A Little Cubs-Cardinals Action in Chicago

Yesterday turned out to be a fun day. Earlier, I had bought two tickets to a Cubs-Cardinals baseball game at Wrigley Field as a Christmas present for my brother, AKA the King of Komps AKA thundering36. It looked to be a great day weather-wise.

Game time was 12:05 p.m., so that meant an early wake up time for me so that I could get on the road (about a 150 mile drive) prior to 7:00 a.m. Once up in the suburban Chicago area to pick up my brother, I drove us to the Metra commuter station so that we could take the train into the city. We were surprised to see many people in the train decked out in red. Could Cardinals fans have infiltrated the transportation system that thoroughly? We found out that the Poland Constitution Day Parade was in Chicago that day -- the largest Polish parade outside of Poland. The red of Poland pride filled the train!

Once in Chicago, we were treated to an interesting site: the Adams Street Bridge was up to allow passage of some boats down the south branch of the Chicago River.

We got on a crowded Red Line train to go from downtown Chicago to the north side. Once there, we were at the Friendly Confines.

One bummer to the trip: we found out that you can no longer bring open drinks into the ballpark. We had done this for years but had not been to any games in over a year. So much for the ritual of stopping by the 7-Eleven store across the street from Wrigley before games.

The game itself? It was a beauty -- a 3-0 shutout of the hated Cardinals. Left fielder Junior Lake, who started out the game by getting a late jump on a fly ball that dropped in during the first inning, was the hero with a two-run home run. Anthony Rizzo added an insurance homer late in the game. There is really nothing quite like joining the home crowd in singing Go Cubs Go after a victory.

 

Before going back to Union Station, I did take a quick picture of the Willis Tower-- formerly known as the Sears Tower, and once the tallest building in the world. Now it is only the tallest building in North America at 110 floors.

There were still plenty of Polish people on the train back to the suburbs. Lots of red doesn't matter when the Cubs win.

And oh ... there was a great promotion at the game -- a pretty sweet fedora with a navy blue band with the Wrigley Field 100 Years logo on the front and a Budweiser logo on the side.

 

 

All in all, a pretty nice day!