Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Brewers at Wrigley

Friday we went to the Brewer Game. It was Nate, Borky, Eric, Doug, myself, and then Tim met us down there. After a late night at Summerfest, it was tough to get up at 6:00 and then make it down to the train station for the 8:00 train, but we made it. However we were not the first ones there and by the time we boarded the train, the only seats open were in the "quiet car". Once in Chicago we found our way out of the train station and then had an 7 or 8 block walk to the "L", which then took us up to Wrigleyville. I thought we were just going to go to a bar near the stadium, but as it turned out we were going to walk 10 to 12 blocks to eat at this restaurant that some one said we should eat at. I sort of wish I had known that when we were on the "L" because this place was right under the station before the one we got off on and no one in our group was able to put that together. This place was called Clarks. And the food really looked good, but I wouldn't know because we got seated to a table. 10 minutes later our waitress stopped by to say she would be right with us. 10 minutes after that she still did not return, so we bailed and went to another bar called Redmonds, that claimed to be a "Wisconsin" bar. One that didn't serve breakfast except on Saturdays and Sundays. We wanted to sit together, but the only table that would seat all of us was right next to a refrigerator truck that was delivering to the bar and the cooling system for the truck was running. That got really annoying. That started the "What?" jokes when ever someone would say something especially the waitress. And then it was even more funny, when someone would actually say "What?" when they couldn't hear someone. While ordering the first round of drinks, Nate decided to start off with a Long Island Iced Tea. To which I quickly replied "Not it!!!" Which meant I was not going to play "Nate tag". "Nate tag" is a game we play when Nate has a little too much to drink and who ever is "it" has to take care of him.

We eventually made it to Wrigley Field and then we were in our seats by the top of the 2nd. This was my second trip to Wrigley, the first time the stadium didn't leave too much of an impression on me. Maybe it was because we had great seats and it was a beautiful day out, but when we sat down, I looked around and thought this is the best stadium in all of baseball. And Nate did hook us up with some great seats, first base line, 10 rows back. Perfect foul ball territory, and towards the end of the game we did have a ball come to us, but Eric dropped it and it bounced and someone else got it. The Brewers lost, and apparently from what I have been told that called ball that cost the Brewers the game was really a strike. I have been to a handful of baseball stadiums but none are louder than Wrigley when it comes to singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. It is too bad the Brewers lost but it was still a good game and a lot of fun. After the game we hung out at the bar in the right field corner. We had planned to go to some other bars, but just ran out of time. I had figured in my head that to make our 8:00 p.m. train back to Milwaukee we needed to leave the bars at 7:00 p.m. I tried to rally the troops, but there was some resistance. I waited until 7:05 and then I started to head to the "L" station. Borky is the only one that went with me. We got into our seats on the train back to Milwaukee at 7:56 p.m. After Borky and I got back to my house we received a text message which had a number expletives in it, but also did mention that they rest of them managed to find a bus that would get them back to Milwaukee. It was a fun and eventful day, here are your photos.

The Sears Tower, soon to be called the Willis Building. Borky and Nate checking it out.
Waiting for our train to Wrigley.
A lot of people in Wisconsin dislike the Cubs and their fans. But I have never come across a Cubs fan that has been anything but nice to me. Now the White Sox is a whole different story. My friend, Gibby, lives in Chicago and his a die hard Cubs fan, but he is also a realistic Cubs fan. He cheers for them and goes to the games, but he knows they will never win the World Series.
Wrigley Field, as if you couldn't figure that out from the picture.
The view from out seats. Excellent job on the seats Nate, I owe you.
Here is Lloyd...I mean Ryan Braun.
I didn't take too many pictures of the game itself, maybe 10 or so, but I did manage to get this one of Prince Fielder getting plunked.
Our group at the Captain Morgan's Club after the game.
We took this picture with the two strangers in the middle and I told the guy I would email the picture to him and gave him my email address, but he never emailed me.
We couldn't get the sunflower picture to work, I don't know why the flash wasn't going off.
This could be in the running for a Christmas Card this year. I watched tons of people get their pictures with the Harry Caray's statue while we were out on the bar patio, but no one jumped up on the statue. And there was no way that I wasn't going to jump up there for my picture.
Borky got up there too.
This is a guy Borky and I met at the train station. We told him about how our friends were going to miss the train. This was his reaction.
This is video show during lunch. Hopefully you can appreciate how loud that truck was.

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