Baseball in ChiTown

New Comiskey Park (Chicago White Sox): 6

I will always refer to the White Sox home as Comiskey not US Cellular Field, just like Candlestick is not Monster Park or whatever else they may think to call it. That field is fabulous. We had awesome seats on the first base side of the dish and we were in the shade which I have learned is a plus out here in the Midwest.

The view from my seat
The view from my seat
Cruising around outside the yard
Cruising around outside of the yard
The original Comiskey home plate
The original Comiskey home plate

I totally stood in the old batter’s box and pretended to hit. I have no shame.

New Comiskey has quite the selection of food and Jersey J enjoyed a helmet sundae while I had a Tollhouse cookie ice cream sandwich. This followed the hotdogs and sodas (or pop, as I have learned it is called here). There is just something about the green of the outfield grass against the brown dirt of the infield that I just adore. Another highlight of the game was the 11-year old who sat two rows in front of us and who also happened to be the one who sang the National Anthem and God Bless America in the 7th inning. This kid was absolutely phenomenal. He is 11 and gave me goosebumps. Despite the fact that the White Sox lost 4-1 to Toronto, it was a decent park. I give it a 6. The inside was beautiful and they get points for keeping the old Comiskey home plate in the parking lot, but there isn’t much to the outside. The environment was average and the food was decent.

Which brings me to tonight’s adventure which is Wrigley Field.

Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs): 10

It.is.awesome. Point in case:

Wrigley is totally old school. You can’t really compare it to any other ballpark for that reason. We arrived for a 6:05 game (hooray ESPN Monday Night Baseball) at 4:30 and hit up a few of the local watering holes. One place had hotdogs for $2.00 which had to be the best deal in town. I had a hotdog there because, really, where else would I find such a steal of a deal for food? Then we hit up another place for an “iced tea” (a polite euphemism I learned during my UCSD days) and then proceeded to take a ton of photos outside Wrigley. Wrigleyville is like no other. We approached the yard from what would have been right field and proceeded around the outfield wall. As we were walking, fans lined the streets outside of left field and attempted somewhat successfully to catch home run balls from batting practice, which I thought was fantastic. Can’t do that in San Francisco…

Following batting practice, we headed into Wrigley and took a few shots from behind home plate before it got too crowded to do it. Our seats happened to be in the second to last section of right field before you really aren’t in the park anymore. Did I mention that they were upper deck? Or that those were the best available tickets about a month ago? And that the Cubs were playing the Phillies which I wouldn’t have thought would be something special, but apparently it was a popular game.

So Jersey J and I head to our seats while Ansel Adams continued his quest to get the perfect lighting for his shots. It was then that we realize just where our seats are. Yet, we don’t mind because we are inside Wrigley Field. But then we get hungry again. So down we go on a mission to get another hotdog I’m bulking up for football season and realize that the only place to get food is behind the dish on the lower level. It was a good thing that I had brought my hiking boots. So we finally get our food then head back to our seats and take in the game. Which rocks. Even if the Cubs did lose 4-1. Wrigley Field definitely gets a 10. This is the standard by which all ballparks should be ranked. The outside environment is awesome, the field has history, the colors are even blue and red for crapsakes! I remember eating a decent hotdog, seeing the ivy…I liked Wrigley. In case you couldn’t tell.