Game #50 – didn’t happen...

Game #50 – didn’t happen


I thought I’d make it to 50 this year, which would be pretty close to my season high. (Primarily due to all the night games this year.) But we were leaving for Santa Fe in the morning, and I was very unprepared, and needed to stay home to take care of some house things before we left. So no 50 for me. I think Heather said she hit 50 last night. Woo Hoo!!

Cubs ended up losing 8-2. Shouldn’t the Pirates have been hungover from their champagne celebration yesterday? Even hungover, they can beat the Cubs…

And the Cubs have officially lost 50 games at home this year. 30-50 at home and 35-43 on the road. Still one game left at Wrigley and 3 in St Louis. Glad I’ll be in Santa Fe not paying attention to those games : )

Thanks for reading everyone. We only hit 32 restaurants, so I’ll have to write up my Santa Fe selections to see if we make it to 40!

Game #49 - Cubs vs. Pirates

Game #49 – Cubs vs. Pirates

Monday, September 23, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie

Zubazpalooza night in the bleachers at the ballpark! Not that we got them because you needed special tickets for them. And after looking at them, didn’t really want them.

Super short recap: Cubs lose 2-1 to the Bucco’s. I’m ok w/that – I’m rooting for the Pirates in the playoffs. Especially if they unseat the Cards (highly unlikely..). And, as it turned out, it was Clinch Day for the Pirates. Gee, if the Cards can clinch over the weekend, we can be witness to 3 clinches in one week!!

Marte hit a go-ahead homer – his last 2 homers have been off of Kevin Gregg. Ugh. Cubs did try to score in the bottom of the 9th. Schierholtz (of all people) tried to score from 1st on a single. Out at the plate. Always exciting! And kind of happy it didn’t go into extra innings…

From my gal Carrie: With one start remaining Sunday in the season finale against the Cardinals, Samardzija has 207 2/3 innings and 210 strikeouts, both career highs. He's in good company among other pitchers to reach 200/200, joining the Tigers' Max Scherzer, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, the Phillies' Cliff Lee and the White Sox's Chris Sale.


Cubs dropped to 30-49 at home. Ouch. Feel like I’ve seen all 49 of them. Nope – only 31 of them. Sigh. I will miss baseball, but am rather thankful this sorry season is coming to a close.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 2-1

My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 18

No parking update

Game #48 - Cubs vs. Braves

Game #48

Sunday, September 22, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Beautiful outside today – sunny and warm, but not too much so. We picked up some tacos from Azteca D’ Oro and headed into the park. We were hoping for another win today so we could avoid the Atlanta celebration. No such luck. The Washington/Marlins game was about 3 innings in by the time our game started, so if Washington loses, the Braves clinch. That happened in about the 6th inning of our game, and all the f’ing Brave fans in the crowd started doing their stupid chant and chop. I really hate that chop – have for years. At least there weren’t as many Braves fans today as yesterday, but there were still a lot. The team did a mini-celebration – at least in the bullpen, the guys were shaking hands and doing the “man hug”. This made it easier to take since we didn’t have to watch them hop around on the field. Although I was pretty sure they still would after the game.

Edwin Jackson pitched today, so you knew this game could go either way. During his 28-pitch first inning, he gave up a 2-run homer to Freddie Freeman in the 1st – this guy kills us. Cubs came back with 1 run in the bottom of the first, but that was it until the 8th inning where they tacked on 1 more. Jackson gave up 2 more homers, both to Andrelton Simmons (what kind of name is this??), one in the 4th and one in the 8th. Cubs lose.

Wigs left in about the 6th inning to head to Bernie’s to watch the SF game. Kev left at the same time to head to airport for his flight to Vegas. “work trip”. Uh-huh… Heather & I stuck it out until the end of the 8th (after not winning the 50/50 again!), and then headed over to meet Wigs. We clearly didn’t miss anything. My friend Peplansky (who works at Wrigley), stopped by to say “see you next year”. His funny story: on Sunday’s, kids can run the bases, and they put velvet rope stands up to organize the line. Apparently, the Atlanta fans thought it was for the Braves players/fans to celebrate the division win. Um no. hahahahaha.

