The #1 Game of My Entire Life

This game definitely requires its own entry. This day, as well as the two weeks coming before it, was the best time of my life.

****

In February of 2010, to put it into the wise words of Steve Goodman, 'I forsaked my teachers to sit in the Bleachers'. I missed school to buy tickets.


The only reason I thought it would be worth my time is because I got a special pre-sale code that let me buy individual game tickets four days before the general public. Due to slightly lower demand thanks to a disappointing 2009 season, I was shooting for two of the best games of the season. I got exactly what I wanted; four tickets to the home opener, and six to one of the White Sox games.

The night before this, the Blackhawks beat the Blue Jackets 3-2 in a shootout in Columbus.

Trust me when I say they were not a great value. In order to use the pre-sale code, I had to pay an extra 15% of face value on the already high prices. Opening Day's seats were in the second to last row of the stadium (for $40), and I would basically be sitting out on Sheffield for the Sox game ( which cost me $35). I didn't mind all that much, though. I had never seen either of these games, and I was thrilled to be having both experiences in the same season.

****

The first game (literally) was great. Even though expectations weren't that high for 2010, everyone was still happy to see baseball come out of hibernation. The Cubs put a 9-5 romping on the Brewers to send the Wrigley faithful home happy.

The previous afternoon, the Blackhawks lost the regular season finale 3-2 in overtime to the rival Red Wings at the Madhouse. They had gathered 112 points in the regular season, the highest total in team history, and would go into the playoffs as the third seed in the Western Conference.

The Cubs' season rolled on without much excitement. It would end up being the second sub .500 season in a row after their back to back playoff appearances. It didn't bother me one bit, though. I was more focused on having fun during my last days of high school.

On May 11th, I played my last water polo game.....

...as the Blackhawks won their second round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks. The San Jose Sharks would be waiting in the Western Conference Finals.

Prom was on June 4th....

...which was when the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Hawks 5-3 to even the Stanley Cup Final at two games a piece.

And finally, graduation was June 6th....

...the same day the Hawks won Game 5 at the UC in convincing fashion, moving them to within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.

After everything was over, I was able to give my full attention to the most important game of all:

Two days later, on Friday morning, Kyra, Brent, and I stuffed ourselves on the 8:30 AM train downtown.

I NEED A NEW F@!%&$* CAMERA

Just like all the school events, the season was over in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

I got home Friday night thinking everything was finally over. The parade downtown and graduation were just memories now. After taking a moment to catch my breath, I stumbled on Stanley's recently published itinerary.

The first place it would end up is Wrigley, since this was the same weekend the Cubs played the Sox there. I read the rest sentence more carefully. I felt like I had been blessed with the best luck I would ever have. I had tickets for Sunday; the same day the Cup would be there.

To be honest, my reaction was pretty indifferent. The pre-game ceremony could be disappointing and lame, the coolest thing I had ever seen, or anywhere in between. So much had been going on during the last couple weeks that I was out of energy and too tired to get really excited about it.

****

Rain, rain go away.

The forecast said it would stop long enough to get the game in, but it's never fun, or a good sign, to see the tarp out there.

We made sure to arrive extra early because of the ceremony. Brent, Sean and I wandered around the park for an hour or so. Somewhere along the way, this guy started following us:

Mikey P. , everyone.

The biggest success of our wandering was getting Brent's hat signed by Harold Baines, the former player and current White Sox coach.

We ran out of places to go and things to see, so we grabbed a seat.

It was about 6:15, and the park was only as full as you can see in the previous photo. I started putting together a plan of how I could get closer to the field to see the Cup. (At this point I really thought it would just be a few player introductions and a quick picture. That would take five minutes, tops. I was trying to figure out where this would all take place and where I could position myself to get a good picture.)

Guys eventually ran out to warm up, and the tarp came off pretty close to game time.

There a definite buzz of energy in the crowd. I saw more Hawks shirts and jerseys than those of the baseball teams playing that night. Everyone was still riding the huge wave of excitement from Wednesday.

All of the sudden, there was a growing roar from the right field corner. People in the seats stood up and turned around, while the Bleacher folk ran up to the top row to look over the edge. More and more people noticed and plenty of pictures were being taken.

Before my brain could process the obvious reason for the commotion, I heard the greatest song in all of sports start to play over the PA system. (I highly recommend letting it play on a loop as you finish reading about the pre-game.)

The stadium was still relatively empty, and we were still in the same spot as a few pictures ago. If there were open seats, I was sure as hell going to move into them. Screw the plan I made, I had to go NOW.

