Not only was it preventing me from coming home for two weekends, but it almost pushed this weekend out of the mix too. I had an accounting test on Tuesday, so I wanted to get back as soon as possible. In just over 24 hours, I would go from Normal to Schaumburg to Wrigley, then through downtown and back down I-55.
Fortunately, my friend Kyle stepped up big time by coming with me. He was my ride home and made this whole thing happen. He's one of my best friends at ISU, and a huge baseball fan himself. Even though he's from St.Louis, and deeply passionate about those vile birds perched on a bat, we were both pumped to go. Kyle's been to Wrigley just once before, but barley got the experience. He only stayed for six innings, and wasn't there with an expert such as myself.
We left my house at 9:20 and were parked just off of Waveland by 10 AM. I won't complain one bit if traffic is that light all season. (By the way, if anyone knows a shady way to get a Zone 383 parking pass for the whole season, hit me up).
I checked the weather every hour for the past week, and it ranged from 50 and sunny to 39 with snow, and everywhere in between. It ended up not being too cold, but the main issue was the possible rain. It wasn't going to storm, but it would be just enough to be a nuisance.
It wasn't long before the good ol' ball yard peeked out from behind Bernie's.
That's Kyle. Unfortunately, that's all you're going to see of him. It slipped my mind to get a picture together before we left.
The first game back every year is always interesting. They usually make tiny little changes to try to spruce up the park. I really liked the retired players on the outside of the third base wall. That side is boring and bare, so it added something nice:
I'm not as big of a fan of the banners around the marquee, though. Adding all of these designs and color looks tacky, especially the one at the very top:
That is by no means a group of all-stars, but for the Cubs, it wasn't too bad. Marmol kind of sucks, but he was the closer going in and was supposedly "fixed".
But here's the other side:
The new, unproven Japanese guy, Kyuji Fujikawa? The widely unknown 5th starter, Scott Feldman? Middle reliever James Russell?! This side was pretty pathetic. But I digress.
We went into every store around looking for a Cardinals hat for Kyle. I'm happy to say he was unsuccessful in his search. After chilling in McDonald's and running into 7/11, we headed over to the VIP gate.
They had more banners in the right field corner, too:
One of these guys definitely could have taken stupid James Russell's spot out in front.
I walked over to the knothole, and to my absolute terror....
The tarp was out with not a single player in sight.
My reaction.
I apologized to Kyle and was straight up honest- the first two hours were going to be incredibly boring. There were still a few balls to be had, but it was going to be a lot tougher.
As a side note, the rooftop HAS to happen this year. After these new renovations, it'll never be the same. Plus, I'm 21 now, and the $80 will be well worth it, if you know what I mean. I don't know how or when, but it's definitely more of a priority than the last two seasons.
When the gate opened at 11:15, I weaved around the other Bleacher regulars and sprinted up the stairs. I was dearly hoping there would somehow be an Easter Egg even though no one was hitting. Sadly, getting only one ball would make me happy today. It almost felt like a waste to have one of my very few Wrigley games fall on such a crappy day. But hey, I was here with someone new, and ready to make the best of a bad situation. All about challenging myself, right?
As you could have guessed, I didn't find anything in the seats. The tarp was still on when we got inside:
That guy in shallow right is Madison Bumgarner. After seeing him, I ducked behind the wall and switched into my Giants hat. Since it was cooler, I had my huge Cubs jacket with a black sweatshirt underneath. After getting my bag stolen last year, I was very cautious about putting my stuff out of sight. It was a huge pain in the ass to find a spot to set it where I could see it and the Giants couldn't.
I moved over to the left a little, yelled as loud as I could, and put my arms up in the air. He turned and did a little wave. I was the only one around and he DEFINITELY knew I was there.
He walked towards his partner...and continued walking.....right back to the dugout. Come on man, did you really think I just wanted to say "Hi"?
With not a single player on the field, I got depressed and worried. I told myself going home with nothing was okay, ESPECIALLY on a day like this, but I still wanted to prove to myself I could do it.