Over to Bernie’s to meet up with Wigs, Kristen, Trish & John. Bears night game tonight, but I knew I couldn’t stick it out at Bernie’s for the whole thing, so I headed home before start of game. Wigs did win the Marshall jersey – yippee! I hope we have a lot by the end of the year (we got Forte one last week).

Recap:

Cubs Lose 5-2

My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 17

The OB’s did park today, and for the season, their total take was over $2K. Nice!!

Game #47 / Restaurant #32 – Pequod’s Pizza

Game #47 / Restaurant #32 – Pequod’s

Saturday, September 21, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

A lovely day at the ballpark today. Atlanta can clinch the division and celebrate on our field if they win. Boo. Dan & his friend Celeste also joined us. Travis Wood (our All Star) on the mound today. No scoring until the 4th inning when Atlanta scored on a fielding error by Shierholtz. No additional scoring until the 8th, when the Cubs put up 3 runs on a string of single, single, double, single, sac fly (by Nate, making up for his error). Our ex-closer Kevin Gregg was not coming in. New closer Pedro Strop came in and struck out the side to end the game! Woo hoo!! Take that you Braves!

Oh, and Sweeney made a great catch in the ivy (and the wall):
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?topic_id=51231442&content_id=30813513

After the game, we went to Bernie’s for a couple drinks. Erin & Barry showed up for a couple beers before they went to dinner. We decided to go to Pequod’s over on Clyborn. I can’t remember how we started talking about this, but last time we were here, we really liked their pizza. Wigs called and they said they could get us in in 30 minutes. So we hopped in a cab and headed over. We got there and holy moly – mobs of people waiting outside! We put our name in, pre-ordered our pizza (so they could get it started while we were still waiting for table), and then went across street to Webster Wine Bar. I’ve never been here and this was a cute place. We weren’t sure if our buzzer would work from 3 blocks away, so Wigs went outside after a bit to see, and sure enough, they were ready for us. We hadn’t finished the wine, so Heather put the cork on it and shoved it in her bag. Hahahaha. (Chicago does have special “to go” wine bags – it’s a special bag that gets stapled shut or something so if you get pulled over by police, they won’t say you have an open container. But they would obviously know you’d been drinking wine….)

Anyways – we ordered deep dish pizza w/green peppers, spinach, mushrooms and sausage. So good. We also did a salad starter, but I don’t remember anything remarkable about this. I really like the sauce on the pizza – flavorful and kind of chunky. Thumbs up for Chicago pizza!! By the time we left, the place had really cleared out, so we must’ve hit it right at rush hour.

Recap:

Cubs Win 3-1

My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 17

No parking today.

Game #46 / Restaurant #31 – Ñ

Game #46 / Restaurant #31 – Ñ

Friday, September 20, 2013
Heather, Trish, Lyletta, & Julie

Cubs vs. Braves. 
Last homestand of the year. It’s almost over. Mixed feelings – I love baseball and the Cubs (although I’m sure it doesn’t always seem that way..), so this signals the true end of summer for me. Boo hoo. But games like today make me somewhat happy that the end is near : )

Scott Baker on the mound today for the Cubs (he of the $5 million, one-year contract making his 3rd start of the year…) vs. ex-Cub lefty Paul Maholm. It was windy and overcast today. So just waiting for the homers to start. Cubs are 0-4 against the Braves this year, and their magic # to clinch the division going into today was 2. Meaning they can celebrate on the field on Saturday if they beat the Cubs. On the pre-game, Dale said something like “it’s good for the young kids to see other teams clinch/celebrate so they get a taste of what it could be like.” Huh???

Braves hit 2 homers and the Cubs hit 3 (Castro, Murphy and Navarro). According to Al Yellon of bleedcubbieblue, Navaro’s homer broke a window in a post office minivan parked outside the park:

https://twitter.com/bleedcubbieblue/status/381159178514857984/photo/1


Game was tied 5-5 going into the 9th – kudos to the Cubs for coming back and tying it up. In comes Kevin Gregg. He started the season surprisingly well, but has returned to the Kevin Gregg from 2009 that we all know and love. He gave up 4 runs in the 9th – walk, out, walk, out, single, single, walk, double, out. Ouch.

