Planning a BaseBlog Expedition

I started this in hopes it would turn into my entry for my next game, but I had too much to talk about before I actually got there. This is the back story. So read up, and get ready for an awesome next entry.

Brent and I have been talking about going on a road trip somewhere for almost 4 seasons. Obviously, as 17 year olds, we weren’t ready to go somewhere alone that was many hours away. We talked about Cleveland, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Detroit as the easiest and best possibilities. It would come up at the start of every season, but we didn’t have much motivation to actually plan things out.

Our friends Sean and Matt ended up choosing SIUE as their school. Last fall, Sean graciously invited both me and Brent to come see a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium in St.Louis once they moved into their apartment. After all, the city was basically right next to their school, and they had been to the city for numerous things quite a few times. The main plan was to wait until April and find sometime where it worked for everyone for us to go down. Unfortunately, the Cardinals schedule didn’t cooperate. We had one weekend to go, and it was the last weekend before finals. We would have to put it off until next year.

I desperately searched for another possibility, because I was dying to go.  When I looked into tickets at Busch in 2006 and 2007 when it first opened, the only seats I was offered were in the wheelchair section and cost $75.Obviously, I wasn’t going to buy those. Sean said there were plenty of deals and overall cheap seats since he’s been at school. I was surprised to see an interleague matchup between the Cardinals and White Sox in June. This really caught my attention since the Sox were Brent’s team of choice.

Just for kicks, I looked into tickets on eBay and StubHub for that one Sox series. After looking around for just a little while, I saw that there were plenty of deals to be had, and tons of tickets under $20.

I started to take this plan more seriously. If I was going to go that far and tickets were that affordable, I wanted to go to two games. All three games of the series were night games. That being the case, we would need an extra night in a hotel since I didn’t want to start a 5 hour drive at 11 PM after two exhausting days.

Somehow I discovered the hotels around Lambert International Airport were just like O’Hare; plentiful, and of all different price levels. Eventually I landed on a Ramada for $50 a night. Since there were two of us, we would split it. That was more than reasonable.

I went back to eBay, and stumbled on some 100 level bleachers, right behind the Cardinals bullpen for $25. I had a hotel, and specific tickets for the last two games on the 13^th and 14^th. This was coming together more than any other trip I tried to plan so far.

I then confronted two friends at ISU who were huge Cards fans and lived in the St.Louis area. They told me the hotel was okay and the seats were decent. The thing that really solidified this plan was when I found out about the MetroLink, the train that went from the airport to downtown. I could go to Missouri and STILL take the proverbial El to the game! Sure enough, when I looked up stations, there was a place to park and ride only 12 minutes from the hotel. I had every detail outlined in the next couple days.

I pitched this whole thing to Brent, and he jumped right on. After a couple more weeks of making sure everything was good to go, I ordered the tickets and booked the hotel. It was official, and I was pumped.

Game 7- Road Trip

For my first major league game outside of Chicago this year, I headed up to good old Miller Park with Kyra. The first game I saw there was in 2003, and I haven’t stopped going since. This visit would make it my 9th consecutive season I visited.

The Glove Trick

This entry is informational, and also necessary for the next couple game entries (hint hint).

Many fans who have attended BP can relate to this situation:

For whatever reason, a ball has ended up just out of reach. It’s sitting right there for you to take, but there’s no way you can possibly get closer to it. You just have to wait there, staring at a ball that you could have if you had arms that were 20 feet long. Either you give up and walk away,  a player tosses it to someone else or throws it back in, or like the first picture, won’t be retrieved in the near future . Sadly, you’re left without a baseball.

Before I started my Ballhawking career, being in this situation was the worst feeling I could imagine. After reading numerous blogs and seeing videos, I attempted to put a stop to this. I was determined to get my hands on one of these balls. Here's how you can make your own ball retrieving device:

The Day I Became A Cubs Fan

Three months ago, I furiously started typing in the Manchester Hall computer lab after class. BaseBlog was born that day. I wanted this to be my first entry to show you how passionate I was about the Cubs, and the good reasons why I couldn't help but be drawn in. I hit a writers block and started other entries first, but I finally just finished this one. Why did I wait so long? Just so I could get this picture (which relates to the first paragraph) off my Grandma's fridge to show you how God damn cute I was on my first T-Ball team.

Game 6- Walking (Off) on Sunshine

This game was amazing, on so many levels.

Game 5- Here comes the Boom

After the demise of the Flyers, Alexian Field stood dormant for the 2011 season. I’m sure there were college games and high school tournaments, but I didn’t hear about them. It was a baseball-less summer in my small town, and I got used to it. The Flyers weren’t a huge part of my life before they disappeared, so after the initial shock, I was over it.

Luckily, the Village of Schaumburg wanted another team to fill the stadium.  After changing hands a few times, a new stadium lease landed in the hands of Pat Salvi. This guy is also owns the Gary Southshore Railcats, a long time rival of the Flyers in the Northern League. Since he owned both teams, he moved the Schaumburg team to the Frontier League from the American Association so they would never play each other.

During the winter of 2011, the new team had a naming contest. People actually submitted the Mallers (because of Woodfield...yikes) and CubSox (Oh God). Luckily, we came out with the least ridiculous name, the Boomers.

Oh, so like, they hit booming home runs? Not quite.

My First Job

My family moved to Schaumburg in the summer of 1998. It went well from what I can tell; I got used to school and made friends pretty quickly. Our first winter, being a new resident of the town, I asked my dad a question.