Now for a bunch of unrelated pictures-
The scoreboard with a new coat of paint. Notice the flags blowing out on the one day when no one was hitting. Awesome:
Gold Glover Darwin Barney going to take some swings in the cage. Unfortunately he'll be
on the DL for another week:
Brown ivy and Kyle (in grey hat) chatting with some bros:
The cold, wet, empty Bleachers:
Since there was nothing at all to do, we toured the rest of the outfield seats:
When another Giant started making his way out to right field, I took off. He was the first one in the actual outfield, where there were two balls waiting to be tossed up:
It ended up being Barry Zito:
Zito grabbed the ball next to the ivy and tossed it to a guy in a Giants hat a couple section over towards center. In my haste to get over to him from center field, I didn't switch hats. When he wasn't looking I pulled the switch-aroo, in hopes that someone else would pick up the other one.
One of Zito's pals came out a couple minutes later. Anyone know who the tiny guy is?
That's right, Tim Lincecum.
And look what else, that other ball suddenly disappeared!
As soon as Lincecum came out, he picked it up and I gave him a shout. He wound up, and I was overcome with happiness. Thank GOD- no shutout for me!
He let it fly, right in my direction. Even after taking a step back, I watched hopelessly as it flew at least 6 feet over my head. What did I do next? Turned around and ran like hell. It was definitely intended for me, and would certainly be my only chance of the day to grab a ball.
Instead of simply bouncing off seats and settling somewhere close, it hit the Bleachers in JUST the right way, and it started to roll away faster than I could run.
I stayed in pursuit as it crossed the stairs between the first and second section. It went right behind another fan walking up the stairs, but he realized I was going full steam ahead and didn't bother trying to get it. But that was only half my journey.
I had to chase it down a full section and a half before it stopped. In my haste, I didn't even notice my camera went flying out of my pocket. In the following picture, the ushers are in the same spot I was in, and the 'X' is where I eventually got the ball:
I know you don't have the same stuff as you did in 2009, but come on Tim. I was 50 feet away from you and you couldn't do any better than that? You're a major league starter!
Thanks, though. You the man!
 |
| FINALLY got this shot to work instead of being blurry. |
There were some more guys stretching, but I didn't want to wait another 15 minutes in the same spot just to get skunked because most of them saw me get the first ball. We moved over to left field and grabbed a seat for a few minutes as we waited for the Cubs to come out and get some throws in.
I sent a tweet with this picture saying "THE SUN IS OUT. #BULLSHIT". And it was. I was still frustrated. It was turning out to be a fine day, and there was nobody on the field for most of the time before the game.
To get rid of our extreme boredom, we decided to walk around a little bit so I could give him a little guided tour. After 20 minutes, this was still the view from the other side of the park.
I hate this.
I usually never see the following because I'm always up top in the seats, but we stopped to watch the Giants take some swings in the tunnel.
All the balls nearly gave me a heart attack. Not being able to get through that glass was like a real life nightmare:
Here's Todd Hollandsworth and David Kaplan doing the pre-game show and reading off the lineups:
After two hours of mostly wandering, we settled in the middle row of a section in left field.
First pitch from the (surprisingly solid in 2013) Carlos Villanueva to Angel Pagan:
That picture right there fully convinced me that I want a new camera. It's going to cost a few bucks, but I want to get good pictures of all the other parks this year. Dropping it while chasing my ball earlier probably didn't help either. Better safe than sorry.
The Giants starting left fielder was Gregor Blanco. Some idiot started yelling sub-par insults as soon as he got out there, but he finally had a good one in the second inning. He was stretching and staying loose when the guy screamed "HEY BLANCO...IT SMELLS LIKE FISH...CLOSE YOUR LEGS!!". Bravo, heckler.
It was so relaxing to be back. I'm surprisingly interested in the Cubs this year, even though their play is absolutely awful six nights out of the week. I explained all the nuances and quirks of the park to Kyle, but he was quite the antagonist. He kept insisting the park sucked because he could never find the count, and didn't think it was right that the rooftops share 17% of their profits with the Cubs.
The skies were ominous all day...
