TPI Day 2 – Part 1

long long story which doesn’t even get to TPI yet ahead It’s 51 degrees outside, as I type this late Wednesday night. I’ve spent the night accomplishing just about nothing; catching up on some more TV, watching baseball, visiting the same internet sites a billion times, but really not taking care of the never ending … Continue reading “TPI Day 2 – Part 1”

long long story which doesn’t even get to TPI yet ahead


It’s 51 degrees outside, as I type this late Wednesday night. I’ve spent the night accomplishing just about nothing; catching up on some more TV, watching baseball, visiting the same internet sites a billion times, but really not taking care of the never ending mental list of things I need to do. My thought was may going outside, seeing if fresh air will get me going – but it’s 51 degrees out there. It’s only going to get up to 61 tommorow. TPI’s over.

the end of the night before

My September 24th ended the night before past 3; the highlight of my trip home was stopping at one of the not-fixed-yet oasis to grab something to keep me up for the hour I still had left to drive, and somehow leaving by taking the wrong ramp back on the highway. It’s wasn’t even that I was headed the wrong way. I was headed the right way – just on the road they were building, and not the actual highway. (You think they could’ve put up a sign or at least one I wouldn’t miss!) I did figure out what was wrong before I got to the unfinished bridge.

There’s nothing more fun to me than wandering around an empty supermarket around 2am while listening to my iPod, so I stopped to get some batteries for my camera (since the stupid flash killed it by intermission) and I think cereal. Annoyed the one person keeping an eye on the self checkout lines too, which is great.

The part of the day that actually counted started around 9; dead tired from pre-existing lack of sleep but forcing myself to care. Ate the cereal. Good cereal. Been late a couple times this week because I had to have the cereal.

CHC @ HOU – pregame

I drove out to Wrigley around 1130; trying a new idea – usually I just take the train in and the Red Line up, but I knew that’d mean I wouldn’t get to TPI till really late. There are no parking lots near Wrigley; you can park at the Taco Bell or McDonalds around the area (for $20) and hope you’re not boxed in by other cars and people trying to leave. I tried…something else.

I got to the building around 1250, which is pretty good time now that I look at it. Just inside the ballpark, the Cubs had an End of Year sale going on, and part of the reason I was there was to get some stuff; I had really wanted a new floppy/bucket hat to replace the ad-logoed one I had, and there was a pullover I’d been looking at all season (this was game 5 – or maybe 6?) I was going back and forth about.

Of course, when I got inside, I found neither of these items. Some of it was stuff no one would actually buy, some of it was outdated stuff (there was a 3 for 1 action figure deal – you could get 1 Ryne Sandburg if you bought a Kyle Farnsworth and a Sammy Sosa; so not kidding), some of it was weird stuff (like scoreboard standing flags they were replacing), some of it was for insane freaks (game used bats, okay, broken seats, eh, game used jersies of either former coaches or spring training NRI guys who didn’t make the team, you’re crazy) and a lot of it was stuff they just bought in too high quantity and didn’t want to store for the winter. Didn’t see the pullover I wanted, but did find one I liked equally well.

My biggest regret from the weekend was not picking up a Cubbie stuffed animal. I was staring a hole into it as a stood in a line (and it staring at me), undecided if the person I’d be giving it to would want it (or feel it an act of war to bring Cubs stuff into a White Sox home) – and it turns out I would’ve blown their mind if I had gotten it. Sorta been looking off on for it since (probably’ll get it from Wrigleyville Sports.)

Anyway, the whole process took longer than I expected, and I didn’t get to my seat till the National Anthem. (Whoever the singer was, she was AWESOME. One of the best I’ve heard by a non-regular.)

the game (sorta)

I had gotten this ticket – singular, in the “I’m doing something by myself, again” sense – about a week after tickets had gone on sale. By that time, all of us had figured out when we’re going (and bringing each other), so I had figured out none of us really got many late season games. This Saturday seemed like a great place on the schedule to get a game – two teams meeting who should be competing for the wild card in the second to last weekend of the season in a critical game, with the chance of seeing Maddux or Clemens (or both!) for the last time at Wrigley.

Things sorta unraveled. I suppose you’ve heard about the Cubs season. What killed me more – since we all accepted it was over after the Mets series – is the announced pitching matchup was Zambrano vs Clemens. Pretty awesome – until Clemens pulls up lame and it’s Zambrano versus Ezequiel Astacio. Not so awesome. Even less awesome was the seat; they’re not supposed to sell obstructed view online, but the view was significantly blocked by a support beam for the upper deck; it was fine as long as all I wanted to see was the batter and 1st Base. (Obviously, this was why the ticket was still available so late.)

Luck turned my way for a while. There were plenty of empty seats with clear views in my row, so I took one of them. The wind was blowing in at as, but the pullover I had just bought kept me warm enough.

