Subject: Finally, the Friendly Confines!
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 14:35:46 -0400
From: ddudley@buff (Don Dudley - Sun Microsystems)
To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM

Baseball fans,

Well, last Saturday on my way back from a business trip in Santa Cruz,
I finally got to witness a baseball game at Wrigley Field, Chicago.

It sure took me long enough -- I saw my first non-exhibition major
league game (at Dodger Stadium, which opened that year) in August,
1962, so that's over 35 years!

In the Senior Circuit, that leaves only Joe Robbie Stadium (I haven't
yet bowed to calling it Pro Players Park) for me.  Actually, that's not
quite true -- I haven't been to Turner Stadium in Atlanta, although
I've been to Fulton County Stadium (and seen the Henry Aaron statue)
several times.  Rather than trying to make it to those, though, I have
more interest in going to older AL parks, like Tiger Stadium, that
aren't likely to be around much longer.  Or better yet, Wrigley again!

38,849 were in attendance, essentially a full house, but I had an
excellent seat, just to the left of home plate in the third row of the
lower deck, having purchased my ticket nearly two months in advance.  A
lot of things can go wrong of course in that length of time, e.g., my
itinerary didn't allow me to land at O'Hare until two hours before
gametime and a nice rain would have shut me out completely as I left
Chicago Sunday morning.

Having spent the last 28 years in Boston, it was hard not to make
comparisons with Fenway Park.  A one day sample is pretty small, but I
liked the fans better.  They did _not_ do The Wave.  There was great
anticipation for the Seventh Inning Stretch and near unanimous
participation in "Take Me Out ...," but then of course Harry Caray was
orchestrating.  I think the bricks are very classy, as I do at Michigan
Stadium (sorry to cross sports, here, but I can't help but look ahead
to tomorrow :-)).  I dislike the location of the bullpens, which are
not too far down the foul lines.  I wonder how tough it is to play the
outfield in night games as there are no light standards in the
outfield, just on top of the grandstand, but they do wrap around pretty
far so maybe there's no problem.  I guess my biggest complaint is the
scoreboard.  There is minimal information about the game over and above
what was reported on the other games around baseball.  They have a
linescore, but even adding the hits by the two teams appears to be an
afterthought.  They're shown in yellow (the linescores are in white) at
the bottom of the center of the scoreboard, i.e., disjoint from the
Cubs linescore, which is at the bottom of the National League scores on
the left panel.  Errors -- you know, as in Runs, Hits, Errors -- are
not even shown.  Back on the plus side, I had a very tasty bratwurst
sandwich and a lemonade.

I felt I didn't have the right to expect an epic game, but it was a
corker.  It didn't take but until the second inning to see a visitor,
in this case Butch Huskey of the Mets, hit a home into the bleachers
and of course see it immediately thrown back onto the field.  For those
of you on different continents, and I know there's at least one of you,
on August 4th Ryne Sandberg announced his (second and final?)
retirement.  Having seen him play in the 1996 Rockies Home Opener, I
didn't feel _too_ bad about him not playing this game, but then ...  As
the Mets were scoring two in the top of the eighth to take a 4-2 lead,
Riggleman did a double-switch, a move which was invented by Walter
Alston, but is now standard in the NL, putting Ryno in at second in the
pitcher's spot in the order.  In the bottom of the eighth, he ignited
the winning five-run rally by leading off with a home run.  The roar
was tumultuous.  The fact that it came off Mel Rojas, just traded by
the Cubs, made it even sweeter for those around me.  Scott Servais hit
a three-run shot to win it, much like he'd done to spoil the
aforementioned 1996 Rockies Home Opener.  This was the Cubs fourth win
in a row, but they've never recovered from that dismal 0-14 start they
had.

Before I left, I wanted to be sure to see the famous "Wrigley Field,
Home of the Chicago Cubs" sign -- I went straight to my seat on the way
in so as to catch a bit of BP -- so I took a lap around the park.
There were at least half a dozen talented jazz duets -- sax and
trombone was the most common combination -- blowing hard for change
from the crowds.  Really quite pleasing.  I saw the sign and got back
almost to where I started my lap.  There was a crowd waiting for a
chance at autographs, or more accurately Sandberg's autograph, outside
a fence around the players' parking lot.  The program I bought had a
picture of Ryno on the cover and I had a pen with which I kept score,
so I decided to wait.  These fans knew every personality, player or
otherwise, that emerged from the clubhouse.  After about 20 minutes,
Ryno came out with his (new) wife, who would drive him away in their
shiny new bright red van.  But first he came over and signed autographs
for about 50 kids.  The crowd wasn't all that large so I probably could
have pressed to the front, but I got plenty of pleasure seeing these
lifelong Cub fans have their dream come true.

All in all, quite a day.  If you get the chance, I'd highly recommend
it!

Don