Kates and I made our first pilgrimage of the year to Wrigley Field ...
But first, how wonderful was Brett Favre this morning in 'the press conference heard 'round Wisconsin!?' ... Good lord, the entire cheese state was put to bed last night with the news that ol' Brett would announce his decision whether to play next season at a 7:30 a.m. press conference ...
Up at 7 this morning... I turned on the TV and flipped to the local Fox station. No surprise, they had all their sports anchors lined up behind the desk and via satellite, spouting and speculating about what Favre would say, in between highlights of his career ...We waited. And waited. And waited ... until Favre finally appeared, sat behind a mic and told the journalists gathered for the press conference: 'I don't know what you guys are doing here... I don't have anything to say...' ... or something like that.
I bellowed a large laugh ...
Partly because, as usual, the media were gullible and desperate enough to trek down to Mississippi on a 'rumor' that Brett was going to announce a decision -- once again, completing igoring the more important news and larger issues of life for some multi-million dollar athlete. And partly because Brett is inconsiderate (... or just plain smart) enough to push off his decision this long ...
Then again, you gotta admire the guy for not giving in and making up his mind on his own time. He was right last weekend when he said, 'What're they going to do, cut me?' ... If the Packers have/want to move on, it doesn't have to be on Brett's shoulders. ...There's nothing wrong with him laying back the entire offseason and deciding just before training camp that he has no desire to play next year ...
Leave the guy alone ...
* * *
About that Cubs game ...
The iPod plugged in and the music of 'Grey's Anatomy' playing on it, Kates and I hit the road at 9:30 and caught our train just after 10 ...The train glided down the tracks. Kates and I caught up on our reading. And we people-watched as fathers and sons, and sorority girls, and frat boys, and other couples -- all dressed in Cubs gear, of course -- boarded the train at each stop ...
... The most memorable stretch, of course, was riding the Purple Line from Howard to Addison, with a talkative man about our age, and his similar-aged buddy from Colorado. ... the talkative man spent the entire ride telling us -- in a far more hilarious and animated way than I could ever explain here -- about his foray into building a case for all of his autographed baseballs. Long story short: Some guy tried to sell him a case for $300, but he ended up doing it himself for $75 with a trip to Home Depot and a hobby store ... Also with us were a young couple from Northwestern -- whom we learned later in the ride had broken up a couple days earlier, but were still using their tickets to the Cubs game ...Oh, and by the way, she's a hockey player... Cool!
Finally at the ballpark, Kates and I honored tradition, and habit, with a cheap lunch at the Clark Street McDonald's ... We then made the rounds, scanning the memorabilia shops for cool pickups, but found none that fit our budget ...
Once inside the ballpark, though, we got a refrigerator magnet Cubs schedule, and I followed tradition again, getting a program and scorecard ...
... A few minutes later, we were at our seats, deep down the third base line, just under the overhang in section 205. The ballpark, as usual, looked beautiful. And the bleacher expansion, as scary as it might have been for Wrigleyville purists, was barely noticeable ...Pregame ceremonies included Derek Lee and Michael Barrett receiving their Silver Slugger awards ...We watched a cool guitar-saxophone combo perform the national anthem ... The Cubs took the field, the first pitch was thrown ...
... and we proceeded to freeze.
With the temperature holding steady at a blustery 40 degrees, it felt like 20. I was wearing four layers, plus my heavy fleece, gloves and ear muffs. Kates was wearing several layers herself, plus my hooded windbreaker. We were both huddled up beneath our Cubs blanket and still couldn't keep warm ...
... it probably didn't help that I was drinking an icy Mountain Dew either.
With Chris Carpenter and Carlos Zambrano locked in a pitcher's dual, the good news was the game was moving at NASCAR pace. The bad news was neither team was scoring ...
... Finally in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to a couple horrid Cubs errors, the Cards scored two runs. ... No matter, most fans in the park were already so numb from the cold, we hardly took notice ... That was until the Cubs finally warmed up their bats and Michael Barrett tied the game in the seventh on a thrilling pinch-hit homerun. ... High fives all around.
... But the bad news. The score's tied. Again. ... and there's still no signs of the weather getting warmer.
... Then Derek Lee came to the rescue of 40,000-some fans and hit a homerun to win it in the bottom of the eighth ... high fives all around again.
Cubs win! Cubs win! ... 4-3 was the final.
... and then we scurried home to warm up.
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