After the game, apparently Kevin Gregg went on a rant to the media, and Theo got pissed and called him into Sveum’s office threatening to release him on Saturday. Gregg apologized and then even went up to the press box to tell the media his apology. This season is so weird… I guess the Drama gives us something to talk about.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0921-cubs-braves-chicago-20130921,0,3476700.story

Cubs have lost 22 of their last 29 home games. Yikes. After the game, we went to …. Bernie’s! Where we sat at the back bar and hung w/Lloyd until Wigs, Kevin & JO showed up. Trish & John & Lyletta all headed home and we went to dinner at Ñ. I had to copy/paste that from yelp, since I can’t do the tilde in Word. Or at least I don’t know how. This is an Argentinian place was over on Elston in the Avondale neighborhood.

Atmosphere was dark. Seriously, it was really, really dark in here. We felt very hip. Until we had to pull out our assistive lights on the phones to read the menu. Not very crowded at all. Heather & Wigs got fancy drinks and Kevin & I got a bottle of wine. We started with the 5 empanada appetizer and they were delicious. Just like at Tango Sur on Southport.

Milanesa – breaded beef seasoned “la napilotana” (topped w/ham, cheese & tomato sauce – Kev had that) while Wigs had it “al caballo” (fried egg on top). Kev said it was good, but not great. Heather had Ravioli. I can’t find the description on the website – maybe it was this: potato dumplings in tomato cream sauce. I had the Tilapia. I thought it was good.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 9-5

My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 16 – this is really awful.

No parking today.

Game #45 – Cubs vs. Brewers

Game #45 – Cubs vs. Brewers

Sunday, September 8, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Opening Day for Football Season (well, at least for us Bears and 49er fans)!!! So we started at Bernie’s to watch the first half of Bears game. I got there at Noon after my pedicure, and where is everyone?? Heather/Wigs came in a few minutes later and then finally Kevin (who was home prepping the house for the new TV’s – yes we are finally getting a tv with a screen bigger than 32”). Bartender Randy was telling us about the jersey giveaway to people who bought buckets of Bud Light during Bears game. Cool – we can switch to Bud. Turns out there were only 3 buckets bought that day, so we assumed our chances of getting the Peppers jersey was good. Nope, we didn’t get it. Go figure.

At halftime, we headed into the game. It was a nice day, a little cloudy and the game was not crowded at all! Time to buy the 50/50 ticket! Scott Baker, who has been on the DL all year was making his debut. He actually looked really good for the 5 innings he was in (55 pitches). Here’s what annoys me: we signed him for a one-year $5.5 million contract and he was on the DL all year. Great investment. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2012, so I’m not really sure what happened. He only made 8 starts in the minors before today’s game.

As for the rest of the game… Yawn. JR Lake hit another homer for our only run, and he had 2 of the Cubs 3 hits. Cubs bullpen blew another save (26 on the year if you’re counting; record is 29 set in 2000, so we have a chance to make a run for that this year too!).

Wigs & Kevin left to go watch the 49ers game, while Heather and I stuck it out to see if I won the 50/50. Nope, didn’t win that either. Ah well.  Back to Bernie's to watch some football! 

Recap:

Cubs Lose 8-3

My season record: Visitors 29, Cubs 16

Parking update: No update today

Game #44 / Restaurant #30 – Maleo

Game #44 / Restaurant #30 – Maleo
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Ian, Eric, Kevin & Julie

My cousin Ian and his friend Greg were in town from Madison for a conference to help them prep for the Boards, and they decided to blow off the afternoon and go to the Cubs game. (The conference ran from 7 AM – 6 PM Thursday –through Saturday and 7 AM – Noon on Sunday. Yikes! Those doctors don’t have it easy…)

They were staying downtown and took the red line up to meet us at Bernie’s. It’s always funny to hear “tourists” to the city talk about things we just take for granted and don’t even think about. Like how to figure out how to pay for the El. Funny. Quick beer at Bernie’s and into the game for the Battle for the Basement. Ian is originally from St. Louis area and so Cards fan. His friend Eric is Brewers (and Packers) fan.

