Parking
We paid $23 to park in the parking lot which is much easier than putting him in the stroller and taking the train to the Southside.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I ended up buying a lower level seat for $20. The seat was in section 122, row 14.

Handicapped Section
Instead of sitting in my seats, I asked the usher if I could stand in the handicapped seating behind the section (I learned this trick at the San Francisco Giants home opener on April 8). The usher said no, but I asked to speak with her manager. She said to walk over to guest services to ask who said it would be fine. Remember ushers are there to enforce the rules – management is the ones who can bend them.

Being in the handicapped section is the best spot for the Ultimate Sports Baby as I can watch the game and he can explore the area.

Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox
The White Sox lost their third in a row to the Orioles 6-4. It should be a three-game sweep but the Orioles and White Sox are finishing up their four-game wrap-around series on Monday night.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I took the train to U.S. Cellular Field and bought a $42 face value ticket for $10. It was more difficult than usual to buy a ticket for that price.

Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox
The White Sox took an early 3-0 lead after the second inning. But, the Orioles scored 10 runs over the next five innings to win the game 10-4.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
On Sunday night, at the Blackhawks playoff game, I bought a SRO ticket for $40 from the box office. I figured it would be difficult to beat the $40 price point buying a regular seat, so having a ticket would save me time looking for tickets before the game.

Smirnoff Bar
Also, as it turns out my friend Kelly McMahon was attending the game. She planned to stand in the Smirnoff bar on the 3rd level so it did not matter whether I had an SRO ticket or not. Even though the official policy is that you need a 300-level seat (not SRO) to stand in the bars in the 300-level, Kelly was not going to let this rule effect her. Instead she bought SRO tickets and requested PDFs rather than hard tickets. This allowed her to change the ticket’s location to a 300-level seat rather than SRO. I did not argue with this strategy as it allowed me to stand in the bar rather than try to find a seat somewhere in the upper level. Plus, the bar is a great place to watch a game at the United Center.

Indiana Pacers at Chicago Bulls
The Bulls crushed the Pacers 116-89 in Game 5 to win the series 4 games to 1 and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 2007. Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 25 points.

Colorado Rockies at Chicago Cubs
Weather was bad again at Wrigley Field as the game time temperature was 43 degrees and it only got colder from there. Starlin Castro made three errors in the second inning alone and Matt Garza made another one in the fifth inning which gave the Rockies all the runs they needed. Garza gave up all five runs but only one earned run in the 5-3 loss.

Post Game Dining
After the game, my friend and I went to Merkle’s Bar & Grill to warm up.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Tickets were not that easy to come by since fans thought the Blackhawks could actually come back from a 3-0 deficit versus the Canucks. I ended up paying $95 for an $85 face value ticket. The guy said he paid $100 from a scalper, but then found out he had a ticket from a friend of his. Since most scalpers I found wanted much more than $100, I decided this was the best deal I could find.

Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks’ Michael Frolik tied the game 3-3 on a penalty shot early in third period. With that goal, the Canucks and Blackhawks went to overtime to determine whether the Canucks would advance to the next round of if the Blackhawks would force a Game 7 back in Vancouver. The Blackhawks scored with 4:30 left in overtime to become only the seventh team in NHL history for force a Game 7 after trailing in the series 3-0.

Nicole was back working on her dissertation since it is due in about a week. So the Ultimate Sports Baby’s first Easter Sunday was spent at Wrigley Field. However, this time he had a play date as one of our friends were there with their 16 month old.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
The Dodgers scored 5 runs in the first inning which proved to be too much for the Cubs as they lost 7-3.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I pulled into the Toyota Park parking lot and was met by a scalper who had a stack of tickets. He asked for $10, but I only had a $5 in my pocket (more in my wallet) and he accepted.

Houston at Chicago
As he did at Wrigley Field, Dylan continued exercising his new found skill and walked around Toyota Park. Houston scored the equalizer in the 83rd minute as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Of course, Dylan slept through the first three innings of the game (and there was no way I would wake a sleeping baby today) so we got to the Cubs game in the 4th inning. However, rather than sit in his stroller, he cried until I took him out and let him wander around the concourse above the 200 level. The rest of the game was spent trying to corral and avoid him being run over from other fans. He just discovered he could walk recently and wants to try out this new skill.

Plus, it was crowded at Wrigley Field today so it was not as easy for the Ultimate Sports Baby to walk around. There were a lot of people in SRO where it has been fairly empty for every other game this season.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
It was finally a nice day at Wrigley Field with the game time temperature registering at 63 degrees. Today was Ted Lilly’s return to Wrigley Field who got a warm applause from the fans.

The Cubs led the game 5-1; fell behind 8-5 and then scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win the game 10-8. The Cubs record is now 10-10 which sets an MLB record as the first club to be .500 10 straight times to start a season. To me the record is lame, but it is still a record which is always fun to see as a fan.

Today’s game was miserable all the way around. The game time temperature was 41 degrees, the Dodgers scored 6 runs in the top of the 3rd on their way to an 8-0 lead, and the game did not end until nearly 6 pm. Needless to say the Dodgers won 12-2 on a day I’m sure the Cubs wish they had postponed.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Thinking tickets would be cheap, I drove down without a ticket (as usual). However, to my surprise most scalpers were asking for $100 per ticket even though there was a lot of supply on the streets.

