Beard Twins (Justin Berg and James Russell) are like 9 times hotter in person. True fax.
I think Cashner, Marshall, and Berg all attempted to catch balls by throwing their gloves up in the air. Marshall's was hands down the funniest because he's 6'7" and was playing 2nd at the time.
Towards the end of batting practice, Cashner started playing with the bat boy. It was really sweet and probably would have carried on for awhile if they all hadn't been called in to change their clothes and have a juice box before the game.
The Giants then got their turn.
Yeah, I had a harder time recognizing the Giants because of the lack of numbers. But I was able to pick out Brian Wilson (because of his shoes and mohawk), Barry Zito (because of his socks...and he did have his number showing, but I saw the socks first), and Tim Lincecum (because of the hair).
For you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
luchalibrarian. It's the best picture of Tim Lincecum I could get.
While I saw Mike Fontenot once, he never got close enough for a picture. And he never got in the game. I was very sadface about that. But there were quite a few of the Giants players that were having a good time making catches during BP and they were really cool interacting with the Cubs fans. I hate it when players of opposing teams are dicks to the hometown fans.
With the wind blowing out during BP, it was actually pretty dangerous sitting in the bleachers if you weren't paying attention. And so many people were concentrating on getting drunk and not paying attention.
After the Giants were done with BP, the grounds crew came out and put the stuff away. Just about that time, the wind switched and switched and kicked up. Foam sailed off of beers and peanut shells pegged fans. The tarp came out because they'd seen lightening (we saw some spectacular flashes over the grandstand before it was all said and done). And then the rain came. And then it came down hard enough to drive us from the bleachers.
During that break, Dad and I got food easy to eat while standing and holding a drink. I figured I'd come back for the helmet nachos later.
The rain stopped and we went back to our wet seats. The tarp came off. The position players came out to warm up by doing some sprints. Zambrano and Cain started warming up. The grounds crew started reading the field.
And it started to rain again, lightly at first. Then it really came down. We ran for it and the tarp came back out.
After another delay, it stopped raining, the tarp came back off and we went back to our wet seats. The boys started warming up again. It really wasn't a fair race between Xavier Nady and Blake DeWitt; Nady's legs are longer.
A lot of guys were wearing their pink hats and I don't think it was entirely because of the rain. Most of the guys really seemed to enjoy their pink hats and I don't think that was because of the beer. I think I was surrounded by a lot of guys secure in their masculinity and love of the Cubs.
We got our final configuration of bleacher-mates, which consisted of incredibly cool people in front of us (parents with 2 tween boys that came with signs to get on TV and the older boy had glove and a guy with a little girl, then a guy with some friends, a drunk guy in a Derrek Lee shirt, and another group of slightly buzzed 30-somethings in front of them who all bonded because they were southside Cubs fans) and not so cool people behind us (a drunk guy who wouldn't shut up and a drunk girl who had no business being at a baseball game, but there were a lot of those people around).
Several ceremonial first pitches were thrown out. It started to drizzle. The Chicago Gay Men's Choir came out (in very colorful shirts) and started to sing the National Anthem. A group of tweens a few rows behind me and to the right were a)loudly talking during the song and b)repeatedly and loudly using the word "fags". So I turned around and very polietly said...
HEY YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE SHITS! SHUT UP! IT'S THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!
I heard nothing from those children for the rest of the ballgame.
The boys took the field. Marlon Byrd bowed to us. It stopped drizzling after the first pitch and we didn't have another delay for the rest of the game.
One of the few times between pitches that Blake DeWitt wasn't bent over stretching. By the time I got home, I swore I was going to dream of road construction and DeWitt's butt because I'd seen so much of both.
The boys in front of us were determined to have Marlon Byrd throw them a warm up ball. When he finally did, they were both too stunned to actually catch it. Dad made an attempt, but only deflected it down to Drunk D-Lee, who teased the younger of the two boys before giving him the ball. Dad then teased the older boy, telling him that his glove did work and the ball would fit.
Drunk D-Lee attempted to convince Kosuke Fukudome to get a hit by doing some bizarre yet hilarious cheer (it didn't work that at-bat, but Fukudome did get one of our two hits that night, so...). After the 7th inning stretch, lots of people started leaving, which prompted some guy down the bench from me to say, "Where are you going? Sit down. These aren't the Cardinals." I was rollin'.
By the end of the game, the only cool people left were Drunk D-Lee and the 30-somethings. As much as I wanted the Cubs to win, I didn't want extra innings. By that point, I was too tired. Once again the Cubs suffered a 1 run loss in my presence and once again, rain tried to ruin my game.
And because the game was such a pitchers' duel and so tight and I didn't want to miss anything, I kept putting off getting my helmet nachos until it was too late and never got them. Nacho fail.
All in all, though, I had a fantastic time. Wrigley is an amazing place and I don't get up there nearly often enough.
I'll see you next year, Wrigley. I really will.
I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but I didn't get home until about 2:30 this morning and didn't get to bed until almost four. I'm pretty sure I left my brain in Chicago.
Not that I'm complaining.
The long story...
We left about 1:30 for a 7 o'clock game because it's road construction season and we hit it before we even left town. It didn't slow us up too much, though, just made traffic pretty aggravating.
Of course, as a small town girl, I find all Chicago traffic aggravating and I'm glad Dad drove.
We did an off-site park and ride thing that was really sweet. 6 bucks for the parking and the bus ride to Wrigley and back. Can't really beat that.
When we got to Wrigley, we walked around the long way to look at the statues (delightfully creepy!) before getting our pink hats and going in to catch batting practice.
This is the sight that graced my eyes when I finally climbed to the top of the ramp and stepped out onto the top of the bleachers.