Game was pretty crowded, but we found seats on the aisle in row 9/10, so not too bad. In the 2nd inning, Luis/Louis Valbuena hit a homer into the basket right below us. This was followed by a text from Ian’s wife Jenny saying we were on TV. We weren’t buying that since we were way up in row 9 and the homer barely made the basket. But she accurately described what Ian was wearing and eventually sent a picture she took on the tv. Ha ha!

Bogusevic also hit a homer to give the Cubs 95 homers at Wrigley, most in the NL. Homer or bust – the more things change, the more they stay the same…

A pitcher named Lim came in during the game (wearing Soriano’s #12, sniff, sniff – I miss him), and a few funny things about him:

• He’s 37 years old making his major league debut!!
• He became the 54th player the Cubs used this season, which is a Cubs record. The previous record was 53. Set last year. 
• He gave up a single to his former teammate from Japan, Aoki.

Ah well. Cubs lose; Eric was happy.

After the game, we went to Bernie’s where Eric had an Old Fashioned. Ha ha. Ian said he had a super sweet tooth when it came to drinks. (He doesn’t drink beer so had a Mai Tai at the game  )

We went to the Jewel to grab some wine and then headed over to Melao at 3941 N. Lincoln, a BYO Colombian restaurant where Wigs met us. We had gone here with JO and Cindy a few months back (pre-blog), and it was yummy. We started with empanadas – 2 of each, spinach, chicken, beef. For dinner:

Ian & Kevin shared the Picada, “a tremendous combination of meats: pork belly, top sirloin, pork ribs, sausage, fried green plantains, yucca, white cheese corn cake and tomatoes. It serves 3, and the two of them couldn’t finish it. The only downside was some of the meats on the “tremendous” platter had bones in them, so they had to be careful. And the platter itself didn’t look that appetizing, but that’s just my thoughts. I’m sure the boys were fine w/it.

Wigs & Eric both ordered the Bandeja Paisa, “our traditional mountain platter; grilled top sirloin, pork belly, white rice, pinto beans, white cheese corn cake, fried egg, colombian sausage, sweet plantains and avocado”

I ordered the Tilapia filets.

There was a ton of food, and even Wigs couldn’t finish his, and was able to take home the leftovers. I think everyone enjoyed their meals.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 5-3

My season record: Visitors 28, Cubs 16

Parking update: No update today

Game #43 / Restaurant #29 – Angelina Ristorante

Game #43 / Restaurant #29 – Angelina Ristorante

Friday, September 6, 2013
Heather & Julie

Not crowded at all today in bleachers, so plenty of room to spread out. Much hotter than I was expecting, but not like last Friday’s game.

Junior Lake Grand Slam in the first inning!! The Cubs scored 5 in the first. Didn’t that happen last Friday when the Cubs were then shut out and lost 6-5?? Luckily no repeat today. This was a fun game. Well, I guess they usually are fun when the Cubs win! In the top of the 1st inning, Rusin struggled, throwing 32 pitches, but didn’t give up any runs. Phew. The Cubs batted a round in the bottom of the first with Lakes GS the highlight. In the bottom of the 3rd with 2 men on, Lake bunted for a single to load the bases. Rusin came up and singled in 2 runs for his first RBI’s. Cub pitchers – 27 RBI’s this year (most in the majors). Aramis Ramirez hit a homer (his 10th – he must’ve been on DL this year??), and Scooter Gennett hit a 3 run pinch hit homer in the 8th. The Cubs did hang on to win 8-5, and Kevin Gregg had his 30th save (3rd time in his career) with a 1-2-3 ninth. (Feel like I haven’t seen a 1-2-3 in a while…) Yea Cubs!!

To Bernie’s after the game, where we met up with Lyletta, Wigs, Trish, John, Kristen and Kevin. Trish & John’s drinking ban apparently lasted only 5 hours (from her email at Noon today indicating they were on a ban). Ha ha : )

A couple beers at Bernie’s and then we headed to Angelina’s (on Broadway) for dinner. It’s been a year or so since we’ve been here and they were able to take us (Heather, Wigs, KD, Kev & me). For appetizers, we shared calamari and antipasti. For dinner, Heather had the the insalata bosco and the Fusilli con Pollo. She said it was good, but a little light on the chicken. Wigs had the short ribs, which he said were very good, and Kevin had the risotto with chicken which he also said was good. I had the pasta pomodoro (angel hair pasta with fresh tomato basil sauce). Very fresh and very good. With enough for leftovers!

