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Last Monday, Trey and I caught the Red Line to see the Good Guys take on the Texas Rangers. Seeing as this was Trey’s first game at The Cell, I had gotten us Lower Deck seats, which gives you a much better ballpark experience. As you see above, our tickets were just between the foul line pole and left field. If today’s game was going to produce a high number of homers, we would be in a good position to make a dive for a souvenir. After finding out seats, and watching a presentation for Stand Up To Cancer with Lance Armstrong, we grabbed us our respective dogs and beers. See below:

Super Comiskey Dog

Veggie Dog.

As you can see, my Super Comiskey Dog was a bit more attractive than Trey’s sad veggie dog. Next time, Trey said he was going to waste the money on a Comiskey Dog just for the extra condiments so that he could properly dress his veggie dog.

Back at our seats, Trey was immediately befriended by a group of ladies sitting next to us. The first thing they noticed was that not only was Trey not dressed in any Sox gear, he wasn’t even donning any black. When Trey mentioned he was just there for the game, the ladies seemed determined that he have a good time. Perhaps, I shouldn’t have said that it was Trey’s first Sox game because I believe they took it as if it were Trey’s first baseball game. In fact, as I learned that day, Trey has been to several baseball parks, including the soon to be history Yankee and Shea stadiums. Anyway, once the game started up, the ladies pretty much kept to themselves. I did not notice that the gals cheered the loudest for my man Crede, who I guess is the dreamiest when it comes to the opposite sex.

My surroundings included a family rooting for the Rangers and a loud duo from New York who commented on every aspect of the game. At times funny, they started to get on the nerves of the Sox fans around them when they began taking pleasure in the Sox’s lack of offense. At one point, one of the ladies next to Trey asked them why they were even at the game. It turns out they were Mets fans who were just visiting friends in Chicago. Their friends, who were die-hard Sox fans, had given them their Lower Deck seats, while they watched from the Upper Deck. Lucky us.

When one of the ladies got in an argument with one of the New York kids about baseball, it was her lack of even basic baseball knowledge that was a bit embarrassing. You see, one of the kids (the one not in the argument, I might add) was wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey (“I hate the Yankees,” was his explanation to me). Well, our lady mentioned how the Sox had beaten the Red Sox in the World Series. The statement makes no sense since both teams are in the American League, making it impossible to compete against each other in the finals. On top of that, she made some type of statement about how long it had been since the Red Sox won the championship. Umm, 2007. The kid was quick to jump on the attack with this obvious blunder. The lady, who was frustrated with losing this battle, even seemed to deny that this was true, which how can you argue a hard fact of who won the World Series? Heck, I don’t have a problem with being ignorant of baseball, but you better know something if you plan on starting an argument with it. So, that was a bit awkward.

(Note: Our lady’s confusion might have been that the White Sox had defeated the Red Sox for the Division Title in 2005, a year after the Red Sox had won the World Series. In 2005, it was the White Sox who won the World Series. Furthermore, she might have also forgotten that the Red Sox had won the championship last year, and was trying to claim that the Red Sox hadn’t won the series since the oh, so distant past of 2004.)

Still, despite this bit of uneasiness and the fact that the Sox had such a lackluster game (even though I finally got to see a Carlos Quentin homerun in person), I had a nice time at The Cell. And though I don’t think Trey will be rushing to another game, I think he had a good time as well. After this loss, the Sox have gone on to a 4-game winning streak, with a 3.5 game lead over in the Twins for first place in the AL Central Division. So far, I am 2-2-1 for games I’ve attended this year.

Trey doesn’t seem too torn up about the lost.

Perhaps, you remember the Sox game that me and Apryl attended on my birthday. The one that went into extra innings and was finally suspended due to excessive rain. Well, since the game couldn’t be made up or completed in Chicago, ticket holders were given the opportunity to exchange their ticket stubs for $10 off lower deck seats or free upper deck tickets for the Sox/Royals series. So, earlier in the week, I went to the box office at U.S. Cellular and picked up tickets for myself for the 2nd and 3rd game of the series.

