We didn’t waste much time… Sure, I still haven’t checked off attending Opening Day at Wrigley, but we were slated to attend game 3 of the 2022 season on Saturday afternoon; the game turned out to be the 2nd game of the season thanks to a postponement of Friday’s tilt due to the weather. Yeah, it would be cold, but we’d be prepared. It wasn’t supposed to be a boys’ day with my son and I, but when my wife fell under the weather (no COVID), plus with the weather being less than ideal, she decided to stay home. Off to Wrigley we went…
Didn’t want to get there as early as usual. We were going to spend 3+hours in the cold as it was, no need to extend that… not for THIS game. Found parking pretty easily close to the park. Remember, parking during day games is OK because the parking permits are NOT in effect. You can find a spot on the street within the neighborhood usually without issue. I wanted to stop and get a pre-game slice of pizza at D’agostino’s. My son didn’t want one, yet ask me why he ate half the slice I got… haha. OK, let’s get to the park. Grabbed a couple bottles of water and some Gatorade on our walk over, and we were in there; no peanuts??? Yeah, no peanuts, damn!
We settled into our seats; we put the big warm Cubs blanket over our laps, and we were ready for some baseball. John Vincent had the anthem; always love his freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Speaking about our blankets, the Cubs are no dummies; they had vendors selling blankets in the stands… probably for $40; we’re no dummies either! We had a couple guys come and sit in front of us; my son said they stunk. I asked him what do they smell like; he said beer. He was right. It was as if we walked into a bar at 3am; they absolutely reeked. No worries, we’d be on the move soon. The first inning lasted a long time, which was good for the Cubs, as they took a 3-0 lead against one of the Brewers top arms. Time to play catch.
It was the first time we broke out the gloves this year; my son had a little rust on his backhand, but other than that, was in mid-season form. I got another compliment about him; every time we play catch out there, somebody is coming up to me telling me how good my son is; proud papa I am. He said “how old is he”, and “he has a great arm”. Yeah, we pretty much had the field to ourselves out there for a while; can’t wait for baseball season to begin for him this year. We were out there until about the 4th I believe, watching the game on the big screen out of one eye.
Once back into the stadium, we found some upgraded seats, in the 200 level behind the Cubs dugout; we didn’t last long. The difference between the sun and shade on this afternoon was about 15 degrees. The sun was covering some of the 200 level in right field; that’s where we headed next. If I had to make a wager, 90% of the folks in that section did NOT have tickets for that section. How do I know that? Well, because it was the only section that was full in the park, other than the Bleachers of course, which were sun drenched. Speaking of the bleachers, we saw some idiots in Packer jerseys in the front row in right field. There was some “discussion” going on, and some “bird flipping” as my son noticed, but no fight broke out… at least not that we saw. We stood there until the stretch, and then headed back out to play catch again. This time, not so lucky; it was packed… that was the bad thing. The good thing? My son ran into 3 kids from his school, and they got to play together for the rest of the game.
Unlike the boys’ night earlier in the week, our team cooperated this time around. The Cubs beat the Brewers 9-0. Just like Thursday night, this outing was special; it always is. Our first outing at Wrigley is in the books; many more to come… love you boy.
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