St. Louis Cardinals 5 at Chicago Cubs 6 - July 23, 2010

After spending all of Friday getting to Chicago from Des Moines via Minneapolis, I woke early today, rented a car at O'Hare and then crawled over to Wrigley Field for a Cubs-Cardinals daytime duel.

There had been severe thunderstorms in Chicago over the past day; my flight spent an hour circling over Madison, Wisconsin on Friday night due to the weather and Saturday morning saw power still out in several locations. The rental agency's computer systems were down so they were handwriting the rental agreements. Traffic on the Kennedy Expressway was ridiculous, and it wasn't any better when I got on surface streets - stop lights were out here and there causing slowdowns for miles. It took about 90 minutes to drive the 11 miles between O'Hare and Wrigleyville. I finally parked about a mile from the ballpark and walked over.

I had arranged to meet Andrew Van Cleve, another sports roadtripper who maintains a site at Any Game, Anywhere. He's another international traveler who has seen plenty of soccer, cricket, and rugby in Europe as well as most of the stadiums in the US. He lives just a block from Wrigley Field and is a Cubs' season ticket holder. He contacted me a few months ago and when he found out I would be in Chicago, he kindly offered to attend the game with me. It was great fun swapping sports stories. Check out his site and blog, it's very interesting.

Wrigley Field

Normally I would write about the ballpark, but we didn't get in until just a few minutes before first pitch, so I didn't do the tour. However, there's not much to see here in terms of amenities. Wrigley is the second oldest ballyard in the nation and it hasn't been seduced by newfangled innovations like digital scoreboards or massive club sections. Of course, some changes have been made over the years; lights were installed in 1988 and there are a few digital linescores here and there. But I would guess that the atmosphere is the same as it was 94 years ago when it was first opened.

Parking is available about a mile from the ballpark north and west. As you get closer, you can expect to pay a minimum of $20 to park, so I would suggest parking north of Irving Park or west of Ashland.

Getting around can be difficult, weekend games are crowded and walkways are small. It took me about 25 minutes from the end of the game to walk out and get a block away. If you are in a rush, get close to an exit near the end of the game and make a run for it.

There's little in the way of encouraging fans to cheer at certain points. No "Everybody Clap Your Hands" garbage here, the fans know when to cheer and when to boo. It was still quite loud as fans are talking to each other and the sound seems to be trapped under the rooftops. These open air parks let the ambient noise escape, but it's part of the fun here at Wrigley.

I'm not going to detail much else here. I just sat back and watched a great game. If you haven't been to Wrigley and you are a ball fan, plan a trip. Spend time in Wrigleyville as well, it's a unique experience and one that shouldn't be missed.

The Game

It was a 12:05 start today as the division leading Cardinals sent spot starter and B.C. native Blake Hawksworth against Tom Gorzelanny, who is taking Carlos Zambrano's spot in the Cubs' rotation.

Chicago got off to a quick start when Tyler Colvin led off with his 15th homer of the season, which leads all rookies. St. Louis responded in the second with a Brendan Ryan RBI double to tie the game. After Hawksworth, batting 8th, struck out, Tyler Greene singled home Ryan to give the Cards a 2-1 lead.

In the third, the Cubs added 2 on a home run by another rookie, shortstop Starlin Castro. Derek Lee (above) walked and Marlon Byrd doubled him home for the 4-2 lead.

St. Louis got one back in the fifth when Greene reached on a bunt and Aaron Miles singled him to third. Jon Jay then hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3 Cubbies.

Chicago got two easy ones in the 5th. After Castro and Aramis Ramirez (below) singled to chase Hawksworth, Mitchell Boggs relieved and promptly walked Byrd to load the bases. He then uncorked a wild pitch which allowed Castro to score. Cards' catcher Yadier Molina threw wild to Boggs covering home and Ramirez raced home for the Cubs' 6th run.

But the Cardinals were not quite done. In the 7th, Miles and Jay led off with base knocks, and Albert Pujols followed with a sac fly to score Miles. That's Pujols watching it below - it was nearly a homer but fell short on the warning track.

The first two Cardinal hitters in the eighth also reached on singles and then Ryan hit a tailor-made grounder to second baseman Ryan Theriot, who booted it, allowing a run to score and make it 6-5. The Cubs' fans looked like they had seen this before, but pinch hitter Randy Winn flew out and Greene grounded into a double play to end the threat.

Carlos Marmol (above) came in to close it out and struck out Miles and Jay before walking Pujols. Matt Holliday represented the go-ahead run but he could only meekly flare a ball to Theriot, who caught it to preserve a gritty win for the home team.

Next Up

Traffic problems made me late into Milwaukee, so I skipped the game tonight. I'll go to tomorrow's afternoon game with the visiting Nationals and then drive back to Chicago to catch the Cards-Cubs night game. I then fly back to Japan on Monday and get ready for the World University Baseball Championship which begins next week. As usual, updates will be posted here.

Best,

Sean

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July trip to Minnesota and Iowa set!