Some photos from the Sox-35th stop on the CTA Red Line.

Even though I was in the upper decks, I had decent seats with a good view of the action. During the Thursday game, I got to see my Sox favorite Joe Crede hit a home run and a double as well as a Jim Thome homer. In the 9th, the Sox had a 4–2 lead until closer Big Bobby Jenks gave up two runs to push the game into extra innings. Since I had an early shoot the next morning, I told myself I would give it 14 innings before going home. Well, when the 14th came and went (including a 14th inning stretch that gave the crowd their second chance to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”), I started to leave. But, instead of leaving, I walked around the upper decks, stalling until the Sox got back up to bat. Something told me the 15th was going to be the game-winning inning. When the Sox did come up to bat, I had walked around from my seats by the 1st base line all the way over to the far left field. I stepped inside to watch the game unfold. Unlikely hero Paul Konerko hit a blast right over the left field! At the end, the game had lasted over 5 hours! And even though I was tired during my shoot the next day, I’m glad I stayed. It was a lot of fun leaving The Cell to the chants, “Paulie, Paulie, Paulie!”

The view of the action from my seats. At the time of this photo, it was around the 4th. Notice the crowd.

Multiple extra innings left many heading for the exit gates.

My 15th inning view of the game. It was a prime spot to watch Paul Konerko’s home run in the 15th!

Back on the Red Line.

After my shoot the next day, which went into two hours of overtime, I headed back to U.S. Cellular for the last game of the Sox/Royals series. I should have brought my inhaler because it was Dog Day at the park. Apparently there were 600 dogs in attendance for the game. Odd, I know. Luckily, there were no dogs in my section so I didn’t have an asthma attack. Coming off of the previous night’s game, this one was pretty undramatic. Plus, I was very tired. But it was still a lot of fun, and the Good Guys won 6-2.

My view for Thursday’s night game. Another great view!

Sox manager Ozzie Guillén’s after game press conference broadcasting on the Jumbotron. For those who haven’t attended a Sox game, the lighted pinwheels on top of the scoreboard spin and shoot off fireworks whenever the Sox hit a home run.

A somewhat blurry shot of the 35th street with downtown Chicago in the background.

Go Sox!

Wrigley Field

U.S. Cellular Field

Attending the Sox vs. Angels game yesterday (the Good Guys lost) after last visiting Wrigley Field made it quite clear that tearing down Old Comiskey Park was a mistake. Well, perhaps not a mistake, since it seems if the Sox hadn’t made way for a new stadium the Sox would have been moved to St. Petersburg, FL. Yes, you read that correctly! And even when the Sox were saved from leaving the city, there was still the fight of keeping their stadium in the city instead of the suburbs. So, I would say a victory was had at least in keeping the team IN Chicago.

At first, U.S. Cellular was also called Comiskey Park (or New Comiskey Park) until U.S. Cellular paid for naming rights at the price of $68 million dollars. The Sox spent a portion of that on a state of the art Jumbotron that now allows the fans to enjoy such entertainment as SmoochCam and cartoon pizza pies racing for a free mini pizza with the purchase of a pizza at any Connie’s. Not a fair trade, in my opinion.

The best part of U.S. Cellular is the Lower Deck which is very open and reminds me of the Redbirds stadium back in Memphis. However, if you don’t have a 100 level ticket, than you are denied access to this part of the stadium. You can’t even get a Chicago style hot dog since they don’t sell those in the upper decks. Are you kidding me?

Yesterday, I was high up in the nose bleed section. The section still gives you a nice view of the action, even though I was situated by one of the few obstructions (steel support beam to the left) in the park. And if you turn around, there is a nice view of the Chicago skyline.

Which begs the question, why in the heck didn’t they build the stadium so that the skyline was the backdrop view behind the outfield?