And it finally started to drizzle in the bottom of the 3rd. Since there were plenty of seats protected from the rain in the terrace level, it would have been dumb to try to tough it out sitting in the Bleachers.
Just as we were crossing into the regular part of the park, a loud cheer could be heard from under the seats, signaling that David DeJesus hit a homer to right center. I would have hated myself if it landed anywhere in left field. It was empty enough that I would have gotten within 15 feet no matter where it landed if I got a good jump.
We got pretty lucky and found a very empty section right behind the plate. It was dry, and the concession area behind us blocked nearly all the wind, making it feel much warmer than anywhere else.
As you could tell, the crowd was scarce, and fading fast.
It rained for about 20 minutes, then got as bright as could possibly be, which was met with a cheer from the fans. After making sure the rain was completely stopped, Kyle said "Come on, we're moving up".
Now, I thought the view we had was pretty decent, but Kyle is the best seat thief I have ever seen. He has no shame, and can talk his way out of anything. He ducked down an aisle on the 100 level just to the left of home plate when an usher wasn't paying attention and wiping off wet seats. "Sweet! Let's snag those two!" I quietly said to him.
"All the way back here? Nah".
He kept walking, and we got to the field box walkway, 10 rows from the field. I didn't want to get too greedy and get caught. I wanted to stop right there. These would be the closest I've ever sat at Wrigley, sneaking around or not.
He started down ANOTHER aisle, and picked the row with the most empty seats. After realizing our spot wouldn't be in the sun, he hopped over another row and moved 5 seats to the right.
HOLY CRAP!
Fourth row, right behind the Dugout Box seats that go for $250 a pop. I should go to games with Kyle more often.
This was pretty amazing. You really couldn't see much beyond the batter, and.....hang on...WHY am I complaining?
We stayed there until the bottom of the 8th. It started to rain again and we had enough fun down there already.
While we were sitting close, Starlin Castro cranked a homer run in the 5th:
Here's the view from the center field camera right before he hit it:
I find that hilarious. I wish I didn't have the camera right in front of my face, but I always wanted to have good enough seats to be one of the people that it on TV all afternoon.
Kyuji Fujikawa came in to lock up the 2-0 win as our new closer.
It did not go well.
- Angel Pagan fly out
- Marco Scutaro double followed by a wild pitch
- Pablo Sandoval single
- Buster Posey hit by a pitch
- Close call at first on a double play ball from Hunter Pence, two outs
- Brandon Belt double to right
That's a loss. This late in the game, the defending World Series champions just rallied, and it was raining.
Not so fast! Dioner Navarro wasn't about to let that happen!
That was unexpected, to say the least. Now the pressure was on the Giants. Just one more slip up would lose them the game.
Sergio Romo struck out the next two guys in a row before giving up a line drive single to DeJesus. I really didn't want to see extra innings. It was cold and rainy still and rush hour was just starting- not a great time to start a three hour car ride.
Castro was up next, and lofted the 2-1 pitch to center field. Apparently it was hit well, because fans stood up to hold their breath. Pagan kept going back farther and farther and when he got to the wall....HE MISSED IT! It went off the wall and rolled back towards the infield!
By the time I looked at DeJesus he was already rounding third. Cubs win 4-3!
After a long day, seeing the W flag is the best feeling in the world.
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Get ready for a glorious, stupendous, incredible, astounding, and stunning month of May.
- 1 ball at this game
- 2 balls total this season (1.0 ball per game average)
- 7 consecutive games with a ball
- 34 lifetime balls
- Time Spent at Game: 6 hours, 26 minutes
- Total time spent at games: 12 hours, 11 minutes
- NEW! - 1 ball X 30,966 fans = 30,966 Competition Factor
Basically, this number calculates my chances of catching a ball. There were 30,966 tickets sold, and every one of those people could have caught a ball. The actual Factor you get after the calculations are the odds of me getting as many as I did.
It's easier to understand if I had caught two; then the Factor would be 61,932. I beat out every other fan TWICE, and had almost a 1 in 62,000 chance of getting two balls.
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