In a rare event, Alfonso Soriano became just the 6th player since 1960 to hit safely in each of at least five at-bats, hit two home runs and still have his team lose. Leave it to the Cubs to earn this dubious achievement. Joe Morgan, the only other leadoff hitter to do so went 6-6 in 1965.
We had friends from out of town who wanted to go to the game today. I suggested they pay $15 for Standing Room Only seats and sit in our …

I arrived at the Allstate Arena about 45 minutes early. That gave me enough time to walk around the Target Shopping area adjacent to the arena. The shopping center has a couple of sit down restaurant – Chili’s and a Steakhouse (not sure of the name). I walked into Chili’s and it was packed. Many people were Chicago Wolves fans and there were a few Cubs fans coming back from the afternoon’s Cubs game.
I ended up eating at Subway and then tried to find a ticket …

Recently, I started thinking – why do I never consider watching Horse Racing? Although I check for events at each arena and stadium within the Chicagoland area it never occurs to me to check the racing schedules at Chicago’s two main horse tracks: Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, IL and Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero, IL. You could also go to Balmoral Park in Crete, IL to see live harness racing.
This morning as I was driving to work, I noticed a sign that read “Arlington Park This Exit” at my …

Last week, Nicole said she was invited to see Jersey Boys tonight. She asked if there was a sporting event I was planning to attend but at the time, there were none. I checked the regular websites – ticketmaster.com for Chicago and Milwaukee, allstatearena.com and searscentre.com – nothing, no events for tonight. The Cubs are home this afternoon so that was out. Thus, I thought I would relax this evening at the house.
Then on Tuesday, the Chicago Wolves won Game 7 of their 2nd Round AHL playoff series vs. the …

After an uneventful Wednesday night, yesterday had many more interesting stories.
1) Jim Edmonds made his return to Wrigley Field as a Chicago Cub. In his first at-bat he received cheers after he singled but was booed after not producing in subsequent at-bats. I was at the game on July 19, 2004 when Carlos Zambrano was ejected for throwing at Edmonds after a Scott Rolen home run. That was after Zambrano yelled at Edmonds to run the bases after Edmonds hit a home run off Zambrano onto …

The Cubs won tonight 8-5. Alfonso Soriano led off tonight’s game with a home run for the 2nd consecutive night. Last night he passed Brady Anderson for the third most leadoff home runs in major league history. Craig Biggio is #2 with 53 leadoff home runs and Rickey Henderson is #1 with 81 leadoff home runs.
For hopefully the 6th time, I will attend every game of a 4-game series. Since the Padres and Cubs both won a game already I will not see a 4-game sweep. The only …

In one of the rainiest games I have attended, the Padres beat the Cubs 4-3. There are a lot of arguments out there that say baseball is not the same as football because baseball players will not play in “the weather.” Well, I am here to tell you that is not the case. They may not play in absolute downpours (except for tonight), snow, sleet, or sub 30-degree temperatures but they will play in rain.
Currently, I believe they play in the rain because the money is too good. First, a …

The Chicago Cubs opened a 4-game series against the San Diego Padres tonight at Wrigley Field. The game time temperature was 41 degrees so I brought my winter gear to the game to stay warm. The Cubs batted around in both the 5th and 6th inning and beat the Padres 12-3.
Mark Prior, who now plays for the Padres, is once again on the DL. He was placed on the 60-day DL after having shoulder surgery on March 26. It was almost 6 years ago when …

We went to see Polo at The Villages yesterday. I need to do some more research on the sport to understand what level of competition we were watching.

My day started on Friday at 7 am when the alarm sounded. My parents picked me up at 7:30 am and we were off for the 2.5 hour drive to Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (a suburb of Jacksonville) – a journey that took 4 hours once you included picking up our tickets, parking and taking the shuttle to the course in traffic.
We picked up the tickets I bought from eBay with no problems and continued to the free parking lot at University of North Florida. The other options to park …