Two Days in Chicago

Written by: Evan Ash

Published: August 21, 2018

A couple weekends ago, I took a long weekend trip/mini vacation to Chicago. I am an avid baseball fan and my beloved Baltimore Orioles are having an abysmal season (Alex Cobb had a great start on Saturday, though). So, as a result, I have been more closely following Major League Baseball on a national level.

The National League Wild Card race in particular has been thrilling this season and I check the standings every day. I really enjoy traveling to watch baseball games and I have seen games at five different MLB ballparks this season.

I arrived in Chicago on Friday, August 10 off of a brutally early flight from Atlanta. I was staying with my friend Ryan who went to Georgia Tech with me and who lives in Chicago now. I chose to visit him this weekend because it was the only weekend all summer when both the Cubs and the White Sox would be playing home games. Comparing both schedules, it seems like the two teams tend to alternate home weekends. We didn't do anything baseball-related on Friday, but I checked scores and updates on my phone throughout the day.

On Saturday, Ryan and I took the red line south to the Sox-35th station and walked to the very large, yet unremarkable, Guaranteed Rate Field. The stadium has undergone several additions, renovations, and upgrades since it opened in 1991 in an attempt to make the stadium unique.

The White Sox had an opportunity to build "the ballpark that forever changed baseball" (that moniker went to the beautiful Oriole Park at Camden Yards which opened a year later), but instead they got what seems to be the picture that accompanies the definition of "baseball stadium" in a dictionary.

As an engineer I love symmetry, but I feel like the outfield dimensions should have less of it; perhaps a short porch, high wall, or, my favorite, the in-play flagpole. This stadium could have had great views of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan, but it faces south and is fully enclosed so there isn't much to see beyond the outfield wall.

Saturday night the White Sox were honoring 2018 Hall of Fame inductee Jim Thome with a ceremony and bobblehead giveaway. The game itself was a good one as the visiting Cleveland Indians won 3-1.

On Sunday night Ryan and I rode the red line again, this time north to the Addison station. We took some time to take in the sights and sounds of the neighborhood around Wrigley Field, a true baseball cathedral.

We decided to grab a beer at Murphy's Bleachers along our lap around the outside of the ballpark. Once inside, we walked around even more as batting practice was wrapping up. I took several pictures of the great views from around the stadium.

The game itself was awesome. I got an email from the app that sold me the tickets that ESPN had selected this game to be on Sunday Night Baseball, which only added to my excitement level. Once the game started it was abundantly clear that Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer was at the top of his game. He struck out, as I was surprised to learn checking the box score, (only) 11 batters in seven innings. The Nationals scored a run on a Mark Reynolds sacrifice fly in the 2nd inning, and added two more runs in the 9th inning on a single by Ryan Zimmerman.

On to the bottom of the 9th inning, when everything went haywire for the Nationals. The first Cubs batter, Ben Zobrist, grounded out to first base. The chances of a Cubs comeback were slim to start the inning and now slimmer after the first out was recorded.

Jason Heyward hit a "single," though it looked like an error to me as the ball was pretty clearly booted on a routine play; hometown official scorer, I guess. Then Albert Almora was hit by a pitch. Kyle Schwarber popped out and then Willson Contreras was also hit by a pitch. The Cubs had loaded the bases and the furthest hit ball this inning had been a little dribbler of a groundout from Zobrist.

The next batter was a pinch hitter for the pitcher's spot in the lineup, rookie David Bote. He worked the count to 2-2 and on the next pitch there was a loud "CRACK!" Everyone, as people always do at baseball games when any ball is hit in the air, stood up and started yelling. This ball was really solidly struck out to dead center field and it landed in the batter's eye shrubbery over the wall for a walk-off grand slam.

Wrigley Field switched from a feeling of desperation to one of jubilation and wonderment. People were jumping up and down, high-fiving, celebrating the Cubs' miraculous victory after a loss looked almost certain. "Go Cubs Go" was blaring loudly over the spearkers and I could barely hear it.

Some people left this game early, including Mike Wilbon, and I feel bad for them. They missed out. To put it simply: that was the craziest ending to a baseball game I have seen in person.