As I passed the 100 level walkway, an usher tried to tell me I couldn't get any closer. I looked right at him, and said "It's the Stanley Cup dude....I don't think so" and continued to walk right past him, with Brent and Sean following behind.

I took advantage of another ancient usher with his back turned and scampered down an aisle right behind the Sox dugout. I didn't want to be too greedy and get kicked out, so I settled for the eighth row from the field.

Everyone was going nuts. I didn't expect nearly this much noise and cheering. I couldn't help but get caught up in it. This was almost like a second parade, only with 1.97 million fewer people.

They went around the outfield wall first to give the Bleachers fans a view. You could see each section start to stand and applaud, almost like a slow wave effect.

Next, they came down the left field line to shake hands with fans while letting them touch the Holy Grail of hockey. 

The line continued to move on the warning track, right towards us. This was where it really started to get cool.

After letting some of the Sox get their grimy hands on the Cup, the Hawks circled up around the mound. John McDounagh, the former Cubs and current Hawks marketing genius, threw out the first pitch.

After that, both baseball teams started to gather around as well.

Oh my God. Was this really happening?

Ryan Dempster, who hails from British Columbia, is the one in the center.

I've seen the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and other Natural Wonders of the World, but seeing this was much better than any of those.

Now that I've reached this point in the story, I can visually show you how close we were. I found the following picture a few weeks later on someone's blog, who happened to be watching this game from a rooftop.

I'm wearing the plain blue shirt and have the camera covering my face. Sean is to my left in the navy jersey, and Brent's head is to the left of him.

To this day, I still see captions and headings of "Greatest moment in Chicago sports history". That's a very opinionated statement, but you can't argue that it's not pretty high up there. I was honored to be there for that moment, and take a lot of pride in it seeing in person. It's one of the images I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.

After some conversing and hoisting between all three teams, the Hawks lined up for the anthem, with Stanley looking as picturesque as ever.

I started talking out loud to myself while looking around at the stands.

"Is someone going to do it? It seems like the right thing to do. It HAS to be done. I'm doing it it, how can I not?"

They did it. All of them.

Easily the loudest I'd ever heard Wrigley.

It's been two years and Jim Cornelison has done the anthem at many different events that were Blackhawks themed and some that weren't. This was one of the very first times he'd sang outside of the UC, and also where the idea of cheering wherever he sang really took off.

After the anthem, the Hawks continued down the right field line and back out of the gate they came in.

However, I did say this was the best baseball game of my life. Besides the venue and the group picture, everything up to this point had nothing to do with baseball. There's more.

We went up to our seats in aisle 533 and tried to watch as much of the game as we could. It was moving quickly, and there was a lot to talk about from last week and what we saw earlier in the night. A quick turn of the head, or even a blink, would cause us to miss a significant amount of the game. Plus it was hard to pay attention with this pole:

Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd were the starters. Lilly started the game with a fly ball to each outfielder. In the bottom half, Floyd walked Marlon Byrd before striking out Derrek Lee to end the inning. In the second, Lilly plunked AJ Pierzynski, which caused fans of both teams to start chirping in the seats. Lilly then struck out the next batter, and the first inning and a half was in the books.

The first base runners for both teams got on early in the game, and would turn out to be pretty important.

I always want the most for my money when I go to a game. My standard is three hours. If it goes that long, I'm happy. If it goes two and a half or less, I can't help but feel a little ripped off. I know there's no way to predict it, and it's one of the best things about the game, but that's just how I feel.

At the end of the 4th inning, I looked at the big clock on top of the scoreboard. It was approximately 7:52. What the hell! The first pitch wasn't until 7:10! At this rate, the game was going to last about an hour and forty minutes.

I started talking to myself in my head:

"The score is still tied at zero, so I guess that explains some of it. How......"

I stopped talking, stopped thinking, and looked back towards the field. Neither team had a hit.

I'm pretty sure by the end of the 5th, Brent and Sean noticed too. They subtly said something to me, but I just looked at them with an emotionless face and refused to say a word. (Just now, looking at the box score, I saw there was a throwing error on a ground ball hit by Koyie Hill. I really have no recollection of it,  but that play was probably a moment where everyone held their breath. The 5th ended with Starlin Castro hitting into a double play. Anyway, still no hits, but a very close call).

With every passing half inning, the cheers got louder and louder. More people were aware, and it was starting to get serious.

I don't have many pictures of actual game action. I didn't want to move, think about it, or even breathe at the wrong time. Lilly got Carlos Quentin to fly out to end the top half of the 7th. Still 0-0. Still no hits.

