MORE ABOUT THE BALLGAME
It started raining shortly after I arrived in Chicago. Steve and Kristin were kind enough to pick me up from Midway Airport and we headed downtown to find lunch. Luckily we had umbrellas, but a wet suit wouldn’t have been bad. I started to think carrying a second pair of socks in my pocket was a good idea. We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen, a first for me, although there has been one in Orlando for at least a year. Across the street was the ESPN Zone, which was three floors and full of video games. It dwarfs the one at Disney.
After walking up Michigan Avenue from the loop all the way through the Magnificent Mile to Lakeshore Drive, we found a cab to take us to Wrigley Field. It was crazy outside with the ESPN Classic Roadshow interviewing players before the game. We went to Murphy’s Bar behind the Bleachers and watched some of that. It was packed inside. Steve and I have known one another since before we knew one another. Our mothers were friends back to Junior High School and we were born 3 months apart and destined to be pals. It also helps that we both grew up Yankee Fans in a sea of Cubs and White Sox fans.
We worried that the game would be rained out. Steve and I had talked since April on whether we should even attend. His boss had the same seats for Friday and Saturday’s games and he was offered $1500 a piece for them. Those were day games even before we knew that Clemens would be going for 300 on Saturday. I thought about it and told Steve to go ahead and sell them. It was just too much money to turn down. He could have easily done it by going to the sports bar where his boss was offered the money, but he was too big of a fan to do so. He could have even sold my ticket, but he proved too good of a friend to attend without me. It must have been fate that he held the tickets anyway, because we had such a good experience. Even the rain that had pummeled us all day stopped a half hour before the game and never returned. I was at David Cone’s Perfect Game in 1999, and yet this game was just as memorable.
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