Fan Appreciation Day

So with the last day of the regular season upon us (kinda, sorta, well ok, not really...), I trekked out to U.S. Cellular Comiskey Park Field one last time. It was a nice day to catch a game. It would have been a nicer day to have caught soon-to-be Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, but he was scratched with a bent throat or something. 

It was Fan Appreciation Day, and boy did I leave feeling appreciated! To start off with, I got the ticket when the game I was supposed to see against the Tigers was rained out a few weeks ago, so I exchanged it for today. I originally got that Tigers game ticket for free too. 

So I traipsed up to Section 548 to watch the game. As has happened in the past, I spotted that Section 558 was completely empty, so I mosied on over to my catbird seat pictured below.

I've noticed this section is usually empty, and a front row seat over there is a thing of beauty (convenient). Room to spread out, being able to see the left field scoreboard, and just not having to sit with White Sox fans are just a few of the reasons I've come to enjoy Section 558 this year.

In the first inning I noticed that a couple of stadium workers were giving away prizes a couple of sections over. Ever on the lookout for some free stuff, I turned my Tigers cap backwards in case they noticed me sitting all by my lonesome. As luck would have it, I was noticed. The young girl came over and asked me if would I like a ticket to sit in a lower deck seat courtesy of U.S. Cellular. 

"Why sure," I told her, and she promptly gave me a gift bag full of the goodies pictured here. A very nice retro duffle bag and ball cap, plus a necklace!!! I knew that whole south side macho bullshit was just that, bullshit!

We got to ride down in the service elevator as VIP's, and I made it to my seat just as Paul Konerko's 2nd inning home run was landing about two sections away. Of course, our new seats were packed to the gills, and I even thought about taking my goody bag back up to my original seats, but what the hell, I was already down there.

There was a game played today, which the White Sox won 5-1 to force the Tigers to have to come to town tomorrow afternoon for the make up game that was rained out a few weeks ago. Amidst all the commotion in my new section, it was a little difficult to follow the game with the steady stream of people moving about. The worst part was sitting next to the little eight year old boy who never looked up from his video game he was playing the entire time. Some sort of race car business. Sad. At least it wasn't a soccer game.

But hey, it was a nice conclusion to my first season in Chicago. I made it to a whopping 17 MLB games this year. I wish I could make it to one more tomorrow, but c'est la vie. All in all it was a good time, and that's all I could ask for. Most of me would like to see the Tigers take it to the Sox tomorrow and knock them out of the playoffs, but the little bit of me that immensely enjoyed my trips to the Cell this year wouldn't mind if they didn't.

Two For The Price Of None

We are still wading through flood waters here in the Windy City, but I was able to turn a weekend full of rain into three free ballgames. I had two comped tickets for Friday night's Tigers-Sox game which I was able to exchange into one ticket for Sunday's doubleheader and the last game of the year when the Tribe comes to town.

Game 1 Sunday was played in front of 500 fans tops. I used this to my advantage,  sitting in the first row of the upper deck right behind home plate instead of out in section 554. (For the record, I like sitting out there, but only when I bring my glasses, which I left at home in a rush to get to the park.) I counted 67 fans in the Upper Deck in the top of the second inning. 

Verlander pitched decent, the Tiger bats were silent until the 9th, and Javier Vazquez got his 2,000 career K. 

Game 2 brought in a much bigger crowd. I'm guessing the combination of knowing that they played a first one coupled with the second one being on ESPN brought the fans out. I moved over to a third base section in the upper deck so I could get some pics from a different angle. I sat next to a nice group of college kids from Lansing who were just happy they were getting to see some baseball period after our wet weekend. the only talkative one of the bunch was the only White Sox fan of the bunch (go figure....) but it was fun like always striking up a conversation with a random fan and chatting about the highs and lows of our team's seasons.

Anyway, my dumb ass, who is still learning about Chicago weather, and only bothered to wear a t-shirt and shorts on a day when the temps were in the 50's, decided to tough it out in exchange for seeing Kenny Rogers make what may have been his last start of his career. Long story short, I toughed it out until Kenny fell behind 7-0 in the 5th, and that as they say, was that. So long fellows, have a safe trip back to Lansing. Thanks for the 2006 memories Kenny and good luck on your next gig as a pitching coach somewhere.

