We arrived at the Cubs game right on time. The train from Ryan Field to Wrigley Field took about 45 minutes. The Cubs lost to the Phillies 5-2 and Ryan Howard hit his major league leading 37th home run.
After the game, we headed to my favorite Wrigleyville dive bar on the corner of Sheridan Rd. and Byron St. – I still don’t know what the name of this place is, but it has and Old Style sign out front. The friend I was with requested we go to a bar …

There were a couple reasons why I created the attendance rule that you only need to attend half the game in order for it to count.
1) I worked for the San Francisco Giants in Candlestick Park as an intern for part of the 1997 season. I could only take a 2 hour lunch to watch the game which meant I could only watch around 6 innings before heading back to the office – still being able to hear fans cheer while I worked during the 7th, 8th and 9th …

It’s not very often when I can attend a Northwestern Football game and a Chicago Cubs game in the same day. Northwestern games generally start at 11 am meaning that in order to attend both the Cubs need to start at 3 pm or later. Today that is the schedule. Northwestern kicks off against Syracuse in Evanston, IL at 11 am and the Cubs first pitch against the Phillies is at 2:55 pm – leaving just enough time to watch the football game, take the train to Wrigley Field and …

It appears the secondary ticketing market around Wrigley Field has finally bottomed out (at least for a few days). I received two free tickets from a fan outside of Wrigley Field to today’s Cubs game. How did I get two free tickets in one of the toughest seasons to even buy Cubs tickets at face value? The steps are simple if you are able to execute them properly.
1) Look for people employed by the Cubs with tickets in hand. Today I found a Cubs employee holding an extra ticket by …

I was trying to be good today. My plan was to finish an article I have been working on for longer than I would like to admit. To finish the article, I would have to stay home and NOT go to the Cubs game. I watched, at 1 pm, as Andrew finished his conference call and went off to the game. I sat in my chair in front of my computer- ready for the long haul.

Ten minutes of facebook, checking my email and opening up my word doc, and …

Kicking off a stretch of attending seven consecutive Cubs’ home games, I did something I rarely ever do – go out before and after a Cubs game. I was attending the game with Liam from New Zealand so I thought we should “experience” Wrigleyville.
Pre Game DiningIt is hard to argue that going to the Full Shilling before a Cubs game qualifies as “Pre Game Dining” but that is what we did last night. As I wrote a few months ago, the Full Shilling gives away free hot dogs …

Yesterday, I forgot to bring my lunch to work. So instead of eating in the building’s cafeteria I decided to eat lunch at Arlington Park and watch some horse racing. As I did the last few times, I brought my laptop so I could work using Arlington Park’s wireless network.
Before the day started, the announcer mentioned there maybe some money to be won because no horse in the field had proven themselves. She was right. In the first race, I bet the two favorites in an …

For the first time in two months, I watched the Cubs game from the Wrigley Field Rooftop Club at 3617 N. Sheffield Ave. As usual, we had to go through Nicole’s 10 steps for rooftop access. However, since today was less crowded than usual we did not have to find seats as soon as we entered the building. If you ever have tickets for Wrigley’s rooftops follow these steps for the best rooftop experience:
1) Arrive early. Most rooftops open 30 minutes before the first pitch. Try to arrive 5-10 minutes …

For the second day in a row, a player in the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs series had 6 RBI. Aramis Ramirex hit two 3-run home runs to lead the Cubs to a 9-2 victory over the Nationals. Ryan Dempster won his 15th game of the season and 12th game at home.
Before the game, I met some friends at Yak-zies. I did not realize that beers could be more expensive on the outside than on the inside. Yak-zies charges $6 per beer in a smaller plastic cup. The beers in …

On my way to the gym, I saw a massive crowd waiting-out a minor rain delay at Murphy’s. There was a shiny, enormous bowl popping out of the crowd. My natural reaction was to think that some ‘tool’ was using this as a beer trough; you see a lot of dumb-ass things outside of Wrigley. But, when I got close enough to see that the “tool” carrying the shiny bowl was actually Chris Chelios and the Stanley Cup, I went into mass panic.

I didn’t have my cell …