I'm back in Japan and already itching to return to the States for more baseball. Fortunately, the Minnesota Twins have opened a new stadium this season and I am compelled to make a pilgrimage. I've chosen a weekend series against the White Sox from July 16-18 which turns out to be a nice coincidence as fellow sports road trippers Gary Herman and Mike "The King" Casiano from New York and Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell from Buffalo will be there.

Gary maintains his own blog called Royalty Tours which details his adventures, and he has a lot of them. Both he and the King see around 400 sporting events a year while holding full-time jobs. I met them back in 2003 and have seen games with them nearly every year since then.

Andrew and Peter completed the Ultimate Sports Road Trip (all 121 venues in the big 4 sports) back in 2002 and continue to catch each new stadium when it opens. They are also sportswriters for a local newspaper and keep a blog about their travels and other sports issues. I first encountered them in 2001 and we have met on occasion when I visit New York or Ontario, but this will be our first meeting on the road. It will also be the first time the five of us attend a game together and I am very much looking forward to it.

Qantas miles to Chicago

As usual, planning the trip has been a lot of fun and seen a lot of changes. I originally had a 3-week journey that started in Minneapolis and finished with the Blue Jays in Kansas City, along with 10 days watching the minor leagues in Iowa. But I had to shorten this jaunt after my unexpected trip to LA last month, so I cut it down to two weeks. The White Sox-Twins and Jays-Royals series were a must, so the next step was to figure out which other games to see. I still wanted to check out the 5 minor league parks in Iowa and all those teams are home in the week beginning July 10th. As well, the Iowa Cubs would be home on July 22nd with Casey Blake bobblehead night, so that made a good stop on the way back from KC.

So I thought I had the trip set. But then I received an e-mail from the friendly folks at Qantas. Turns out that my frequent flyer miles are expiring at the end of June. When I was working, I had several business trips to Australia and had accumulated a good number of miles. But having stopped working two years ago, I hadn't had the chance to earn any more miles. Without any activity for 3 years, the existing miles expire.

Since I don't have enough miles to fly internationally, I first tried finding domestic flights in Japan, but there didn't seem to be a way to do that. I then realized that I could probably book a flight between Minneapolis and somewhere in the US during the July trip and add a couple of games. After much searching of baseball schedules and available flights, I determined that Chicago was the best bet. Even better, it was cheaper to fly from Tokyo to Chicago rather than Minneapolis, so I would save a few bucks in the process.

I'll arrive in Chicago on July 9th, a bit too late to catch the White Sox game and then fly to Minneapolis the next morning. From there, I'll drive down to Des Moines to watch the evening game between New Orleans and the Iowa Cubs. The next day is the World Cup Final, but that should be over in time for a game in Davenport, where the Quad Cities River Bandits play. The next few days will be spent watching more Midwest League games in Iowa before I return to Minneapolis for the weekend. In Kansas City, I found an independent league team which has a night game the same day the Jays and Royals play an afternoon affair. And when I fly back to Chicago, I'll see a Cardinals-Cubs matchup in Wrigley and then drive up to Milwaukee for the Nationals and Brewers on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon before driving back to Chicago and flying home on Monday.

The full schedule is as follows:

Jul 10 New Orleans Zephyrs at Iowa Cubs 7:05 (PCL)
Jul 11 Beloit Snappers at Quad City River Bandits 5:00 (MWL)
Jul 12 Peoria Chiefs at Cedar Rapids Kernels 12:05 (MWL)
Jul 12 Beloit Snappers at Quad City River Bandits 7:00 (MWL)
Jul 14 Bowling Green Hot Rods at Burlington Bees 6:30 (MWL)
Jul 15 West Michigan Whitecaps at Clinton LumberKings 7:00 (MWL)
Jul 16 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins 7:10
Jul 17 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins 6:10
Jul 18 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins 1:10
Jul 19 Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals 7:10
Jul 20 Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals 7:10
Jul 21 Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals 1:10
Jul 21 Schaumburg Flyers at Kansas City T-Bones 7:00 (Northern League)
Jul 22 Oklahoma City Redhawks at Iowa Cubs 7:05 (PCL)
Jul 24 St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs 12:05
Jul 24 Washington Nationals at Milwaukee Brewers 6:10
Jul 25 Washington Nationals at Milwaukee Brewers 1:10

Seventeen games in 16 days! Should be a blast.

Quiet Time

Between now and then though, there won't be much going on here. The World Cup starts in just 12 days and that will take up most evenings for the month of June. The J League also halts its season while the tournament is held, so there won't be any soccer here. A third of the Japanese baseball season has been completed and both leagues have neatly separated into 3 good teams and 3 bad ones. Since 3 teams make the playoffs in each league, this year is even duller than usual, so I won't be seeing any games in Tokyo for now. That leaves minor league baseball, and I'll try to catch a few games as the weather should be nice.

There's also the industrial league tournaments which are taking place around the area. Last year I saw the championship game between Toyota and Honda. It was like baseball on speed and I want to see some of the regional games too. Each prefecture has its own tournament; Kanagawa (where Yokohama is) has games this week and next, while Tokyo has tournaments in early and late June. These are often day games, so I'll probably watch a few of them just to see what it is like. It'll be a relatively quiet month after the recent trips, but check back regularly, I'm sure to be watching something!

Best,

Sean

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