CubsChic

The home opener at Wrigley finally arrives and surprise, surprise - there were snow flakes in the air.  Being an experienced and loyal fan, who does not leave the ballgame early regardless of the weather, I went to the park prepared.  I was so layered that I didn’t even put my coat on until the 5th inning!  That was when the wind started to blow in and the temperature must have dropped 10 degrees in minutes.  The coat went on and the blankets soon followed, but at least I had the layers to add.  A word of advice; never enter the ballpark on a cold day with all of your layers on.  You’ll want to add more later and either be forced to shell out lots of money for a sweatshirt or blanket or even worse, feel the need to leave early.

I started the day at a pre-game party at my friend Tim’s newly renovated condo.  His place is located directly behind the Budwieser building on Kenmore and the view into Wrigley from the rooftop is great.  He plans to rent this 2 bedroom condo out to some responsible, neat Cub fan shortly.  More details to follow in a future post.

There were a few changes noted at Wrigley Field.  One of the most annoying changes, and hopefully only in place for Opening Day, was the fact that the ramp I always take to my seats was closed to inbound/upward traffic before the game.  We were told that it was ‘exit only’ which makes no sense when no one is leaving!  It resulted in too much traffic at the other ramps, while no one used that ramp until the end of the game.  The ushers were no help in explaining the situation or directing people away from that ramp until they had already passed up the alternate ramps.

The advertising on the outfield doors (I won’t even mentioned the company advertising, no need to give them extra publicity) wasn’t as bad as I’d feared.  I still hate the idea and it will look worse once the ivy has turned green.  The white print on the green doors isn’t too glaring.  My worst fear would be when this contract expires and they give the door space to a company with a colored logo.  Think Budwieser, McDonalds, etc.  There is also new advertising on the dugout roofs and the tarp cover.  I hope the new owners reevaluate these decisions.

My last gripe is the lack of beer vendors.  Those that know me know I don’t pound beers at the ballpark, but I do enjoy one, two, or maybe three a game.  A total of two beer vendors came to our row during the game, and only one had Bud Light!  The fact that beer went up to $6 was no surprise, but are we really supposed to tip $1 a beer?

Non-beer vendors were also invisible, only one appeared all day.  Hire more vendors, sell more product and the Cubs will make enough money to be able to ditch the advertising on the field.