I walked in the door of my apartment just as Marcus Thames' grand slam tied the game at 7. But the Tigers bullpen being the festering collection of puss they are gave the lead back almost as quickly as they got it by in turn giving up a grand slam to DeWayne Wise.

But despite seeing a doubleheader sweep on a blustery and chilly afternoon and evening, I did get one pic that was the highlight of my day. Rod Allen was chowing down on the grub during the second game. I guess Mario had somewhere else to be, as Rod sat in the booth the entire game checking out the Tigers from one of the best seats in the house. I wish he would've called. I would've loved to hang with him and have a beer and commiserate over the 2008 Tigers.

Oh well, I made it to 10 Tigers games this year, which tied for the most Tigers games I've gone to in a year with 1984. Too bad the results weren't the same. 

Elvis Is In The Building

My buddy Dave came up from St. Louis for the weekend and we hit the Rays-Sox game last Friday night. Unbeknownst to a couple of Memphis expatriates, it was Elvis Night at U. S. Cellular Comiskey Park Field. We were treated to the Flying Elvises, which was cool, and numerous impersonators, who were not. 

We caught the first five innings from the cheap seats in the upper deck before heading down to the Bullpen Bar for the latter part of the game. The Bullpen Bar is a great concept, but a shitty place to try and follow a game. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Although not completely, as I will add that we sat in the BB for several innings thinking the game was tied at 2 before walking up to the bar and finding that the Rays were actually ahead, 6-2.)

I'm pretty sure that this is my old friend Lance from Memphis, but I couldn't get close enough to ask him.

Anyway, this was my first time to see the Rays and they won. Ex-Tiger (and ex-Ranger, ex-A, ex-Yankee, and ex-Red Sock...) Carlos Peña hit a HR that I missed while commuting from the cheap seats to the bullpen. 

The Twins are now the only team left that I have never seen play in person. I hope to remedy that next month in Minneapolis. 

Yawn......

It is a testament to the disappointment of this season that it has taken me ten days to blog about catching the recent Tigers-White Sox series at U.S. Comiskey Park Field. I promise I'll keep it short and sweet, at least until I get to the part about former Tiger catcher and current White Sox bullpen coach Mark Salas.

Tuesday night's game was what should have been one of those gut wrenching losses, if there hadn't already been so many that there is nothing left to wrench. I knew in the 9th we wouldn't win. I left after the 10th knowing that we wouldn't win. I arrived home in the 14th just seconds after Polanco's HR, and thought "hey, we're going to win this one." Dumbass. There was no worse sound this year than having to hear Hockeroo's lame ass home run call well after midnight.

Wednesday night's game was so boring that I'm having to look it up on yahoo to see what happened. Seriously, I'm looking it up right now. Oh yeah, this was the game that Thome hit the three run HR to left center in the first inning, and that was about it. I think I left after the Tigers batted in the top of the 8th. I dunno. I was still beat from staying up the night before.

Now, Thursday night's game was more like it. I met my pal sixtyeight boy from the Tigers Forum and crashed with his group in the first row behind the White Sox bullpen. Midway through the game, Mark Salas came out to warm up one of the Sox pitchers. When he was done I yelled at him that he was a former Tiger and that he had no business being in the White Sox bullpen. He looked up and grinned in what appeared to be amazement that somebody actually recalled his time in Detroit.

I told him that I had all of his cards from his Tiger days and he laughed. Sixtyeight boy asked him how many HR did he hit in Tiger Stadium and he replied, "all of 'em." Salas then asked us what was up with the Stadium and when we told about the demolition getting underway he frowned and told us that was his favorite place to play during his career and that he was sad to see it go. Amen brother.

I apologize for posting a picture of a '92 Fleer card, but it's pretty slim pickins when it comes to Salas. There isn't any one card that stands out, so I figured I'd just post a bad one. Be thankful that I didn't post the '91 Fleer. Here's the quick and dirty on the Salas cards I have:

1991 Topps #498

1991 Fleer #350

1991 Fleer Ultra #127

1991 Donruss #65

1991 Upper Deck #205

1992 Fleer #144

1992 Donruss #512

Not exactly a stellar selection to choose from.

