Game time 3pm so we arrived around 12:30 to make sure we were one of the first 10,000 fans in the door to receive the Cubs T-Shirt giveaway courtesy of StubHub. Let me set the stage for a minute so the title of the post will become more clear as we move on. My wife and I took our four children to see the Cubs play at Wrigley. We have three daughters (ages 16, 13 and 12) and a son (age 5).
We waited for the gates to open, grabbed our T-Shirts and made our way to our seats. We sat in the Terrace Reserved section by first base. To get to the seats we had to walk up the ramps that are on the perimeter of the park. I knew what was coming at the top of the ramp so I slowed down, told my son who I was carrying to look to his left, and waited for any reaction from the kids at their first sight of Wrigley Field in person. My wife and I had the same reaction we always do. “Oh my god, there it is!” The kids admitted they didn’t quite reach that level, although they did like seeing it in person. They thought the field looked completely different than it does on TV.
We went to our seats and then I went to get everyone something to eat. I went down four ramps and a flight of stairs for the hotdogs and French fries. Carried it back up and then went back down four ramps and a flight of stairs to get the water and pop. Thankfully everything was 25% off since we arrived right after the gates opened.
Once we ate we took turns walking around taking tons and tons of pictures of the park and each other. Then we got settled in our seats and watched the ground crew get the field ready, spraying the water, replacing the bases, putting away the batting cages and laying down the batter’s boxes and foul lines. I told my girls to watch as the wooden rectangle was laid where the batter stands and then was struck eight or ten times with a pipe to release the chalk to make the boxes.
First pitch was 3pm (two and a half hours after we arrived) and the people in the two rows in front of us were already drunk. They weren’t abusive, they didn’t do anything that would embarrass my children, they were just drunk. They continually stood up and walked out to go to the bathroom and buy more beer. Each row must have stood up and left and come back at least seven times each. So rather than be able to see the game on the field, my kids had to look at the television monitors hanging above to see what was happening. When the people in front weren’t blocking our view, the posts supporting the upper deck blocked our view of home, thirdbase, rightfield or firstbase depending on which member of our family you asked. We couldn’t see the top of the scoreboard, the clock or the flags flying because of the luxury boxes hanging down from the upper deck. The seats, same seats I sat in when I was a kid, were tight. No arm room between us (good thing we’re a close family), no room to put our legs.
So with all that, the only time we left our seats from an hour before game time until the game ended at 6pm was when my five year old said he had to go to the bathroom in the 6th inning. Four ramps and a staircase down and up and fortunately we only missed a couple of batters. The idiots in front of us left their seats a combined dozen times at least.
That being said, Wrigley looked beautiful. Green carpet grass, ivy in full bloom. Cubs beat the first place Pirates 4-1 and Alfonso Soriano hit two home runs making my oldest daughter thrilled.
Being there with my wife and children was an amazing experience, almost as good as I had built up in my mind. But what I forgot about was the group of “fans” that show up to drink themselves into the concrete and not pay attention to the game. They go so later that night or the next day they can say “Yep, I was at Wrigley yesterday. It was awesome.” I doubt they could remember anything that happened.
As much as I love baseball, the Cubs and Wrigley Field, I’m not busy trying to arrange a return visit any time soon.
