Long Live The Queen

Kim (The Lady Rebel) surprised me last month for my birthday with tickets to a Cubs game. Unfortunately, seats in Wrigley were scarce and expensive, so she made travel arrangements for us to take in a Cubs game in Cincinnati. We packed up our chartreuse microbus and hit the road like Jack Kerrouac with Willie Nelson blaring from our speakers (song anyone?)

Actually I had taken this trip twenty-two years ago. There were some differences, however. Instead of going with my two best friends from high school listening to the Best of Motown heading to Riverfront Stadium full of artificial turf I drove with my family of six listening to the audio portion of “SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie” (“I’m a goofy goober yeah!”) heading to the Great American Ball Park full of natural turf.

Staying at the Embassy Suites just north of Cincinnati was pretty cool. Even though the rooms were dingy, the rest of the hotel was nice and it was filled with Cub fans. Everywhere you looked there was a blue shirt or hat walking the halls, sitting in the lounge or eating in the atrium. The girls got a big kick out of the fact that everyone wanted to talk to them when they walked around (wearing their Cub shirts and hats didn’t hurt).

So Saturday afternoon we headed to the ballpark. Going into it, I didn’t know where to park or how long it would take to get to the park. I asked the front desk how long it would take to get there. “About 20 minutes” I was told. Yeah, right. Twenty minutes without traffic or construction. So I assumed an hour (I am from Chicago afterall) and off we went. Then an amazing thing happened. We arrived at the ballpark twenty minutes later having seen no construction and very little traffic. Parking was abundant and we were able to park right across the street for $10 (I can’t close my car door for $10 in Chicago).

On the way in to the park we passed the bronze statues of Frank Robinson and Ernie Lombardo and even though there ended up being almost 42,000 fans (at least 25,000 of them Cub fans), we weren’t crushed by mobs of people. The traffic flow is extremely fan friendly.






Inside the park it was a quick elevator ride up to the top concourse and then a few more steps up to our seats (six rows from the rafters).

The game was amazing. Katelyn’s favorite, Alfonso Soriano, hit three homeruns. Kim’s man, Mark DeRosa also went deep. And Rebel Star, Derrek Lee, went four for six. We even got to see the fireworks come out of the riverboat’s smokestack when Power Monster Jolbert Cabrera cranked Carlos Marmol’s first pitch over the leftfield wall for a heart-stopping grand slam. And considering it was the only game the Cubs have won in a week, it was all the more special.

Of course the trip would not be complete without controversy. Rumors are already flying of tampering that Rebel management met with Jay Bruce to encourage him to spurn the Clowns long term offer and play in flannel at Confederate Park. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no meeting. All my calls ended up going into his voicemail and he didn’t even have the courtesy to call back.

CFCL Notes – Kenn: I have to give you props on both the city and the locals. Cincinnati is a beautiful city and the people are very welcoming. The Great American Ballpark is just a wonderful place to watch a game. Television doesn’t do it justice. Sitting near the rafters has its advantages. Throughout the night we could see all the different boats and barges float up and down the river. When the sun went down (artist anyone?) we could see the lights reflect across the water. Very, very appealing.