THROW IT BACK.....15 TIMES

The game tonight was amazing. First of all, we tore the Reds a new one. Absolutely obliterated any dignity they had tonight, and I loved every moment of it. Zambrano went 3-for-4, Derrek Lee hit yet another home run, and we scored 12 runs. Let me say that again, 12 runs. That's a one with a two after it. We weren't even trying after the 3rd inning, as we already had 10 at that point.

The weather was phenomenal, the atmosphere was great, and the insults were flowing. As I was sitting in the left field bleachers, Adam Dunn was our target of choice. As is often the case, most of the things we shouted consisted of us making sure he was aware of his level of suckiness. We were also somewhat within shouting distance of Corey Patterson, which got interesting when his younger brother Eric came up to bat. We proceeded with a chant of Corey's name, and then when Eric struck out looking someone yelled to Corey that it must run in the family. That someone might have been me. I got some laughs out of it, which is really the whole point of the heckling experience.

The best moment by far though was when Adam Dunn came up to bat in the 8th inning. He hit a solo home run, which you're probably thinking makes for a crappy best moment. The ball cleared the right field bleachers and landed on Sheffield, and the fans began the obligatory shouts to throw it back. And then something interesting happened. Not only did a ball come flying back onto the field, but two other balls came with it. Some people in the right field bleachers decided that looked like fun, so they joined in by throwing more balls onto the field. All in all, 15 baseballs found their way onto the field and play had to be stopped to remove them. I only wish my fellow left field occupants had joined in the fun, but no one seemed to have any baseballs. Probably the funniest thing I have ever seen at Wrigley, and I stood and cheered along with everyone else in the bleachers. I think our message was clear, screw you Adam Dunn. You suck. Your home runs are not welcome here.

That experience basically defined the game for me, it was fun, exciting, and a bit silly at times. Everything a good baseball game should be. If I can find any pictures or video of the baseball throwing in action I'll be sure to post them.

You can read a full recap of the game and the player's reactions to the ball throwing here.

We May Have a Real Shot at This

Sorry that the updates here have been few and far between as of late, it's been busy for me the past couple of weeks but I hope to get back into the swing of things as this division race really heats up. In case you want to know what's been going on during the last two weeks, the Cubs have been up by a game and a half practically the entire time.

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a free Cubs game. If you haven't done this before, I highly recommend it. A friend of a friend had a ticket that he couldn't use, so he gave it to my friend who couldn't use it, and my friend gave it to me. It was the best seats and I didn't have anyone else I knew going, but none of that matters when you can be at a Cubs game for less than 20 bucks and watch them inch their way towards a division title. The rundown of what I spent for the game:

• Ticket for Aisle 224, Row 19, Seat 10: Free
• Upgrading to Row 13, Seat 1: Free
• Gas for the 75 mile round trip to where I parked: $9
• Parking: Free
  
• Riding the L to the stadium and back: $4
• Refilling my bottle of water at the drinking fountain by the bathrooms: Free
• Slice of pizza from Bacci's Pizzeria after the game: $4.39
• Total: $17.39

I'd say paying that much is well worth seeing a thrilling Cubs win.

By the way, I highly recommend Bacci's Pizza. You get a slice of thin crust pizza the size of Montana and a pop for $4.39 after tax, and it's about 20 feet from the L stop. As you're leaving the stadium, you will see a cute college girl in a tank top trying to get you to go to a bar that has $3 jello shots. Right next to that bar is Bacci's. It's on the left, you can't miss it. Tell them I sent you.

All that being said though, I wish I had gone to today's game instead. I thought we didn't have a chance of winning, I was actually dozing off when Lee came through with the big homer. Not a great time to fall asleep. I just hope the team can get some kind of momentum going, because I'm not really comfortable with a 1.5 game lead on the Brewers. Let's get it to a 4 or a 5 game lead and maybe I'll be able to breathe again.

Take THAT, Crack Dealers

Well it's Tuesday, and I think I've finally recovered to the point where I can let everyone know just how awesome this series was. The whole weekend was kind of a blur, so for both your sake and mine I'm going to try to split this up into the different games that took place. Please note: this will be heavily biased, so if for some strange reason one of you Sox fans show up here and want to give me crap about whatever I say in the following paragraphs, I don't care. Start your own blog and rip on my people all you want there.

Also, I forgot to get pics until the last game, and they're all shot with my crappy camera phone. My bad.

Game 1: Cubs Win 6-3

The game started at 1:20 and I had a non-missable class that ended at 12:50, so I didn't have high hopes for getting to the stadium on time. But somehow I managed to convince my professor that the Cubs were more important than anything and made it to the ballpark with minutes to spare. Being at Wrigley when at least a third of the fans are cheering for the other team is a strange experience. Someone is going to cheer after every play, so you really have to be paying attention to what is going on. For example, when Ted Lilly throws a pitch to Tadahito Iguchi on a full count and people start cheering, you better make sure it was called a strike before you stand up and clap. Otherwise, you will feel like a moron when it turns out it was a walk. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.

The Sox fans seem to have this chip on their shoulder because people only love their team when they play well. Because of this, someone was constantly starting a "Let's Go White Sox" chant. This chant was repeatedly met with loud booing until the offender shut up. As an alternative, some people joined in with a "F*** the White Sox" chant. I enjoyed those people.