I know the quality isn't that great (click for a bigger pic), but the believe me, the real thing was real good.
I labeled the players I could. Some I recognized by number, some I recognized on sight. Some I didn't recognize (their numbers were covered and they didn't turn around; I'm a bad fan, I couldn't recognize them by their asses).
Justin Berg, James Russell, and Andrew Cashner seemed to have a lot of fun and made some great catches during BP. Scott Maine, Thomas Diamond, and Casey Coleman weren't slacking either. I didn't get pic of it, but Ryan Dempster and Sean Marshall took turns fielding at 2nd.
Just to be shallow for a moment, the Beard Twins (Justin Berg and James Russell) are like 9 times hotter in person. True fax.
I think Cashner, Marshall, and Berg all attempted to catch balls by throwing their gloves up in the air. Marshall's was hands down the funniest because he's 6'7" and was playing 2nd at the time.
Towards the end of batting practice, Cashner started playing with the bat boy. It was really sweet and probably would have carried on for awhile if they all hadn't been called in to change their clothes and have a juice box before the game.
The Giants then got their turn.
Yeah, I had a harder time recognizing the Giants because of the lack of numbers. But I was able to pick out Brian Wilson (because of his shoes and mohawk), Barry Zito (because of his socks...and he did have his number showing, but I saw the socks first), and Tim Lincecum (because of the hair).
For you,
luchalibrarian. It's the best picture of Tim Lincecum I could get.While I saw Mike Fontenot once, he never got close enough for a picture. And he never got in the game. I was very sadface about that. But there were quite a few of the Giants players that were having a good time making catches during BP and they were really cool interacting with the Cubs fans. I hate it when players of opposing teams are dicks to the hometown fans.
With the wind blowing out during BP, it was actually pretty dangerous sitting in the bleachers if you weren't paying attention. And so many people were concentrating on getting drunk and not paying attention.
After the Giants were done with BP, the grounds crew came out and put the stuff away. Just about that time, the wind switched and switched and kicked up. Foam sailed off of beers and peanut shells pegged fans. The tarp came out because they'd seen lightening (we saw some spectacular flashes over the grandstand before it was all said and done). And then the rain came. And then it came down hard enough to drive us from the bleachers.
During that break, Dad and I got food easy to eat while standing and holding a drink. I figured I'd come back for the helmet nachos later.
The rain stopped and we went back to our wet seats. The tarp came off. The position players came out to warm up by doing some sprints. Zambrano and Cain started warming up. The grounds crew started reading the field.
And it started to rain again, lightly at first. Then it really came down. We ran for it and the tarp came back out.
After another delay, it stopped raining, the tarp came back off and we went back to our wet seats. The boys started warming up again. It really wasn't a fair race between Xavier Nady and Blake DeWitt; Nady's legs are longer.
A lot of guys were wearing their pink hats and I don't think it was entirely because of the rain. Most of the guys really seemed to enjoy their pink hats and I don't think that was because of the beer. I think I was surrounded by a lot of guys secure in their masculinity and love of the Cubs.
We got our final configuration of bleacher-mates, which consisted of incredibly cool people in front of us (parents with 2 tween boys that came with signs to get on TV and the older boy had glove and a guy with a little girl, then a guy with some friends, a drunk guy in a Derrek Lee shirt, and another group of slightly buzzed 30-somethings in front of them who all bonded because they were southside Cubs fans) and not so cool people behind us (a drunk guy who wouldn't shut up and a drunk girl who had no business being at a baseball game, but there were a lot of those people around).
Several ceremonial first pitches were thrown out. It started to drizzle. The Chicago Gay Men's Choir came out (in very colorful shirts) and started to sing the National Anthem. A group of tweens a few rows behind me and to the right were a)loudly talking during the song and b)repeatedly and loudly using the word "fags". So I turned around and very polietly said...
HEY YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE SHITS! SHUT UP! IT'S THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!
I heard nothing from those children for the rest of the ballgame.
The boys took the field. Marlon Byrd bowed to us. It stopped drizzling after the first pitch and we didn't have another delay for the rest of the game.
One of the few times between pitches that Blake DeWitt wasn't bent over stretching. By the time I got home, I swore I was going to dream of road construction and DeWitt's butt because I'd seen so much of both.
The boys in front of us were determined to have Marlon Byrd throw them a warm up ball. When he finally did, they were both too stunned to actually catch it. Dad made an attempt, but only deflected it down to Drunk D-Lee, who teased the younger of the two boys before giving him the ball. Dad then teased the older boy, telling him that his glove did work and the ball would fit.
Drunk D-Lee attempted to convince Kosuke Fukudome to get a hit by doing some bizarre yet hilarious cheer (it didn't work that at-bat, but Fukudome did get one of our two hits that night, so...). After the 7th inning stretch, lots of people started leaving, which prompted some guy down the bench from me to say, "Where are you going? Sit down. These aren't the Cardinals." I was rollin'.
By the end of the game, the only cool people left were Drunk D-Lee and the 30-somethings. As much as I wanted the Cubs to win, I didn't want extra innings. By that point, I was too tired. Once again the Cubs suffered a 1 run loss in my presence and once again, rain tried to ruin my game.
And because the game was such a pitchers' duel and so tight and I didn't want to miss anything, I kept putting off getting my helmet nachos until it was too late and never got them. Nacho fail.
All in all, though, I had a fantastic time. Wrigley is an amazing place and I don't get up there nearly often enough.
I'll see you next year, Wrigley. I really will.
I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but I didn't get home until about 2:30 this morning and didn't get to bed until almost four. I'm pretty sure I left my brain in Chicago.
Not that I'm complaining.