Go figure, I was in the park on the night when newly inducted Hall Of Famer Goose Gossage threw out the first pitch, but the highlight hands down was chatting with an old Tigers catcher for a few minutes. Oh yeah, we won 8-3 to stop a six game losing streak. 

Too bad I couldn't chat with Goose about my favorite Tiger Stadium memory involving him!

Meet The Parents

A big shout out to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, a couple of people I like to call Dad and Mom, for coming up to visit me in the Windy City this past weekend. 

We had a great time seeing the sights and eating at some of the finer establishments in town, the best being Gino's East. Dadgum, that was some mighty fine deep dish pizza pie!

The highlight for me was ascending the Sears Tower. Not all Batman-like, but the express elevator that goes from the basement to the 103rd floor observation deck in less than 60 seconds had my knees shaking by the time I got off that mofo. I'm not too good with heights to begin with, so I was pretty proud of my bad self for making the trip. 

We also went to some place called the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum on Michigan Ave. It was free. That's about the best thing I can say about it. Oh, and it was air-conditioned. That was pretty cool too on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Sadly we weren't able to get to one of the Marlins-Cubs games, as the four game series was sold out. But we managed to have fun nonetheless.

Well, with summer rounding second and heading for third I should have a lot more time to get back to bitching about my favorite hobby in the world. And I've saved up a bunch to bitch about.....

Independence Day

Wow, I didn't realize it had been something like three weeks since I last wrote about something that no one is interested in! So let's just consider this a stretching exercise and move on.

I spent a lovely 4th of July at The Cell watching the most nondescript game I think I ever attended. The game itself was a bore. All I can recall is a Jack Cust home run and somebody plowing into A. J. Pierlsfhaskasuy on a play at the plate. Luckily I was in the stands and didn't have to hear Hockeroo yell "He gone!!" when the A's runner was called out.

But all the rest of the festivities were as top shelf as you could expect on Independence Day in the South Side. 

To start off with the Sox gave away caps with the desert camo motif to the first 10,000 fans. You can see the kids in the stands in this picture wearing them. 

The Sox also wore a uniform variation of this as well. (But why the shit brown hats when the ones they gave away looked so much cooler?)

Oh yeah, if you go back and look at the picture of the kids in the stands, and you look up in the first row of the upper deck above the red sign right next to the foul pole, you barely see a little dot. That's me!

Getting back on the subject, a young hottie came out and sang the National Anthem. Midway through a couple of U. S. Navy jets came screeching overhead in one of those goose bumpy moments that was ultra cool. Afterwards, thousands of red, white, and blue balloons were released into the sky.  

Throughout the game there were many video messages from the White Sox players thanking our troops. There was also a parade of some of our troops around the field to thunderous applause. 

The game itself was bo-ring, but the fireworks show afterwards made up for it. I'm not all that big on fireworks per se, but I enjoyed it.

But what I really enjoyed most was the hot, drunk, young blonde a section over who in her haste to answer her cellphone knocked her purse off her shoulder, talking her dress strap with it and letting her amazingly gorgeous right breast fly out into the open. She drew the attention of all six of us still left in the upper deck at the end of the game and managed to give new meaning to the word FREEDOM!!!

Happy 4th of July indeed!!!

R.E.M. and guests at the United Center last night

My brother, the family's biggest R.E.M. fan, and a member of their fan club, scored us great seats twenty rows up from the stage. He blew into town this weekend as we are celebrating our birthdays. As you can see, we had a perfect view of the night's festivities. 

The National opened to a half empty but raucous crowd. They played a brief but frantic 45 minute set that included such faves as Abel, Mr. November, and Lit Up. I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for their return to town as a headliner. 

Modest Mouse followed for another 45 minute set. I'm not all that familiar with their stuff, but after getting off to a slow start they really picked it up and by the time they were done they had the mostly full arena on their feet. Dashboard was one that I recognized. I'll be digging into more of their stuff in the near future. I'd never heard The Good Times Are Killing Me before. It was my favorite song of their set, as well as a possible new theme song for me!