As for the game, it was fun to watch. The thing about baseball games is that when you're heavily invested in a team, your mood at the moment completely depends on how that team is doing. So through the sixth inning I wasn't very happy. It didn't help that the girl sitting next to me that I invited to the game was more of a Sox fan than a Cubs fan. But Mr. Oxymoron came through with the 7th inning rally and it was all happiness from me after that. When Dempster came out we all got nervous, but everything turned out alright. Oh and I forgot to mention, I stayed up all Thursday night so I'm still not sure how I managed to stay awake through all of this.

Game 2: Cubs Win 11-6

Most of the time when I go to Cubs games I sit in the bleachers. For this series we were stuck in the back of the Terrace Reserved section, but I wasn't about to complain as long as I got into the game. Being enclosed under the Upper Deck makes you realize just how loud the crowd can get during a normal game. And this was no normal game.

In the eighth inning with the bases loaded, Lou decides to make a gutsy call and replace Daryle Ward with Derrek Lee. As soon as he steps out of the dugout, the crowd goes nuts. Apparently he wasn't supposed to come back until Tuesday (today). The time he swung was really awkward looking, and I was worried. Maybe it was too soon for him. The count worked its way to 3-1, and one of the guys I was with said "This is it, the 3-1 count". David Aardsma, the man we traded away for Neal Cotts, delivered the pitch. Lee connected. The crowd completely exploded. Loudest I have ever heard Wrigley in my relatively young life. I turned around looking for more people to high-five and came face to face with an unhappy Sox fan. I laughed inside, not knowing the carnage that was to come on Sunday.

Game 3: Cubs Lose 10-6

All of us Cubs fans were cocky for this one. People were in line to get in to the park holding up brooms, one guy even had a little one stuck in the back of his Cubs hat. But alas, it was not to be. On the way there the guy I had brought with who is almost as big of a Sox fan as I am a Cubs fan informed me that in the last four Sox games he had been to, the Sox hit a grand slam. I told him it wasn't happening today. I also bet him 5 bucks that both teams were .500 before the game. Looks like I was wrong on a lot of things.

The game wasn't so bad at one point. My friend commented to me about how "Wrigley is the World's largest gay bar". I responded with "Comiskey is the World's largest crack dealership". He then told me he makes good money selling that crack. At least they're proud of who they are.

I was sure we were going to win, we were facing a horrible relief pitcher in Masset and we had the new and improved Zambrano. The one that went 8 innings last game while only giving up one run. But now he's the one that amassed 7 earned runs in just less then seven innings. When Lou brought in Cotts and he served up that grand slam on a silver platter, I died a little on the inside.

Then the rain came down. As part of their "we really need to make money" program, the Cubs have put a logo in the middle of their tarp. I was not impressed.

Most of my group left at this point, but me and my Sox friend remained. We refuse to let a little water ruin our experience. While we were hiding in the warmer walkways behind all the seats, we found a window. Behind this window lies what I have good reason to believe is Lou Piniella's office. And by good reason I mean there are posters of him all over the walls. Note the blown-up cover of SI on the right.

Eventually the rain stopped and we moved up to the pricey seats. I would guess at this point there were maybe 3,000 people left. Pansies. We had a great view of the action, which turned out to be Cliff Floyd getting tossed from the game. We were screaming for Lou to go crazy, but he kept his cool and stayed in. That was thoroughly disappointing.

Something else I noticed was that Sox fans are very angry drunks. There were two separate people I saw that were starting fights for absolutely no reason, calling Cubs fans sore losers for leaving the game early and dropping F-bombs in front of 8 year olds. All of this anger came after the Pierzynski home run and while they were enjoying a comfortable lead. I couldn't understand what their problem was.

Overall, these were some of the best baseball games I've ever been to. I can only hope to be lucky enough to get tickets next year. Hopefully by then enough people will read this that one of them will have tickets and be kind enough to offer me one. But at the rate we're going I'll just have to find a friend that's a ticket scalper.

Goin to the Game

In a spur of the moment decision, I'm going to the Cubs game tonight. Bleacher seats are $16 if you get the college discount. And at that price, why wouldn't you go?

If you're not in college, just call the ticket office and tell them you go to Northwestern, they'll give you the promotion code over the phone.

Hint: It's the school mascot. In all caps. Plural. If you can't figure that out, you don't deserve the cheap seats.

I just wish we had someone better than Marquis pitching. Someone like Rich Hill. Or half of the pitchers in baseball.

Living Here is Gonna Be So Awesome in 9 Years

Ok so I know I'm a little slow on the draw here, considering they announced this at 3 PM Central Time, but Chicago was chosen by the USOC as the American city that will make a bid for the 2016 Olympics. This means that if I'm still living in the area in 9 years, I'm gonna go to the Olympics! That's pretty awesome to think about. Or at least I'll be able to walk through downtown and pass a ton of foreign people wearing athletic garb. That will be pretty cool too.

As mentioned in the article, if Chicago pulls off this bid we could be having Olympic baseball and softball at the Friendly Confines. Also mentioned is that those sports were decided to be eliminated starting with the 2012 Olympics, because London doesn't have a place to play baseball. Well I say screw London. If I don't get to see some Olympic baseball at Wrigley, I'm going to have to write a strongly worded letter to Mayor Daley voicing my disappointment. And then I'll have to vote 8 times in the next election to prove how upset I am.