Day 3 - Game 3 - August 6, 2015 San Francisco Giants @ Chicago Cubs

When we last left our protagonists, they were on their way out of South Bend on the heels of a 10-2 victory for the Cubs’ low Single A affiliate. Two games, two Cubs wins. At this point, it was time to quote the very funny Major League, although I do believe this reference went over the boys’ heads.

 

The plan for Wednesday was to sleep in a bit and be in Chicago around lunchtime. But we ended up having a late breakfast and weren’t particularly hungry when we rolled into Chicago. I wanted to find a place to park, wander around a bit, have lunch at Harry Caray’s and take in the game at Wrigley that night. But anyone who knows Chicago will realize the flaw in my thinking. The restaurant is a good 5-6 miles away from the stadium. And I had just paid for parking. So much for that plan…

Instead we headed towards the stadium, still a good couple of hours before game time. Again, things to consider when planning a trip aside from "no worries, it's a midweek game." Are the defending champs in town? Does that team holdest the slimmest of leads (1/2 game) for the final playoff spot over your team? Is it a giveaway day?

We went to the box office and the cheapest available was standing room only for $27 each. Three tickets to the South Bend game the day before cost me $21 total. I didn’t want to spend all my cash on tickets so I didn’t even try to talk to a scalper, but it probably wouldn't have been any better. After taxes, it wasn’t too far from a good ol’ Ben Franklin. These were by far the most of expensive tickets on the trip, but hey, it’s the big league club. At Wrigley Frickin’ Field!

 

With the tickets in hand, we browsed a couple of the street vendors and shops. I’d be embarrassed to admit how much I spent on some new Cubs gear for me and the boys, but I have absolutely no regrets. I’ll probably even up my budget for the next trip. Aside from some clothes, I picked up a few postcards. Not to mail, but something I’ll probably display in the mancave. Cheap, professional photography!

 

I have a Harry Caray autographed 3x5 card that I’ve been looking at framing up somehow. Maybe this postcard and one of the caricature patches?

 

 I tried numerous times to take photos of these retired number flags but could never get them this good. Might as well have some nice professional ones and maybe frame these up with autographs, too? The only problem is that these predate the Jenkins/Maddux retiring of #31.

 

Seemingly anytime I looked at the famous marquee, it had some kind of ad. The shot on this postcard was perfect for what I was looking for. Maybe someday I can commission somebody to do a nice artistic rendering of this.

We decided on The Cubbie Bear for lunch, a restaurant on the corner behind the stadium. It was a little late for lunch though it was still pretty crowded. Kind of a basic menu, but we tried a few of the Cubby Bear Favorites, marked with the crossed bats on the menu and passed the plates around so everybody could try everything. I can say now that a Chicago Dog isn’t my thing, but at least I’ve had one now. It wasn’t bad, but when you pay $7 for a hot dog, it should be one that you enjoy. On the other end of the spectrum, I don’t know how anybody from Chicago eats anything but an Italian Beef sandwich. OK, maybe some deep dish pizza thrown in there, but the Italian Beef has got to be the number one seed.

After a quick trip back to the car so we didn’t have to lug the souvenirs around the whole game, we headed back towards the stadium. Lines were already forming at the gates but we didn’t have any seats to rush to so we hung back a bit. I picked up a program and scorecard and even talked myself into the yearbook. I mean, this is the year, right?

 

The program focused on the young talent.

 

The scorecard had a shot from Kris Bryant’s walkoff a few weeks ago. That had been just a week or two prior. How's that for timely?

 

And I can’t wait to actually sit down and go through the yearbook.

 

Did I mention this game also had a promotional giveaway? A nice, reusable water bottle. Not the most glamorous of promotions but at least it’ll probably get used.

 

We entered from the right field corner gate and this was the view of the new screen out in left field.

I grew up in the jumbotron era but I can also appreciate the nostalgia of an old ballpark and can see both sides of the debate. I’ve only been to Wrigley twice before (1993 and last season) so it’s not like my memories are forever tarnished by this upgrade. I will say it does look better in person than it shows up on TV.

We walked around the concourse to the left field side. Everybody was standing watching batting practice but we found a couple of seats and took the gratuitous selfie. Actually we did at all of the games but I forgot to post the first two. At least in this one, you can see some of the swagged out gear. I’m on the left in my brand new South Bend Cubs hat. My younger son is in the middle with my old Cubs hat and free sunglasses from South Bend on his head. My older son is on the right, in his new (backwards) Cubs hat with the old 60’s era Cubs bear head and South Bend batting practice pullover.