Why?!?!

Okay, enough complaining. Yes, Wrigley Field is the better ballpark but the Good Guys are still #1 to me!

Check out this great tribute to Old Comiskey.

…AKA Wrigley Field. On Friday, I decided to grab some tickets off of Craigslist for the Cubs’ afternoon game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Apryl needed to work at home on school, and since I wasn’t working and the weather was actually nice, it seemed like a great way to spend the day as well as give Apryl her space. So, I took Lady Blue over to pick up my ticket and trek over to the Fullerton Red Line, making my way over to the infamous Addison stop.

This would be my first game at Wrigley. Sure, I’m a Sox fan, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t excited about entering one of the most famous ballparks in the world. Heck, my whole childhood was split between watching the Cubs on WGN and the Atlanta Braves on TBS (speaking of which, how come the Braves are never on TBS anymore?). After getting off the train, I bravely made my way through the tangled mob of Cubs fans, the vocal ticket scalpers, and persistent street merchants to the park’s entrance. I enter:

Pro’s:

1) Wrigley Field is a national treasure and deserves to be protected as such. Will this happen? Let me just say, that if the House that Ruth Built (AKA Yankee Stadium) can be torn down, no stadium is safe from a similar fate. Which is a shame, because I would hate to imagine a Chicago without Wrigley Field. Sure, the paint is crumbling off at parts and sections seem to be in desperate need of repair, but there is no denying its charm. Once you step inside, you are immediately taken back into time. Cliché, I know, but it’s true. I mean we’re talking about the place where Babe Ruth called that shot to centerfield!

Some photos from the ballpark:

2) Even on an afternoon game during the work week (granted, it was Friday), there was still a crowd close to 45,000! That’s more than 12,000 more people than the average Sox attendance.

3) My great seats!

4) Wrigley Dog. This was one good hot dog! The best part is that you could get it extra charred! See below:

Con’s:

1) To get one of those tasty dogs, you had to walk all the way down to the lower level. The only vendors that aren’t on the lower levels are those selling beer. Of course, there were vendors that walked around to your seats, but I didn’t feel like leaving a tip on a hot dog that was already priced at $3.75. I didn’t even pull out my wallet for the $6.25 Old Style.

2) The bathrooms are a bit scary. The urinals are a long metal trough that extended from one side of the wall to the other. Forget privacy here.

3) The fans. Okay, I’m not going to really bash Cubs fans here. In fact, everyone around me seemed quite nice. However, I will say that the game was too much of a social event. Sound travels oddly in the park, so while you are watching the game, you hear a constant rumble of people’s conversation. Most of the people around me were texting on their phones or carrying out long conversations rather than watching the game.

Another observation is that I only saw one non white fan in all of my section. Which made this article even funnier. Typically, the fans around me were young, wearing shorts and sandals, and recalling stories that revolved around drinking. Still, no one near me was obnoxious, and I appreciated that. Of course, perhaps I might have a different story if I had decided to wear my Sox cap. I decided that I didn’t want to find out. However, I did see a young kid all dressed up in a Sox uniform and cap, and I had to commend his boldness.

4) The uneasiness of being a Sox fan in Wrigley Field made me feel like a spy in enemy territory. On top of that, these weren’t the players I knew and loved. Being from Memphis, I feel more comfortable being the underdog. And even with the worst Cubs’ season, a Cubbies fan is never the underdog in Chicago.

A far way from the South Side.

Still, I had a great time at Wrigley Field. I doubt I will be attending another game this season, but I certainly wouldn’t be turning down a free ticket. The stadium is really something, and I would urge any baseball fan to make the trip before all these classic stadiums are gone forever.

A base hit for Geovany Soto in the 8th.

So, do have your bracket filled out?

Hey, I don’t care if it’s a long shot. I’m ready to believe!

Let the Dance begin!

(Photo: Nephew Drew sports his moves in Tigers garb.)