Rule #54 – Never stop learning.
Day two of
my baseball trip, and I already know that I’m glad I’m not teaching teenagers
anymore. There – I said it. I love kids – really – as long as they go home to
their own folks at night. The obvious exceptions are my own kids and my
fantastic, ninja-Jedi grandson with his own ultra super powers.
What
prompted this spontaneous prayer of gratitude, you may ask? I was sitting in Milwaukee
Airport, waiting to meet the Jay
Buckley Tour bus. There I was, passing the time with a number of summer
campers, all assembling and waiting for their own bus to take them to camp. It
looked like “Meatballs” meets Best Buy, with all the technology plugged into
the walls. So much for unplugging.
I didn’t
have to deal with this situation for long. The tour company sent out a list of
all who were meeting at the various pick up points. I made my way to the
baggage claim area and found the baseball fans waiting for our bus to pick us
up. It arrived right on time.
It is
amazing how a shared passion brings people together. I never saw any of these
people before. They weren’t strangers, just friends I hadn’t met yet. The bonds
of baseball brought us together.
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| My I.D. tag |
Night one
was spent near O’Hare Airport. We got to check in and then head out for some
dinner. Some of our group wandered over to Shoeless Joe’s Grille. I stuck close
to home and ate at Harry Caray’s Rosemont location. After all, this IS a
baseball trip, right? It had draft Guinness, so the place is great in my book.
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| A Holy Cow - Harry Caray's catch phrase |
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| Caricature of Harry Caray over the bar - Rosemont location |
Day three
started with breakfast the next morning, also in Harry’s. What a buffet! The
atmosphere of the restaurant was like stepping onto the set of “The Godfather”.
I was convinced I would go to the bathroom and find a gun taped to the back of
the tank. We all got a chance to meet other tour members before we boarded the
bus to head to the day’s game.
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| Dining room at Harry Caray's Rosemont location |
The bus
rolled out of the lot around 11 am to
make an afternoon White Sox game. The weather didn’t look like it felt like
cooperating. Well, Self, if nothing else you get to see “new Comisky” park. And
see it, we did.
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| Are you ready for some White Sox baseball? |
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| Welcome to U.S. Cellular Field |
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| Press boxes and more |
It wasn’t a
far walk to the main gate at U.S. Cellular Field, a.k.a, New Comisky. We
actually parked very close to the footprint of old Comisky
Park. The new park is on the
elevated line and took over the parking lot from the old park. It has plenty of
fan-friendly upgrades, too. It was at this park that I was introduced to the
latest in techno-items, the charging station. Yes, right outside of a food
concession and close to the restrooms I found the charging station, complete
with cords for any type of phone, tablet, or whatever you have. Lots of folks
were using the station too, while gulping down the ballpark food and knocking
back a brew.
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| Concourse - first level - U.S. Cellular Field |
The heavens
opened up while at lunch, and we got a good rain. But it stopped just as
quickly as it started, and the game was delayed only by 20 minutes. The
concourse at U.S. Cellular sees wider. There was a good sized crowd for a
Wednesday afternoon game, but it didn’t seem “crowded” at all, even with all of
us hiding from leftover showers.
Now, color
me spoiled if you must, but I’m used to an usher being available to help you
find your seat. The ushers I’ve met will also make sure your seat is cleaned
and dried before you get incriminating wet spots on your pants. Not here. The
ushers stood at the head of the aisle. Yes, they made sure you belonged in that
section, but that’s as far as it went. This was not necessarily bad, just
different.
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| View from the seats - Giants bullpen pitchers on their way to work |
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| Chris Sale on the mound |
The game
started without any more rain delays. Chris Sale pitched for the White Sox and
Tim Hudson started for the San Francisco Giants. The seats we had were
fantastic. We felt up close and personal with the team. It was also nice to see
players that I knew from following my hometown teams. Often, a player gets
traded and you, as the fan, lose track. I got a chance to catch up with Hunter
Pence, Michael Morse and Adam Dunn. They all seem to be doing well for their
new teams. It made this fan feel good; all three fellows are good people.
After the
game, we drove the bus into downtown Chicago
at rush hour. And I thought D.C. had crazy rush hour traffic! Chicago
can hold its own any day in the worst-traffic-around department.
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| Harry's Downtown - iconic sign |
Dinner was
at Harry Caray’s Steakhouse, downtown. We had a buffet mixer, where we ate well
and got to know others on the tour.
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| Cartoon of the great Cubs broadcaster |
It was soon time to head back to the hotel, time for a few more drinks in the bar, and time to get ready for an early bus call.
We are heading to Minnesota in the morning. That drive takes eight long hours. This will be a good test of my bus riding tolerance.
See, Self, you are learning more each day! Today, I learned I loved cheese curds. Whodathunk?
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| These are cheese curds - deep fried white cheddar |
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| I was there! |
Photos by Marge McGugan. No reuse or reprint without permission.
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