 

The infamous Bartman seat. I’m actually a little surprised that it’s still there. I've got nothing against the guy and think 99% of fans would have done the same thing in his position. Lots of Giants fan were asking the ushers which one it was and having their picture taken reaching over the rail. If it wasn’t my team, I probably wouldn’t be as annoyed…

Coming out from under the bleachers was part of the youth movement. From left to right we have Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Matt Szczur. (Trailing behind is little Kyle Schwarber?)

Just kidding obviously, but here is Kyle Schwarber practicing his pitching.

 

And speaking of Schwarber, I did find my other altered jersey photo. Those of you who read my first recap (Cubs @ Pirates) may remember the kid who changed his Jose Tabata jersey to a Michael Morse jersey.

 
Fast forward two days, and this gentleman has moved past former #12 Alfonso Soriano and upgraded to Schwarber. Who did it better?

And here is the new scoreboard out in right field with the game’s starting lineups.

By the time Dexter Fowler came up to lead off the bottom of the first, these were the seats we gravitated towards. Not bad for “standing room only” right? We were ready to move at any point but nobody ever came to claim their seats. If these were my tickets, I would be there 100% of the time.

If you’re not tired of Schwarber yet, he came up big in the bottom of the second with a three run bomb to give the Cubs a 5-0. Here he is rounding third, getting the low five from third base coach Jones and base runners Addison Russell and Jason Hammel waiting at home to congratulate him.

That would be the end of scoring for the Cubs for the day but that was all they needed, hanging on for a 5-4 victory.

Cubs fan, comedian/actor Joel Murray came in to sing the 7^th inning stretch. We couldn’t see the booth from where we were sitting but here he is on the big screen.

Another postgame, on field celebration set to the tune of Go Cubs, Go! I love it!

A few final pictures to wrap it up. Scoreboard shot with the Win Flag flying.

This win put the Cubs a half game ahead of the Giants in the wild card race.

And some notable figures from the game on the other scoreboard.

 

Full from lunch/dinner, we didn't partake in too much stadium food. However, we did dig into the full sized batting helmet full of chili cheese nachos!

 

 

Things are going well! The Cubs are now 3-0 all-time in games I’ve attended at Wrigley Field and this game started the 9 game run for the MLB Cubs, their longest winning streak since 2008. Speaking of 3-0, the Cubs/Cubs affiliates have won all three games of the road trip thus far. Referring back to the video at the beginning of this post:

Off to Des Moines for the Triple A Iowa Cubs! Let’s keep it going!

Day 2 - Game 2 - August 5, 2015 Kane County Cougars @ South Bend Cubs

Yesterday's post saw a recap of the first day of my Cubs themed vacation and left us heading to South Bend, Indiana, home of the Class A South Bend Cubs. After the game, I drove for about an hour as the hotels near Pittsburgh were a little too expensive for my liking. Back on the road Tuesday morning, we had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us, but still managed to get into town two hours before game time.

In the pregame chatter around the ballpark, I heard we had missed a nine inning no hitter the night before by South Bend Cubs pitcher Erick Leal. But with a dual shutout going, Leal had been replaced in the 10th and his replacement gave up a hit. Their opponent would go on to win in the 12th. That would have been neat to see as I've never seen a no hitter live. Usually, I get wind of one in the 6th or 7th inning and tune in to see the rest.

South Bend Cubs Logos

I really like these logos, especially the Cubbie Bear with a bit of an attitude. Since this is the team's first year as a part of the Cubs organization, I didn't really know anything about them. So here's a brief history lesson with a few nuggets I learned:

1988 -  The South Bend White Sox joined the Midwest League in 1988 as the affiliate for, you guessed it, the Chicago White Sox.

1994 -  Changed nickname to the Silver Hawks in honor of the Studebaker Silver Hawk, a car that was manufactured in South Bend in the late 1950's.

1997 - Changed affiliations to the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks

2014 - Changed affiliations to the Chicago Cubs for the 2015 season, becoming the South Bend Cubs

Play at Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium, named for Hall of Fame spitballer, Stan Coveleski.

Two mascots, Stu the Cub (probably another Studebaker reference) and Swoop the Silverhawk, who made the transition between affiliations.

