Game #57- Chicago Whitesox

Chicago Whitesox vs. Seattle Mariners U.S. Cellular Field August 25, 2012 I’m in Chicago for the 30th annual Chicago Lifetime triathlon. I planned the trip around the race over 8 months ago which included two baseball games. At the time I was in great athletic shape gearing up for a couple of races at the beginning of the year. About 3 weeks after I signed up and purchased the ball game tickets I tore my ACL, meniscus and cartilage in my right knee. Now that I am six months post surgery I am attempting my first race in a year and am pretty excited, but am a little scared of the heat and humidity. We will see how it goes, I am getting up at 4am tomorrow. That being said, why not go to a game the night before to relax the nerves… US Cellular field is apparently in a bad neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. I really couldn’t tell because I only went from the Red Line to the stadium. As I was walking around the ball park I found the site of the old Comiskey Park home plate. It is pretty cool, has the dates of the stadium and you can tell there was a perfect view of downtown. The new field is only about 100 yards away but is facing away from the city which is a little disappointing. You can still get great panoramic views but only on the outskirts of the escalator/elevator shafts. The building is still fairly new, it is a nice looking ballpark, but nothing too exciting to see. I was on the upper level and couldn’t get down to the ground floor so there might be more down there. I did like walking around the concession stand area because they have murals with pictures dating back to the early teens. That is what disappointed me a little bit, I wanted to see player uniforms and bats, signed balls and helmets, not just murals. Also what about the 2005 championship year? I only saw five blown up pictures and the only reason I found them is because I decided to take the ramp up to the top section of the stadium versus the escalators. Oh well. The game seemed like it was going to be a blow out by the Mariners. The first half inning took nearly an hour, pitcher Jose Quintana threw 60 pitches and quickly went down 3-0 after Kyle Seager’s 3 run homer. But the Chi Sox slowly crept back in the game (I think because manager Robin Ventura and catcher AJ Pierzynski blew up on the ump and were ejected) with great plays on third by Kevin Youklis (Yoooooook!!!) and some good batting by the middle of the line up. The game was at a stand still until the 6th when the Sox took the lead and never relinquished it back. I didn’t stay for the entire game because of my race the next morning and the fact that I was sweating so much I didn’t want to be completely dehydrated the next day. Overall, it was a decent experience. Sox won 5-4, but I think it would have been a lot cooler if Commisky was still there.

ear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em">

Game #58- Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers Wrigley Field August 28th 2012 Not sure which ballpark is more prestigious, Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, but it is awesome that I have now been to both. I finished my horrendous comeback to the triathlon game (too hot, too humid, missed my wave, and am still out of shape after my surgery) and for the past two days have been exploring the city. I went on a river architecture tour, checked out Sears Tower (Willis now), Navy Pier, biked the entire stretch of park systems, and now am finally at the crescendo of my trip. I met up with an old college friend from Tri Delt, Kat Ochsner, who was a perfect guide tonight. She has been in the city for a couple of years as a bar tender and not only new all the cool bars but also most of the bar tenders. We hit up several pubs in Wrigleyville before ever setting foot in the stadium. Not sure if that was a good or bad thing because by the time we got inside I was pretty tossed. It was cool to walk around the park and check out the statues (favorite was Harry Caray), saw all the rooftop bleachers, and got a picture in front of the most famous billboard in the country if not the world. After a six pack of various beers we made our way in and didn’t even try to find our seats. I wanted a couple pictures from the bleachers but since you can’t sit there without a ticket we got as close as we could. Not being satisfied with the view we soon made our way to the first base line and shacked up there for a couple of innings. Now I am not going to lie, by the time we sat down I could not pay attention to the game at all. I do remember a couple of plays but that was it. Maybe because the Cubs were already down 3-0 in the second and never had a chance to get back into the game, or maybe because I should have stopped drinking about 2 hours before, but the time in the park was a haze. Kat and I decided that the game was not worth sticking around and another beer at her bar (Crossroads Public) was a better idea. Cubbies lost 4-1, I didn’t know a single player on the field, and it sucks when the home team is getting booed. Next time I am here I hope for a win…I also got to find the bar with an indoor batting cage!!!

Game #59- Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets Sun Life Stadium September 24, 2012 Now I understand why they call Florida the armpit of the US. I am in Miami for one of my best friends bachelor party, Danny Inouye, along with my other best friend Danny Givertz and DI’s little brother Ivan. We rolled into town on Friday and hit up Brickell Street, then completed a 13 hours drinking binge on Saturday before heading to the game (with a horrific hangover) on Sunday. I have felt humidity before, Boston and Gaithersburg are fairly miserable in summer, but Miami is a sauna. Let me put it this way, I think I sweated more sitting at the game then during the entire Arizona Ironman. What can make this situation worse, oh how about a horrific game. Both teams played like crap. I really didn’t care who won and honestly would have done anything to have stayed in bed in an air conditioned hotel but DI loves Mark Sanchez and had to cheer on the Jets. It wouldn’t have been so bad if there was anything exciting to root on. The passing was piss pour by both Sanchez as well as rookie QB Ryan Tannehill, all the running plays went right up the gut with no break outs (in fact the best rusher, Reggie Bush got injured and was taken out of the game), and did I mention the reffing was atrocious? The NFL refs are in a labor dispute so the back up judges are from arena leagues and division II colleges. Honestly they do not know what they are doing! When there are so many flags thrown that a 16 minute quarter lasts over an hour it is ridiculous. Well what can I say, we didn’t want to be at the game, and were grateful to get out of there a bit early. Thank God because it went into OT which made the game last nearly 5 hours. The Jets pulled out the victory with a 33 yard field goal by Nick Folk to take the 23-20 win. Woopty doo…

Two more memorable parts of the game, one good and one bad. The good…the kiss cam. Everyone knows the kiss cam but rarely is it this funny. The final two people they showed were Tim Tebow and Clyde Gates, at the last second Isaiah Trufant pushed the players heads together to the delight of the crowd. The bad, the insanely loud and drunk guys in front of us. Imagine the Ying Yang twins screaming “Fuck ‘em up” about a thousand times…f-ing annoying.