Finally I decided to check the box office since tickets on the street were at least twice face value. They had a ticket in the Legends Club for $141. The Legends Club is the Pacers version of “all-inclusive” meaning all you can drink and eat. I figured I should splurge on the seat since it was not much more than the tickets on the street – plus I would get “free” food and drinks.

Note: I am starting to think buying on StubHub may be the way to go for the secondary ticket market. Recently tickets are cheaper on StubHub than the brokers are willing to sell on the street. I’ll be deciding whether this is the correct strategy in the upcoming months.

Legends Club at Conseco Fieldhouse
By the way, the Legends Club at Conseco Fieldhouse is awesome. It’s behind the basket, but you have a seat and the Pacers provide unlimited food and drinks. The food could be better but the value is far greater than buying a similarly priced ticket on the lower level.

Chicago Bulls at Indiana Pacers
The Bulls took a 3-0 lead in the series defeating the squeaking by the Pacers 88-84. The game was tied at 84 when Derrick Rose scored the go-ahead layup with 17.8 seconds left in the game. Danny Granger missed a last second three-pointer to win the game for the Pacers.

The friend that I invited to the game cancelled on me late in the day so the Ultimate Sports Wife decided to attend the game instead. Since the game started early, she waited in the house to rest before bringing the Ultimate Sports Baby to the game. Thus, Dylan attended his first baseball doubleheader.

San Diego Padres at Chicago Cubs
Throughout Game 2, the Ultimate Sports Baby was walking around the concourse of the standing room only area. Although he had figured out how to walk longer distances while we were in San Francisco, he decided he was going to motor around Wrigley Field tonight. Given the Ultimate Sports Baby’s new motor skills, I did not watch much of the game on the field. The Padres defeated the Cubs 5-4 as they hit three home runs.

First, even thought the Cubs scheduled the night game for 6:05 pm they never rescheduled the first game as they should have. The game time remained at 1:20 pm. In the past, they would have rescheduled the first game for 12:05 pm to allow for enough time in between games. Or they could have just scheduled a straight doubleheader and allowed fans to exchange their ticket for Tuesday night’s game for a future game. Let’s face it; the Cubs are not selling out this season. But, no, the Cubs are now as greedy as any other team. So it was good to see the Cubs get screwed in their greediness.

They obviously planned for the first game to last no more than 3 hours, which would allow 45 minutes to empty the stadium from the first game before opening the gates for the second game at 5:05 pm.

However, the Cubs did not expect the game to 1) go into extra innings and 2) last four hours. The game was finally over at 5:20 pm which allowed no time to empty the stadium for the second game. In fact, the Cubs knew this and flashed a message on the scoreboard at the end of Game 1 – “STAY FOR GAME 2! For Free! No Extra-Ticket Needed!” Since I had tickets to Game 2, I asked if I would receive a refund. Of course, the Cubs said no refunds would be given which is short for saying – “We screwed up in planning for this day, but will take your money anyway.”

This whole catastrophe would have been avoided if Carlos Marmol had not blown the save in the top of the 9th inning. The Cubs eventually won the game in the 11th after Reed Johnson homered on the third pitch of the inning.

Also, I don’t think there is anyway Game 6 will be played back at the United Center so this is the only Blackhawks playoff game I will attend this season. For the second night in a row, I planned to miss the Cubs home game for a playoff game at the United Center. But, tonight’s Cubs game was rained out around 5 pm so even if I had planned to attend the Cubs game, I would have ended up at the United Center.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Tickets for the game were cheap on StubHub with SRO tickets selling for around $20 each. However, Hospitality Jim called me a few hours before the game was supposed to start saying he had an extra ticket for the game. His son (pictured in the suit) was invited by Rocky Wirtz’s son (they went to high school together), which opened up the ticket for me. So even though I felt I screwed up buying tickets for the San Jose Sharks second playoff game, one reason not to buy tickets ahead of time is the last minute invite.

Pre-Game Dining
I met Hospitality Jim at Haymarket Pub & Brewery located at 737 W. Randolph. The restaurant is not that close to the United Center but is on route to the arena from the highway. The brewery brews their own beers and has several others on tap. There is no discount for ordering a bigger beer as they charge the same price for every four-ounce pour.

Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks
I was super negative throughout the game thinking the Blackhawks would never win Game 4. However, I was clearly wrong as Chicago crushed Vancouver 7-2. In his first game back from a concussion, Dave Bolland scored a goal and had three assists. Roberto Luongo was pulled four minutes into the third period after giving up his sixth goal of the game.

So even though I just got back from a 10-day trip to San Francisco and the Cubs were home at Wrigley Field, I was planning to attend Game 2 of the Pacers and Bulls first round series. It was a rare 8:30 pm tip-off, which benefited me since I could put the Ultimate Sports Baby to bed and have the wife get home from working on her dissertation before driving to the United Center.

Pre Game Dining
I parked on Washington Blvd. and Paulina St. before walking to Billy Goat Tavern on the corner of Madison St. and Ashland Blvd. Billy Goat Tavern is my favorite place to go before a game as the food is good, prepared quickly and they serve beer.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I walked towards the main ticket office at the United Center where I generally find good prices for tickets. I found one of the scalpers I know and he sold me a season ticket holder ticket for $50 (face value was $55). I probably could have done better but did not feel like wandering around the arena too much.

Indiana Pacers at Chicago Bulls
The Bulls took a 2-0 lead in the series defeating the Pacers 96-90. Derrick Rose led the way scoring 37 points while Carlos Boozer scored 17 and had 16 rebounds.