Cubs Game 6/11/15: Friendly Confines and Nasty Rookies

In all honesty, the trip to Chicago was fueled by a desire to see Wrigley Field. I mean, it's one of the most beloved ballparks in America. It's a rite of passage for anybody claiming to be a diehard baseball fan. And, funny enough, it marked the tenth of thirty baseball stadiums I'd been to, giving me two-thirds left to conquer.

But yeah, I knew I needed to hit wrigley, and I was not disappointed whatsoever. The game we attended was against the Reds, and it was a very nice one.

I took a tour of the stadium before the game. Not a lot of touring. Lot of stories though. That works, I guess.

It was a cloudy day, with rain in the forecast, but, for the most part, it stayed away. Before the game I felt I needed to blend in, so snagged a Rizzo t-shirt and a snazzy retro-ish hat, and I was all set.

My seats, contrary to the photo I took on the tour, were on the third base side, a bit farther back than the Sox game, but closer to the right, towards Kris Bryant. Pretty nice, actually, as we had a nice view of the guy everybody was fighting for a view of.

I did, actually, attempt to snag an autograph of Bryant, but the people in charge told us to sit back down...and then ten minutes later, Bryant came out and started signing. My luck, right?

The pitching matchup that night was kind of blah. For the Reds, it was Anthony Lorenzen. For the Cubbies, it was Tsuyoshi Wada, who barely lasted too long into the game before being pulled and replaced with Travis Wood. Hey, here's a bright idea. Switch Wada and Wood. Wood can obviously start games.

The Reds were without Brandon Phillips, Billy Hamilton and Marlon Byrd, as well as most of the rest of the bulk of their lineup. Votto, Frazier and Bruce were there, of course. As for the Cubs, Jorge Soler, one of the guys I was most excited to see, was off. But, the core infield of Rizzo-Russell-Castro-Bryant were ALL there, present and accounted for, as well as their everyday catcher Miguel Montero. David Ross was around though, signing a few balls for a girl that was next to me against the fence.

I came to this game, essentially, to see what kind of stuff Kris Bryant had in him. I was not disappointed. The guy had a couple of nice hits, played some pretty nice third base, and I could definitely see why everybody was going insane about him. I'm happy with that whole infield, actually. I love Rizzo, and Castro has always been pretty nice. Russell wasn't hitting as much as he did early on in the season, but he could heat up.

Dexter Fowler was a guy who I'd loved with Colorado, and still really liked. In this game he hit one of the many pivotal home runs, along with Miguel Montero. I'm glad he's still hitting.

What I loved about the stadium was the serenity. It was just a very cozy, laid-back place to watch a ballgame, a lot like Dodger Stadium. Very laid back, and the fans are pretty fun. The food's nice, too. I had a bison italian sausage, which I did not know was a thing, and was pleasantly surprised.

The Cubs ended up winning 6-3, and it ended up being a much more exciting game than the Sox one. I think the team was better, too. The Cubs right now have a ton of momentum, and the fans are 100% behind them. Plus, Wrigley was PACKED. The Sox game had a lot of seats open, but Wrigley was packed.

I think I enjoyed this game the best out of the two. There was a lot more to it, and it was a lot more interesting to watch. Plus, Wrigley's awesome. I doubt I'll be forgetting this one.

White Sox Game 6/10/15: Boxers, Butts, and Bonehead Bonifacio

The outlook wasn't good heading into the Sox game.

Which...could work for either team ending in Sox this year. But, in this case, I'm talking about the Chicago White Sox. Because, as I entered the park that the diehards still call Comiskey, and the sportscasters are contractually obligated to call U.S. Cellular, I wasn't expected to leave with a win. The team was depleted, and the guys who were hitting last year were slumping this year. Even Jose Abreu was having a down, comparatively, season.

And yet the Sox still managed to pull out a win against the 'Stros that day, which was even more phenomenal, especially considering the momentum they had that week. Hell, Carlos Correa was up with them, and he'd had some nice hits the night before. So, the oddest part was not only that the Sox won, but they essentially SWEPT one of the best teams in the AL.

So...I'm gonna show you how it went down.

These were our seats. Relatively close to the action. Close enough to catch a glimpse at Conor Gillespie, and whoever was playing left field.

The game began with a mild drizzle, which would be on-and-off throughout the first bit of the game, but would subside by the time the momentum hit.

The Sox were missing Alexei Ramirez that day, so Gordon Beckham was at short, leaving Emilio Bonifacio to play second, which, to say the least, he wasn't great at that night. Also, Tyler Flowers was out, leaving Geovany Soto, a guy who I was personally shocked to discover was still on an MLB roster, to take over.

Pitching for the Sox was Jose Quintana. Good enough pitcher, but mighty slow. The Astros started a new guy named Vincent Velazquez, who was good enough, but couldn't hold the runs long enough.

The first pitch was thrown out by a boxer that nobody in my family had heard of.

Sad to say, but the first part of the game was pretty boring. Not a lot of runs, not a lot of solid pitching, and not a lot else. The highlight was these magical butt-clouds that appeared in the sky after the rain had gone, and promptly drew more attention than anything going on on the field.

The sky-butts would have been a better second baseman than Emilio Bonifacio, who had some torrid fielding errors, and didn't hit much better. I felt pretty bad for him. Also of note- Avisail Garcia's awful base running. The guy got picked off trying to steal TWICE during the game. TWICE. Dude, stick to hitting.

Eventually something did indeed happen.

Adam LaRoche got up, with a couple men on, and knocked a nice homer into the seats, cementing a solid lead for the Sox, and having some of the productivity that the front office was wishing he'd have more of when they signed him. Fireworks went off, the crowd went crazy, and the organ lady's fingers went wild.

I noticed how dedicated some of the fans were around here. They'd been through some shit, definitely. They had to wait a while until 2005, and those years consisted of a lot of bad baseball. Heck, the fact that this had been ten years since that series was a big deal that night, as apparently they didn't want anyone to forget.

There was something about the relentlessness, even in darkness, that I admired. I went and bought a Chris Sale t-shirt while I was there, because I'm tall and thin like Sale.

After the smoke cleared from LaRoche's homer, there wasn't a ton of suspense. Geovany Soto and Jose Abreu hit home runs, Pat Neshek got clobbered, George Springer and Carlos Correa had a couple nice hits to sweeten their considerably smaller pot, and David Robertson got the save. The win was very sweet, and the game was nice to watch.

By the way, a few notes about the stadium- decent place to watch a ballgame. Nothing too eye-popping, but our seats were nice, and it seemed to be new enough to be memorable. My dad told me that this was one of the last few stadiums before Camden Yards revitalized everything. Knowing that did make sense, but I could admire a lot of it. And the food was pretty nice, too. Nice hot dogs.

The vendors knew their audience, and knew how to be memorable. One particular beer vendor went around, yelling, with a scratchy voice, "IIIIIII'VE...GOT............BEEEEEEER..." He went around several times, in the same tone, the same volume. I think he meant to make people laugh. Another vendor, obviously tired of this guy's shit, was trying to sell beer, and still heard the guy three rows away. So, he said "yeah? Well I've got colder beer."

Overall, it was a very nice game. I do think the game at Wrigley slightly edged it out, though. And I'll talk about that one tomorrow.