Recap:

Cubs Win 8-5

My season record: Visitors 27, Cubs 16

Parking update: No update today

Game #42 - Cubs vs. Marlins

Game #42

Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Randy & Julie

I had a meeting cancelled this afternoon, which ended up freeing up my day. Then I got a text from evil Randy about going to the game, and I was in. I got there in the 3rd inning, missing a monster home run by Logan Morrison (according to Randy). I would have been there sooner, but was being frisked by the little-man-complex dude at the bleacher entrance. I friggin hate that guy. I will usually go to another gate to avoid him, but was in a rush. So of course he has to look through every zippered compartment in my bag. I hope he got off while fishing through my tampons. Jackwad - I really do hate him.

Anyways (sorry for the rant), I went in bleacher entrance and then headed over to section 16 (behind Cubs on-deck circle) to sit with Randy. The park was really, really empty. Randy counted 30 people in the bleacher section where we normally sit. Section 16 seats are awesome, and it’s fun to see the players up close.

Fernandez, the Marlin’s young stud pitcher, was supposed to be going for the Fish, but it turned out to be some guy named Flynn making his ML debut. Oh well. I did see Fernandez pitch against the Pirates in Pittsburgh last month.

Smardz on the mound for the Cubs. He struck out 9 more today, giving him 190 on the season, putting him in 3rd for the NL (7th overall) behind Kershaw (Dodgers w/201) and Harvey (Mets w/191). Darvish w/Texas is still leading the majors with 240. Wow. Lots of hits and home runs in today’s game. 11 hits for each team. 4 HR’s for the Cubs. They are tied with the Orioles for most HR’s by a team at home (94).

Scary moment: with Stanton at the plate, he lost control of his bat and it went flying into the 2nd row, hitting a little boy. OMG – that was the scariest thing ever. To me, it looked like it hit him across the chest, with each end of the bat at each of his shoulders. His Dad picked him up and the whole family ran out of the seats so fast with security right there to guide them. The boy was crying as they went by, so that was encouraging (e.g. he was breathing). I was shaking after seeing this; I can’t imagine how his Mom & Dad were feeling. I read later that he got hit in the chin, and returned to the seats (although I didn’t see them return). Remember early on in the season when the girl choked in the bleachers? Security said she was fine too. I’ll have to check w/Peplansky.

Randy left game at 3:30 to go get his hair cut, and I wandered back out to the bleachers to get some last rays of summer sun. It was hot! Donnie Murphy came through with a 2-run homer to give the Cubs the lead in the 8th. They managed to hang on and win one from the lowly Marlins. Boy are we bad.

Recap:

Cubs Win 9-7

My season record: Visitors 27, Cubs 15

Parking update: No update today

Game 41 - Cubs vs. Marlins

Game #41

Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

This was one of those “I haven’t been out of the house all day, but it was sunny out so it must be a warm night”. Wigs texted that they parked near us, so met them on the way to game. I had on shorts & t-shirt. Wigs & Heather had jeans. Uh-oh. It was a little cool, but not bad. Weird – it’s like the weather thought, “Oh, it’s September, so I have to cool down at night.” It sure did. I had brought a jacket, so was fine.

Kevin had his fantasy draft at Bernie’s so he showed up in the 5th inning. Which for scoring no runs through 4, the game seemed to take a really long time. I think it was 9:15 when he got there. There were 5 runs scored in the 5th (to make it 3-2 Marlins), so that was part of it. (There were 12 Marlin hits in the game vs. 4 for the Cubs.) The Marlins added on 3 more in the 8th making it 6-2. We stayed through the bottom of the 8th and then headed home (was 10:20 by then). By the time we got home, the game had ended and no additional Cub runs. Boo.

Some tidbits (courtesy of Carrie M.):

• Edwin Jackson was the loser; he hasn’t won a game since July 31 (6 starts). 
• He’s given up 21 earned runs over 33 2/3 innings. 
• Oh, and he’s 1-7 against the Marlins in his career.

