Pure Baseball

Whatsup guys, hope you all enjoyed Mike's post. Here's a none on Wrigley!

There is a problem in baseball. The game is not for the true fans anymore. You have corporate luxury boxes, psl's, advertising on the wall's, dugouts, scoreboards, even bathrooms. Couple that with tickets+food that can cost a family of four well over 100-200 dollars per game, and you've got a fan composition of corporate honcho's, pink hat's, and worst of all- empty seats.

In the Bleachers at Wrigley, there is no such problem. There is no Budweiser fan section, no EMC club, no $8 beers+$10 nacho's, and GASP no gigantic HD LED firework launching scoreboard. If you were born in the late 80s or early 90s you might wonder how baseball could survive.

Here's how. Simply pure unadulterated baseball. Okay, maybe there were a few sponsorship signs. But I think we counted maybe 5 total advertisements around the park. The lack of a multi-million dollar jumbotron did not, contrary to popular belief, affect the viewing experience. If anything it made it better, more real. Coupled with the organ playing up in the press box if you closed your eyes, you'd think you were back in the early to mid 1900s. If you've never been to the stadium, its very difficult for words to even do it justice. So I won't try to describe it anymore. With the iconic ivy on the wall, its safe to say Mike and I were like little kids going googley eyed over the prettiest girl at the dance. Every true baseball fan has to go to Wrigley at least once in their life.

It was great sharing the fun night with Spencer and Casey at the ballpark. Obviously Spencer being a resident Chicagan, helped enhance the experience by explaining more of the ballpark, the traditions, and even helping us with the lyrics to Go Cubs Go- their version of dirty water. Really awful song, but its like Dirty Water, every time they win, the song's played.

Afterwards we headed out to see a few of the finer watering holes around the city with Meghan Skarzynski and her good friend Max. After being in Chicago a few years ago under the age of 21, it was fun seeing a different side of Chicago and enjoying drinks at the different bars. Mike and I particularly liked the 312 (can't figure out if pronunciation is Three One Two or Three Twelve) but it was delish from Goose Island. We also met up with Eric Tremblay who we were staying with in our cab ride over to another establishment- talk about small world! At this point I'll apologize for Casey to anyone he texted last night and annoyed anyone with.

And now what you've all been waiting for:

Coming Attractions: In Madison right now helping Mike and his future housemates look for apartments. Makes me really look forward to moving in with Thain, Nikko, and Macko in a few weeks. Tomorrow we'll do Miller Park, hopefully with a tour of the Miller Factory too. Also, good friend Nick McNaughton is in town on his Wisconsin leg of his cross country road trip so he'll be joining us tonight through tomorrow as well. Maybe a few SCU folks will get a phone call from us the next few days.

What I Liked: Wrigley- is there any question? The Windy City was also really cool, its a must see on anyone's travel plans. Oft forgotten after NYC, LA and other major cities, it definitely holds it own.

What I DIS-liked: Kind of up in the air on how I feel about this, but the restrooms under the Wrigley bleachers didn't have the trough urinals. Even though this grotesque and very awkward bathroom set up is weird, it might be the only park to have this since Fenway got rid of this a while ago.

Food Debate: Outside of the ballpark we went to Giordano's for Deep Dish. It was so good+so filling that we saved some for bfast/lunch today, deep dish is Chicago. Inside the ballpark the food was unbeatable. $1 hotdogs, and the sign says you are limited to only 10 per purchase. Still pretty ridiculous! Also, forgot to mention this after Cincinnati, but you need to try Lienenkugel's Summer Shandy brew. It may rival Sam Adams Summer Ale as my favorite seasonal. But, it tastes like a perfect blend of Lemonade and Beer. Don't judge me.

DJ MMM: We're really struggling with not being able to get the highly anticipated CD of the summer: Watch the Throne. But, we've made do with Frank Ocean a great R&B star who I will have to add to my iTunes immediately after this trip, and 1 half of OutKast- Big Boi. Of course, driving into Chicago we blasted Kanye.

Other Sheanigans: Yesterday morning when I went to take my shower, I noticed a mysterious white film on my shampoo bottles. Some mischevious littgone in there and opened up my shampoo much to my chagrin. So, where does that leave me? With a miniscule amount of shampoo and a fully stained outter pocket of my bag. Solved it by raiding the Millenium Hotel in STL of their shampoo. Further, I thought it was free refills at the hotels Starbucks stand, of course it was not- but I was able to refill it for free because I am incredibly good looking and charmed the verona blend beans off the Barista.

I think that is all. But, mike and I want to do a question and answer session with our followers so please email us with some questions: willsfallon@gmail.com and we'll blog our replies!

Enjoy,

W+M