Blowing Through the Windy City
People keep asking, “What brings you to Chicago?”
and there is only one proper response:
“We’re on a mission from Gahd!”
hehehe, big shouts to anyone who gets the reference. One of my favorite movies ever and it features the best damn soundtrack ever compiled.
Well, there is only one reason I wanted to go to Chicago… to catch a day game at Wrigley Field. A pre-war cathedral, an icon of the game with it’s ivy covered outfield walls that make baseballs disappear better than any magician. Wrigley is the second oldest stadium in the majors, operating since 1914, it’s a classic and full of history. Tinkers to Evers to Chance, anyone?
Let’s play some Baseball jeopardy. Hey Alex, i’ll take baseball parks for 400 please. What is the oldest stadium in MLB? Here’s some music while you think it over… dooo doo dooo do doo do dooo, dooo…
And what a game it was. Completely oblivious while purchasing the tickets back in July, but that Saturday game happened to be the celebration of 150 years of the Chicago Cubs (longest running team in the league) and for the pregame celebration they trotted out the living legends like Greg Maddux, Kerry Wood, Rick Sutcliffe, Sammy Sosa, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and lots more. Sadly, Ryno wasn’t there. R.I.P. He passed away last year after battling cancer. Despite the warm and sticky weather the honorary presentation gave me chills. Nothing a few cold beers won’t fix. Speaking of beers, the beer cup snake in the right field bleachers is epic in person! Really love that the fans enjoy their beer. My seatmate on the left slammed 5 beers despite arriving in the bottom of the third and my seatmate to the right put away 6. He kept coming back double fisted. Thought one was for his wife, but nope he proceeded to knock em both down each time. Much respect Cubs fans, much respect. I need to catch a game in Milwaukee next. I’m sure they put away even more beers over there.
It’s refreshing to see the scoreboard in centerfield hasn’t changed at all since it’s inception. It is still hand operated and devoid of all the meaningless bullshit stats you’ll be shown in other stadiums. Less is More. Just the facts: runs, hits, errors. It’s so old that it can’t show the scores of all the games ongoing that day since it was built before MLB expanded to 30 teams and nobody cared to update the capacity. Compared to Oracle Park, the home of my adopted team the S.F. Giants, which features stat and information overload for the ADD millennial influencers who don’t even watch the game. They just sit there staring at their phone screens or taking selfies with their nacho and Velveeta filled helmets to post to their 12 followers. The purity of the game is still alive at Wrigley. You seriously feel transported back in time when you walk through the gates.
Back to the game. It’s the heat of a pennant race and the vibes were live the second we stepped off the train. Wrigleyville, so cool. The whole atmosphere surrounding the ballpark is awesome. You know it’s an old stadium when you have homes and restaurants and pubs directly across the street from the ballpark. Reminds me of the South Bronx and 161st Street, just a bit cleaner and safer. They don’t make em like this anymore. Modern stadiums are usually located within a boring parking lot or amongst a fabricated “downtown” feel with chain restaurants and gift shops. This is authentic. I Love the fans here, they were loud and the stadium was rocking. With the Cubbies plating 17 runs, it better be rocking. The Redleg’s from Cincinnati never stood a chance. “Hey Chicago, what do you say, the Cubs are gonna win today!” Mark my words, better yet place your bets since this is easy money, PCA locked up the MVP that day. His first career 3 homer game. Epic! M-V-PETE. M-V-PETE. M-V-PETE!! Shohei is over rated. Talented as hell, but over rated. DH’s should never be MVP. I have Shohei fatigue, enough of the b.s. already. And to hell with the Dodgers as well. (speaking of stadiums in parking lots. tsk tsk) Booooo! Riding the El to and from the game, gives me those Yankees vibes. There’s nothing like the shared camaraderie of crowding on a train with fellow fans hyped before a game and getting loud and rowdy after! Good times! I’ll never forget this day. I really wish they still gave out physical ticket stubs. (digital memories suck) That stub would be a keeper for sure. In addition to PCA’s blasts, we watched Greg Maddux plunk a camera man with his ceremonial first pitch. The pitcher most known for his impeccable control air mailed it 10’ outside of the batters box. We later learned it was a dare and a $5 bet amongst he and the other pitchers. Just good times all day.
The Cubs game was the highlight, but walking around and experiencing the architecture of downtown was stunning. I studied most of these buildings and architects back in school, so it’s always cool to see it up close and personal. I highly recommend taking one of the Architecture Boat Tours they offer on the river. We went with the First Lady which is also associated with the Chicago Architecture Center, but I’m sure they are all good. The Art Institute at Millennium Park was awesome, it’s a quite expansive collection and we caught a cool De Kooning Exhibit. We made sure to experience as much of the local cuisine in the outer neighborhoods as possible. Mediterranean at Sifr, an expansive Vietnamese fish and seafood offering at HaiSous (and don’t skip the bourbon and ginger cocktails), we survived a 2.5 hour wait in 90 degree heat for a Michelin star Filipino breakfast plates at Kasama (damn good, but not worth the wait. nothing is…i’m embarrassed to admit i waited on line that long for tocino), salivated over epic steak amongst gangsters and mayors at The Chop House, but Mayor Daly no longer dines here, he’s dead sir. Despite all the fancy meals Daisies stole the show with the best damn pierogies outside of Krakow. (i’m a bit of a pierogi connoisseur) They were served swimming in a Miller High Life sauce. mmm, potatoes, mussels and the Champagne of Beers, pure heaven. Pierogies and Beers! Regretfully, couldn’t find a spot that would serve us up 4 fried chickens and a coke. Where’s Aretha when you need her? Chicago is synonymous with comedy, so we headed over to the Second City, and laughed our asses off during Pandemonium, Please Hold, enjoyed a Saturday night fireworks extravaganza over the lake from our hotel, spent plenty of time walking the riverfront and lakefront (gotta get those steps in, lol), and when others went running inside for cover I became drenched and drank beers waterside during a lightning storm (i love a good lightning storm, sadly, we don’t get those out in California). For the grand finale wrapped the trip up with a sunset kayak sesh down the Chicago River. Just don’t fall in, that water is nasty. I should probably get a tetanus shot anyway. Just to be safe.
Only 2 things were missing from this trip. I didn’t experience any live music (missed the Wu and Ye at Soldier Field by a couple of days) and I never made it to see the Penguin. The key to traveling is to not do it all so that you have a reason to return. Amazingly, not one Ferris Bueller reference in this write up. I dropped that in the previous post. No need to run it back. We’ll stick with the Blues Brothers theme.
A couple of random thoughts : Chicago feels like a doppleganger NYC with vibes of Manhattan and the other boroughs. Gas is madd expensive, ringing in about 50 cents cheaper than California prices, yet you never hear about that in the news. Refreshingly there is a conspicuous absence of Tesla’s (and other EV’s ) on the road. We live in a tech bubble out in California. The streets of Chicago are cannabis scented just like the Bay Area. And NO Ketchup allowed on a hot dog here. Mustard only. Legit!
… dooo doo doo dooo, doo doo, doo, … your answer to the Jeopardy question is : Fenway Park in Boston. I’ve attended 4 games there and I’ll be back for more.