Up to this point, Floyd allowed three runners to get on base, and Lilly allowed just two.

Now, think about this. The 7th inning. Not a single hit in the game. How many times does ONE pitcher make it this far? Has this even happened in the modern age of baseball? The odds of this happening were so high that I almost couldn't wrap my head around it.

In the bottom of the 7th, Lee took a walk with one out. I recall some sort of ball in the dirt to Alfonz, and Lee tried to take second. Regardless of how it happened, AJ's throw beat him there, and he was out.

That was a crucial moment. Something had to give soon. There was too much tension in the stadium to have this go on any longer.

Soriano worked it to a full count. He swung extremely early and made contact. To us, it looked like a little pop up in the direction of the third baseman. It kept fading into no-man's land in shallow left field, and was getting closer and closer to the foul line....

 Fair ball.

Cheers and groans filled the stadium. I didn't know if I should have been happy or angry. I would gladly take a Cubs loss to see a no-hitter, but....the Cubs starter still had one going! This was one of the most confusing and conflicting moments of my life.

Soriano rounded first and barley got into second. Before anyone was actually paying attention to the game after voicing their disbelief to their companions, Chad Tracy rolled a ball up the middle, right over second base. Everyone went silent and snapped their heads back to the field. Soriano rounded third and made it home with a feet first slide. Cubs lead 1-0.

The cheers and yells were at least five times as loud as they were a minute before. All the tension from the sold out crowd was all being released after holing in for the entire game up to this point. Floyd stayed in the game, and struck out Koyie Hill to end the 7th.

How would Lilly respond? Would he blow it as well? Even after everyone did one giant exhale, there was still tons of pressure on the Sox to respond.

It took only nine pitches to get through the 8th, and Lilly had just three outs to go. Starlin Castro led off the bottom of the 8th with a line drive to center field. Lilly got a loud ovation as he stepped to the plate before bunting foul for the first out. Ryan Theriot came up and grounded out to Floyd after Castro was caught stealing.

As the Sox made their way to the dugout, I realized that Floyd quite possibly may have pitched an eight inning complete game.

Lilly came out for the 9th as a little drizzle started to fall. It wouldn't delay the game, but it was definitely raining. This was the last thing I wanted to see. He just needed 15 more minutes, then I didn't care what happened. I didn't want ANYTHING to distract him or change the flow of the game. I was so close to seeing one of the rarest feats in the game and in a panic about it being broken up.

Floyd's spot was the first up in the 9th. Obviously, a pinch hitter was in order with the game on the line. The Sox sent Juan Pierre up to the plate. He was the one player that signified the terrible 2006 Cubs season for a lot of people. That was the one and only season he played for the Cubs. I hated him because of all the terrible things I associated him with.

First pitch- strike taken. Only eight more like that and we're golden.

Lilly wound up for the second pitch. Pierre swung. It was the most solid hit you could ever think of, right into center field. It dropped in front of Byrd.

Gone.

Karma's a bitch Juan. Remember that.

I couldn't look anymore. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach like I never experienced before. The only thing that kept me from weeping in my seat was the fact that the Cubs could still win. It was the only thing I had.

Lou immediately came out and pulled Lilly in favor of Carlos Marmol. I gave him a few claps as he left, but I was much too disappointed to be enthusiastic about it.

Marmol walked Andruw Jones, and then BALKED during Alexei Rammirez's at bat before striking him out. After intentionally walking Alex Rios, the bases were loaded and the win was in jeopardy. This was about to go terribly, terribly wrong.

Paul Konerko hit a slow grounder to first base, where Lee fired to home to prevent the run from scoring. Two outs.

The third out was made by Carlos Quentin flying out to short center field. Just like that, the game was over. Cubs win 1-0.

I almost couldn't comprehend what happened. I didn't want to leave. This game had so much potential for something amazing to happen, but at the last second, my hopes were vaporized. Oddly enough, this game ended just as abruptly as everything else had during the past two weeks. Although, instead of happiness, I was completely shocked and disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it still has a solid hold on the number one spot, but it really sucked how it turned out compared to what could have been.

The rain was coming down much harder, and the grounds crew pulled the tarp back out for the night.

My absolute favorite thing about  baseball is the fact that you can see something amazing at any time. Some people can go to 5,000 games in their life and never come close to seeing a no-hitter. Other people can go to two and see two perfect games.

Don't forget about the unexpected run in with the Cup from earlier, either. That's a whole different kind of luck. It's possible that I could have a new number one game sometime in the future, but this day will be extremely hard to top.