Chewing Up The Experience @ Wrigley

After a sick day in Chicago that saw Raegan go down into the city and then come all the way back to the hotel (1 hour plus train ride each way), we headed back down into the city the next day. We got to go visit the Navy Pier and enjoy all the fun and surroundings there. After that we headed up to the Addison St. train stop and hopped off for the block walk to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs take on the Milwaukee Brewers.

What a wonderful experience it was to go to Wrigley Field. It made me think back to the old days of baseball where the stadium is right in the middle of a neighborhood. You could just see what it must have been like in the old days with the bars on each corner and apartment buildings on each street surrounding the stadium.

Once inside it just has this amazing feel to it. The bricks and ivy are very real and the old time scoreboard was right there in center. It was a good game as the Cubs and Brewers were battling for first. We got to sing the 7th inning stretch with the famous play-by-play man for the Brewers Bob Uecker. There were also free Cubs hats for some of the first arrivals. It was absolutely the most electric baseball atmosphere I have ever been in. Oh, and the Cubs won. It was the best game and final game of the 2007 MLB Season Ballpark Tour.

Here is the final tally:

6 Stadiums
Minute Maid Park (Houston)
Great American Ballpark (Cincy)
Turner Field (Atlanta)
Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
US Cellular Field (Chicago)
Wrigley Field (Chicago)

12 Teams
Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
Chicago White Sox
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers

As a side note, I got to see three of the four teams that made their respective LCS. Also if Colorado can win the NLCS, I would have seen both teams in the World Series. It was an exciting season.

Mismatched Sox: Baseball in Chicago Part 1

Oh how the long neglected blog always seems to get revitalized. For my birthday back in April, Raegan bought me tickets to see a White Sox and Cubs game in Chicago in August. It also helps that I have always loved Chicago and wanted to go back since I went my only other trip there in high school so we ventured up to "The Windy City" and our first stop was at US Cellular Field to see the White Sox take on the Boston Red Sox.

It was quite an enjoyable game. It is a nice little new stadium that is pretty simple and good to watch a game in. It was a little chilly and I was unknowingly coming down sick as the game wore on. The Red Sox ended up putting a pretty good beating on the White Sox as they homered all over the park. A highlight for both Raegan and I was a Big Papi long ball to dead center.

Here comes the update:
5 Stadiums
Minute Maid Park (Houston)
Great American Ballpark (Cincy)
Turner Field (Atlanta)
Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
US Cellular Field (Chicago)

10 Teams
Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
Chicago White Sox
Boston Red Sox