THIS is how Wrigley should be. After going to 3 games this year, and seeing the Cubs barely scratch the scoreboard, losing all 3 of them, it was tough. Wrigley is always fun, but when the Cubs aren’t winning, heck, aren’t even scoring runs, giving us little to nothing to cheer about it… it’s tough. Honestly, it’s been a tough 2 years… after abruptly exiting the Golden Era, the Cubs front office hit the reset button; it felt like that reset button had been stuck since then. Well, I’m hear to tell you, first hand, after our visit to Wrigley on Wednesday night, that the Cubs are back. Wrigley had that electric feel again… THIS is how Wrigley should be.
I was a bit worried. After their 20 run outburst in the game just before we were going to be in attendance, I hoped they wouldn’t post a dud. No, that wasn’t going to happen; no, the Cubs would give us our first W tonight I told my son. As the Reds took an early lead, I remained confident… My son and I still did our normal routine. Couple innings in our seats, couple innings playing catch, and then back to our or other seats. The thing about Wednesday night at the Cathedral, there weren’t a whole lot of other seats for us to sit in. We headed back to our seats. When I looked around, I saw a full crowd ready to explode on this beautiful summer evening in Chicago. It was the bottom of the 5th inning; the Cubs were trailing 5-3. Our moment had arrived.
Candelario walked to start off the bottom half of the frame; how good has he been in his first 2 games back? My God… 8 for 9 I believe; crazy good. Wisdom followed with a strikeout before Nico singled to RF. The Reds manager marched out there to pull the pitcher, and YMCA blasted on the Wrigley speakers; we were pumped up, ready to pounce. As the Morel at bat continued, we were on our feet; when he hit the ball high into the night sky, we cheered… when it hit off the wall, we were in a frenzy, as the Cubs pulled within one. We stood on our feet the rest of the inning, as Bellinger grounded out to tie the game, and Dansby struck out. OK, that was fun, but wait, there’s more… In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Cubs grabbed this game by the horns and didn’t look back. 5 runs later, capped off by a 2-run error by the Reds, it was pandemonium at Wrigley.
I’ve missed this. People love Chicago. People love Chicago even more in the summer. People love Wrigley. People love Wrigley even more when the Cubs are rocking. On this evening, it was a combination of many, many good feels. I was in one of my favorite places on earth with one of my favorite people on earth. I was happy for my son, that he finally got to experience a night like this at Wrigley; we’ve had good ones before, but this one… this one is going to stick out. 12 home runs, 36 runs in 2 games… 12 wins in the past 15 games… 3 games out of first place with exactly one third of the season remaining… this is going to be fun… see you again soon Wrigley. Go Cubs!!!
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