Then the boys from Athens came out and rocked the house! I'll have to hunt down a set list from somewhere, but in no order they played the following:

Orange Crush, Pretty Persuasion, Man On The Moon, Losing My Religion, Electrolite, Let Me In, What's The Frequency Kenneth, Pilgrimage, Begin The Begin, Fall On Me (featuring guest guitarist Johnny Marr. Yes, THAT Johnny Marr...), The One I Love, Find The River, Walk Unafraid, and Ignoreland. They also played a song that they released several years ago on their website, but we can't remember the title. 

Those were just the old songs. They played eight tracks off the new album. They opened the show with Living Well Is The Best Revenge, and also played Man-Sized Wreath, Supernatural Superserious, Hollow Man, Houston, Accelerate, Horse To Water, I'm Gonna DJ.

It was a rocking good time and R.E.M. seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. At one point Michael Stipe posed for the cameras so the entire arena could see him pinning a Barrack For President button on his lapel to thunderous applause and cheers.

I saw these guys in Memphis at The Pyramid in 1995 and the show was awful. That's mostly a testament to the horse shit arena that now sits closed a mere 15 years after it opened. But last night's show was the polar opposite. Great venue, great performances all around (Luscious Jackson did a large amount of sucking in Memphis that night too), and a great time was had by all. 

Note to the lady sitting to our right. My brother and I were having a great time. Honest. It's just that we paid $85 a seat TO LISTEN TO THE FUCKING BAND, NOT CHIT-CHAT WITH YOUR DRUNK ASS ALL NIGHT!!! We weren't all that impressed by your showing up three songs late, leaving for a beer every other song, endlessly listing of all the shows you've seen, leaving three songs early, scary Roseanne Barr look-a-like ass!!

I was amazed at the age disparity of the crowd. There seemed to be just as many 20 year olds there as there were 50 year olds. We were also lucky enough to be seated near one of the 50 year olds who still hasn't gotten over the fact that she's not Stevie Nicks. Sad. But. True. Honey, The Edge Of Seventeen was about thirty-five years ago for you. Let it go.

To the two PYT in our row. Wow. Simply amazing. 

Happy Birthday Mark. I had a blast and I hope your old ass did too.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge

I participated in my first ever official race this past Thursday. I ran/walked/(ok...mostly walked) 3.5 miles through downtown Chicago as part of a race to raise money for Bears Care, the charity of the Chicago Bears.

http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=5&page=events

I finished with a crisp time of 53:59. I was however the unofficial leader in the time it took to get from the end of the race to Grace O'Malley's for post race beers with my colleagues. A good time was had by all and I look forward to doing it again soon.

A Tale of Two Saturdays

We are now two weeks into the 2008 baseball season and I have made a trip to each of the parks in my new hometown of Chicago. (Well, Elgin, but I'm working on it...)

So here is a brief recap.

Weather at Wrigley: Beautiful clear skies, temps in the upper 50's.

Weather at The Cell: Torrential downpour, temps in the upper 30's.

Statue unveiled at Wrigley: Ernie Banks

Statue unveiled at The Cell: Juan Uribe

Seats at Wrigley: 7th row behind home plate, $60

Seats at The Cell: 18th row behind right center, $32

The View at Wrigley: Do I really need to describe this?

The View at The Cell: 30,000 empty seats.

Overheard at Wrigley: Do you serve Heineken?

Overheard at The Cell: Detroit Sucks!

Prominent Sponsor at Wrigley: Budweiser

Prominent Sponsor at The Cell: Jim Beam

Entertainment for kids at Wrigley: Cheering for Kosuke Fukudome.

Entertainment for kids at the Cell: Getting a tattoo out in right field.

They don't call 'em clichés for nothing.....

Here are a few links to some video I took at both games.

All joking aside, The Cell was a lot nicer place than I thought it would be. The winter weather and Gavin @&#^$% Floyd almost pitching a no-hitter against out Murderers Woe just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. 

Someday I'll go back, preferably when Hawk Harrelson and A.J. Pierswhazhizname are dead. YOU CAN PUT 'EM IN THE GROUND........YES!!!