This night's game was to be played against the Kane County Cougars. What's interesting about that is that the Cougars were the Cubs' Midwest League team for the past two seasons. In fact, they won the championship in 2014 as a part of the Cubs organization. This year? They belong to the Diamondbacks, the South Bend parent team last season. Weird.

Walking up to the stadium, they had pillars with some really sweet banners of a couple of Hall of Fame Cubs on them. Nice touch. Sorry Paul, no Billy! Maybe Sweet Swingin' wasn't a good enough nickname? The photos were taken later on the way out.

 

 

The cheapest seats in this stadium weren't technically seats at all. We sat on the lawn out on the right field foul line. And unlike previous and later games, we actually stayed there the entire game aside from food and bathroom runs.

 

 

I didn't notice the Cub in the background of this ticket until just now. Not even when I scanned or cropped it.

 

There was an unannounced giveaway at thr stadium as a local company was hosting a company day at the game. So the three of us ended up with some cheap sunglasses and beach balls. Also, because of the company day where hundreds of employees showed up, we were part of a stadium record setting attendance (5,029). Kind of cool! Another thing to I did not see coming when I planned this trip. Glad I was able to get tickets!

 

Our view. Note the large Kids Zone across the way

The rest of the field

 

Walking around pregame, we saw starting pitcher Trevor Clifton warming up. We also visited the team store and I got a bit carried away. From a clearance rack I picked up a logoed polo, a tshirt featuring all of the Cubs affiliates' logos calling it the "Road to the Show" and a batting practice pullover. What? Fall is coming and it was a nice long sleeve shirt! Don't judge me!

 

I also grabbed a pair of baseball card sets. One was this season's South Bend Cubs team and the other was the Midwest League Top Prospects set. They'll probably eventually get their own posts but I'll show some of each at the end of this post. Not featured in either set? This year's Cubs' top draft pick, Ian Happ, who had recently been called up from Eugene. So what's a fellow to do when said guy is signing autographs before the game but there's no card? Whip out an ice cream helmet, of course!

 

 

Happ couldn't have been nicer, which is always good to see.

 

As for the game, the Cougars jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second but the SB Cubs battled back with one in the bottom half and another in the third. Then the home team really laid it on, with two runs in the 5th, one each in the 6th and 7th and finally, four more in the 8th inning. The final score was 10-2 in favor of the good guys.

 

 

It was exciting to hear "Go Cubs, Go!" during the post game celebration. I didn't know if that would carry on down through the chain, but it did. At least in South Bend! There were also a few of the Cubs W flags in the crowd.

 

Like Pittsburgh the night before, the weather was gorgeous. Bright and sunny when we first arrived but it cooled down with a nice breeze as the game went on.

 

With just a short two hour trip from South Bend to Chicago the next day, we decided to stick around to try to get some autographs on the team set. I would venture to say I could pick out all of the players on the big league Cubs in a lineup in street clothes. The same cannot be said for low Single A players. Some of these guys are only a few years older than my kids! But with a little help from some of the other autograph collectors, we were able to get a few signatures.

 

 

The pitching coach, Brian Larence and manager, Jimmy Gonzalez were easy to recognize because they were "old" compared to the kids.

Gioskar Amaya and Jeffrey "No relation to Javier" Baez

A pair of pitchers, Ryan McNeil and Zach Hedges

 

The SB Cubs had two guys in the Top Prospect set and we were able to nab the cards from that in addition to the team set for Gleyber Torres and Jake Stinnett. The cards used the same pictures but with different croppings.

 

We managed to get some progams and one of the ticket stubs signed, too. Gioskar Amaya gave a nice big signature across a program.

 

 

And we were able to snag two more autographs from Ian Happ after the game. One program and one ticket stub.

 

Overall, this is going to be a tough game the top. Ten autographed cards, two programs and a ticket stub. Three autographs from the Cubs' most recent first round draft pick. A 10-2 drubbing of the opponent by the home team. I guess they were saving their bats the night before in the shutout for us to show up. The atmosphere at the stadium itself was fantastic. Very kid/family/fan friendly. Since the team changed affiliations and logos and even colors, everything had a nice new feeling to it, even though the season was more than half over. If I was ready to retire, I wouldn't hesitate to look in the South Bend area and get season tickets there. A short(ish) drive to see the MLB Cubs in Chicago is a nice perk, too!