This Cubs game was just about any other Cubs game this season. Highly regarded pitcher gets behind early, offense fails to score, insanely stupid lineup (with Cedeno and Walker out, we had the Example Of All That’s Wrong With Dusty double play combo, Neifi and Macias), men left on base. Still, they were staying in it, and I hope.

I was promised no rain. It rained.

A one run game became a two run game when Corey lost a ball because, for the second time in a week (and it’d be three by the end of the homestand), the umpires pushed the game far past where it should reasonable have gone to try to squeeze as much game in in case they couldn’t later.

Being at a baseball game by yourself is fun – or maybe I’ve just gotten used to it? Even if the game drags, there’s plenty of other things going on you can silently distract yourself with. I hadn’t brought my scorecard along (bathrooms are too far away in Wrigley; no sense obsessively charting every pitch or play if you’re going to miss a half inning), but I did bring along my camera to snap random pictures; I was hoping to get a nice new background photo for my desktop, but I’m not sure I got anything great.

I haven’t figured out a way to make rain delays by yourself work. Unlike previous occasions, I was underneath an upperdeck, so I didn’t have to move to keep dry. But I almost would’ve preferred having to get moving, because there wasn’t much to do otherwise – though navigating thru the massive amount of people standing around and waiting would’ve equally sucked. 15 minutes into the rain delay, I was bored out of my mind. Nothing was going on the field, there weren’t intrusting people to coldly stare at, nor weird conversations to eavesdrop on. The organ player played to kill time, making it impossible to hear someone on a phone call, so I was just stuck there, looking for something to look at basically.

The time was also becoming a factor. The game had been moving pretty well after Z’s two home run first, seemingly like we all could be on our way by 4PM. Not so much with the rain, and there wasn’t any indication of when they’d start playing again (until the tarp was out and it was obvious.) I knew I needed to be on the road not much after 4:30 if I was going to make it to TPI on time, and knew I could leave the park and hang out at a friend’s place a mile or two down the road till then, if I wanted to just leave.

I could not leave. Two run game, seventh inning, last baseball game I get to go to for the year. I could not leave. I resolved to put off any decision till about 4pm, and the rain seemed to die around that time. Game didn’t actually get underway until 4:15, which means I was in bad shape, but at least I’d get to see the end to a competitive game?

After a 1:15 hour intermission between pitches, a new pitcher comes in, with a man on third and out/
* Walk
* K
* Walk (bases now loaded and one out)
* grounder to third. Nomar, trying hard but still playing out of position, gloves it, thinks about it, and throws it wild to first – everyone’s safe. 3 run game. At this point, I get up and visit the concessions because I’ve seen this movie before and I hate the ending.
* Wild pitch, 4 run game
* ground out. Time for Glenallen Hill to sing!

I spent the rest of the 7th, and the early part of the 8th walking around and regretting the time I’d wasted. Somewhere along the lines, I completely brain cramp on which seat I’ve been squatting in, and decide I’d rather just leave now and not take any more of the pain. (Turns out, the Cubs failed to get a single hit after the rain delay.)

Here’s where my great idea for parking completely backfired. If you look carefully on the Cubs website, you can find out there’s $6 parking (though oddly listed as $5) at Devry downtown, with free shuttle service to and from the game. I figured I’d definitely get me to Hammond faster than any other option, and if it works well enough, I could remember it to last year.

What wasn’t really specified is the limits to the return shuttle bus. It is not continuous. It does not start 2.30 after the game does. It doesn’t matter if the game’s an extra 1h30m long because of a rain delay – they’re not driving you back to your car until the game is over. Like a goof (though not the only one), I end standing there, looking at a closed bus with no driver, doing the same waiting I could’ve been doing insane, where I could still be watching the game. I could’ve walked back to my car – but then all I could remember was the parking lot was 2.3 miles thataway, where thataway could be any of several directions. Figured I’d get there the same time the bus finally would.

I ended up with about a half hour to kill. Figured I might as well check out the stores across the street to see if they had a bucket hat (and they did and I loved it way too much, where I was wearing it at TPI when it was much too hot and muggy for that sorta thing), walked around the entire exterior of the ballpark and found the free copies of the Heckler (Cubs fans version of the Onion.) The game still wasn’t over by that time, but someone from the CTA had realized the situation and sent a bus over to take care of those of us who were waiting.

I sat all the way in the back, purposely to avoid annoying human contact. I was rapidly surrounded by a group of dads and kids wearing matching t-shirts who felt the need to sing on the way back to the parking lot. I tried not to kill anyone.

Got to my car, grabbed a bottle of water I’d saved for the trip, and took off towards Hammond.

And maybe that part of the story is for tomorrow.
NEXT TIME: the wrestling! the heartbreak! whatever I remember from the Steak N’ Shake which would also be appropriate for an audience!