Midwest Meltdown

Russ and I are both big baseball fans so when we got to the Chicago area a few days ago one of the top things on our list was to catch a Cubs game at Wrigley.

I can claim a baseball connection through my grandfather who played semi-pro ball for his hometown team in Oklahoma during the Depression. He and the four of his brothers who were also on the team were each paid $5.00 per game. No wonder one  of my first memories of Grandpa is of him watching the Yankees games on his black and white TV.

 

Russ has liked baseball since he played it as a kid and remembers the time he saw Satchel Paige play at the old Tulsa Drillers Stadium back in the 1960s. He’s also a Yogi Berra fan. In fact, one of the few things we took with us to decorate the RV is an autographed photo of Yogi Berra with Babe Ruth. Not surprisingly, one of the upcoming must-see stops on our trip is at Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

We chose an afternoon game to get the Wrigley experience just like in the old days before the stadium had lights. Since this was my first trip there I decided to splurge on tickets just five rows back from first base so we’d be really close to the action. What I didn’t realize until we walked into the stadium at high noon was that we weren’t in for a balmy day in the ballpark like in Seattle but a blazing hot Midwest summer day without any shade.

Not long after we sat down in our stove-hot metal seats I was red, hot, and sweaty. Throughout the game I fled to the concourse where—along with other miserable fans—I tried to cool off out of the sun while watching the game on the TVs near the concession stands.

Meanwhile the Cubs were having a meltdown of their own. We knew the history of the Cubs but hoped that on the day we were there they’d play a good game and beat the Mets.  But it turned out to be a heartbreaker. Every time I braved the sun and went back to my seat the Mets had run the score up even higher until the final score was Mets 17, Cubs 1. At one point Russ joked that the umps were going to invoke the “mercy rule” like in kids’ games when they call the game early because one team is so far ahead. Unfortunately for the Cubs they had to go the full nine innings. Not the outcome we wanted but at least now I can say that I've been to a game at Wrigley Stadium.

Plenty of sun where we were sitting as Cubs phenom Rizzo was at bat