 

Speaking of which, the next stop, Wrigley!



Day 1 - Game 1 - August 4, 2015 Chicago Cubs @ Pittsburgh Pirates

Brace yourself, this is a long one. I’ve tried to throw in some pictures to break it up a bit though.
 

    

 

By the time this posts, it’ll have been two weeks since I headed to Pittsburgh for the first stop on my Cubs themed vacation. Avoiding tolls, the route I selected was slated to come in at just under 5 hours. With a 7:05 PM start time, we hit the road at around 11 AM to give ourselves a bit of a cushion and some time to wander around a bit.

PNC Park was a new stadium for me. I had been to Three Rivers Stadium as a kid in the ‘80s but hadn’t been back to Pittsburgh since. One of these days I’m going to have to sit down and figure out where I’ve already been because it seems I have a few defunct stadiums on my list.

When I go to a new ballpark, I like to check it out from various vantage points. My plan usually involves buying the cheapest seats, sitting there for a few innings and then wandering around to better seats once the lollygaggers are done rolling in and the ushers become less insistent about checking tickets.

I did not pre-purchase any of my tickets for this trip. Because of the tight schedule and me being the only driver, I wanted the freedom to be able to skip a city and move on to the next one should we fall behind schedule. The two MLB games were midweek (Tuesday and Thursday) and the rest were minor league games so I didn’t really fear any sellouts. I did however check Stubhub and eBay the two weeks leading up to the trip for the two MLB games on the off chance I could beat the box office with some rock bottom prices. I didn’t see any particular steals so I risked getting something at the stadiums. For this matchup, I failed to consider the impact of a division rivalry, let alone the playoff implications with the Cubs being in contention for the second wild card berth and the Pirates holding down the first spot. Not to mention the rain out from the night before. Luckily things worked out though.

After finding a reasonably priced parking garage, we headed towards the stadium. This is the view from the far side of the yellow bridge that you'll see in a later picture. The bridge is just out of the picture on the right.

PNC Park from across the river

After crossing the bridge (and even before it) you may be shocked to know there were several guys along the way offering to sell (or buy) tickets to the game. With a little bit of a line at the box office, one of the guys got my attention and I listened to his spiel. His tickets weren’t the cheapest available from the box office but they were the second cheapest. With a little negotiation, (and confirming they were tickets to that night’s game in that stadium with those teams) we settled on a price somewhere in between. I saved a couple bucks off of the face value but between taxes and a possible transaction fee at the box office, maybe I did end up with a better deal anyway.

 

  

After gaining entry to the ballpark, (yay, the tickets worked!) we hung around the centerfield gate to watch the Cubs take batting practice. Nothing really came close to us, though a few Cubs pitchers tossed some balls into the crowd.

 

I have no idea who this kid is but he must have been very excited to have Michael Morse join his team at the deadline. This appeared to be a photocopied Morse nameplate affixed to a Jose Tabata jersey with Scotch tape. This wouldn't be the last time on this trip I'd see such a thing but I'm not sure I took a photo of the other instance. But when I get there, I'll at least mention it.

We wandered around a bit more, taking in the stadium and looking for a place to get something to eat. In my research for the trip, I found an article ranking the MLB stadiums and among other things, the list included things to try at each stadium. PNC offered something called the Brunch Burger, which sounded simultaneously disgusting yet intriguing. Individually, I liked everything on it, but would it taste good together?

 

It was basically a bacon and egg cheeseburger sandwiched between a glazed doughnut bun. And don’t forget the Pirates colored sprinkles! An usher directed us to the restaurant that sold such a concoction but it was not meant to be. We were informed that it had been a special item that was no longer on the menu. Soooo….maybe all those ingredients didn’t go well together? I’m still intrigued though so I may have to whip up my own version before storing my grill away for the winter.

At this point the games kind of ran together so I don’t remember what we ended up eating at that particular game, just the disappointment in not getting the Brunch Burger. I also neglected to take any photos, but it was probably standard stadium fare.

We made our way to our seats only to discover they were already taken! Not only that, but the rest of the section was pretty crowded too. We really didn't mind though because as I mentioned, we play musical chairs at the stadium ourselves. We moved a couple of sections over on the same level, closer to home plate and sat there for a few innings. I can't complain about the "upgrade" we found.

The yellow bridge I mentioned earlier out past center field

With the zoom on the camera, I could see right into the Cubs dugout, too!

 

After a few innings of those seats, we also watched from the rotunda in the left field corner for a bit.

 

This photo was from pregame as it was starting to get dark by the time we watched from here. You can see the stadium is still filling up at this point, with empty seats on the foul side of the pole.

 

As I mentioned, the first game of the series, Monday night’s game had been rained out after two lengthy delays. Weather was another thing I didn’t factor into my decision making (hindsight really is 20/20!) when I first brainstormed this trip a few months ago. But on this night, we had nothing to worry about. It was sunny and hot early on but the breeze coming off the river was great. And as it cooled down a bit, we headed to the cheap seats in left centerfield to finish the game out. Those seats were pretty cool because it almost felt like we were on the field with the left fielder!

Chris Denorfia

As for the game itself, the Cubs piled on 15 hits on route to a 5-0 victory. Cubs starter Jake Arrieta allowed only 2 hits and 3 walks over 7 innings. The losing pitcher, J.A. Happ was making his Pirates debut after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners the previous Friday.

The Cubs jumped out to an early lead with three consecutive singles followed by a bases loaded walk, but Happ was able to escape to the first inning trailing only 1-0. The Cubs tacked on two more runs in the third with a pair of doubles and a single. An RBI double by Starlin Castro in the 5^th inning and a single by Jorge Soler in the 6^th plated the Cubs final two runs.

Every Cubs starter reached base at least once, including the pitcher, Arrieta. The downside to 15 hits, 5 walks and only 5 runs is that the Cubs stranded 15 base runners, including leaving the bases loaded twice. But overall, I couldn’t ask for a better way to start of the road trip! As bad as the bats had been prior to this trip, things were looking up.

Overall, PNC was a pretty nice ballpark. I had heard good things about it and I'd say it lived up to the hype. The weather was perfect and the views from all of our seats were gorgeous. My only knocks against it are that it is a Coke ballpark (I'm a Mountain Dew drinker, which is a Pepsi product) and I wish I could have crossed the Brunch Burger off my list. So not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Oh well, on to South Bend!

Updates

It has been almost two weeks since I started my epic baseball Cubs vacation and about a week since I returned. I've sorted some pictures, scanned a few items to show off and started writing up some posts.

As a preview, here was my pretty ambitious itinerary:

Tuesday, August 4 - Chicago Cubs @ Pittsburgh Pirates
Wednesday, August 5 - Kane County Cougar @ South Bend Cubs (Cubs low A)
Thursday, August 6 - San Francisco Giants @ Chicago Cubs
Friday, August 7 - Omaha Storm Chasers @ Iowa Cubs (Cubs AAA)
Saturday, August 8 - Jackson Generals @ Tennessee Smokies (Cubs AA)
Sunday, August 9 - Frederick Keys @ Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs high A)
Monday, August 10 - return home to Virginia

In a nutshell, that's a 2,900 mile, 6 games in 6 days roadtrip that captures 2 MLB Cubs games and home games for 4 of the 5 Cubs minor league affiliates. The only team I didn't include was the short season rookie league Eugene Emeralds, out in Oregon. Guess I'm not that hardcore, but that was a bit too far this time.

So all this week, I'll recap that trip day by day, the highs and lows and whether I managed to follow that itinerary. If the schedule wasn't so tight, it would have been amazing to stop by and visit the Holy Grail museum I imagine Wrigley Wax headquarters to be or the PWE factory that is 2x3 Heroes. And I'll have to Wait 'til Next Year before maybe stopping by P-town instead of speeding on through.

Even though most of my collection is out of sight, it is not out of mind. I've also managed to come up with a few running themes that'll hopefully keep you guys coming back once my vacation stories run out. Stay tuned!

Testing, testing. Is this thing on?

So I realized it has been about a year since I posted anything. That was a lot longer than I anticipated being away but life happens. Some of you know I've still kind of been around as I've left the occasional comment on your blogs and started sending out some packages. Access to my collection has been limited and I haven't added much so there really hasn't been anything to post about anyway.

But I've still been following my Cubbies and they've been on a tear as of late. I probably won't post near as often as I was, but I'd like to work this (and my other neglected blogs) back into my rotation. I've got a few post ideas cooking, including a recap of the most amazing baseball vacation I've ever taken so stay tuned for more to come!