Here’s his quote: "As a starter, you really can't worry about runs," What?! Followed by "If you're not scoring a lot, then the pitching and defense has to be there.” Oh, ok, this is all the offenses fault. I’m not saying they aren’t culpable, but way to throw them under the bus Edwin! Yep, 3 more years of this to look forward to. (4 year $52 million contract by the way.)

Some more tidbits.

• Cubs have lost 12 of their last 17 and 19 of their last 24 at home.
• Lefty Zach Rosscup made his major league debut in the 6th. 
• He struck out the first batter he faced. The ball was thrown into the dugout. 
• Cubs left 6 men on and went 0 for 5 RISP.
• Castro lined a ball to pitcher’s leg and he went down. He was on the ground for a while, but did eventually recover and stay in game.
• Next batter was Valbuena, fresh off the DL who was hit in the leg with a pitch and went down. He also got up and stayed in game.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 6-2

My season record: Visitors 27, Cubs 14 (My winning percentage is .350….)

Parking update: No update today

GAME 40!!!!

Game #40 - Cubs vs. Marlins

Monday, September 2, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Randy, Kevin & Julie

GAME 40 – we did it! Now we just need to get our restaurant count up! Beautiful Labor Day in Chicago – sunny, warm, but not overly hot. Just lovely. Not overly crowded and we had lots of space to spread out. The long slow slog to the end of the season begins with the lowly Marlins…

Check out Wigs missing a home run in the 1st inning off Christian Yelich:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/recap?id=330902116

Also check out me and Heather trying to stay away from the ball. Yikes. I was like “oh crap, oh crap…”. The last thing I want is a HR ball anywhere near me. Thank goodness it wasn’t crowded so there weren’t jerks from all over right field trying to get it. Wigs had a bruise on his thumb/palm, and we determined that exactly 3 of our friends were watching the game based on the texts we received. Ha ha.

Cubs scored 3 in the bottom of the 1st to take the lead, and then the Marlins came right back with 3 in the top of the 2nd to take a 4-3 lead. This is where it stayed and ended. 5 guys left on base and 2 for 6 with RISP.

Cubs are 27-44 at home, which is a .380 winning percentage, bottom 2 in the majors. Sigh. After the game, we went to Bernie’s and met Erin since she’s getting in their Confidence Pool this year. Fun! Then headed home after long, busy weekend.

Yep, end of the season. Posts are getting shorter : )

Recap:

Cubs Lose 4-3

My season record: Visitors 26, Cubs 14 (My winning percentage is .350….)

Parking update: No update today

Game #39 / Restaurant #28 – Café Orchid

Game #39 / Restaurant #28 – Café Orchid

Saturday, August 31, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kristen, Trish, OB, Shelly, Joe, Kevin & Julie

A little cooler today, but still warm. Good crowd – it’s been a while since we’ve had this many. Fun times! Poor Joe just landed from Argentina around 1:00 and needed to re-pack for their trip to Hawaii tomorrow. Yea, poor thing.

This was a good back and forth game:

PHI   0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0     3 6 1
CHC 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 x    4 11 1

Once again, we left a lot of guys on base – 11 hits but only 4 runs. Some game highlights/stats:

• Castro hit his first HR in over a month
• The Cubs have 89 home runs at Wrigley, second most by a team at home in the Majors behind the Orioles, who have 94.
• Castro also has career high 111 strikeouts with a month still left
• Cubs are 5-14 in one-run games
• Phillies pitcher was Cliff Lee. He was the fourth Cy Young Award winner the Cubs have faced in five games -- and the only one to get a win was the Dodgers' Zack Greinke on Monday.
• Cubs pitcher was Rusin. In the 3rd, with 2 outs (after 8 pitches), an error by Rizzo led to another 16 pitches to finish the inning. 
• Cole Gillespie had 2 RBI’s and a diving catch to prevent a base hit in the 8th.

After the game, to Bernie’s for a couple and then down to Café Orchid on Addison for some Turkish food. (Trish, JO & KD took a pass, so just the 6 of us.) This place has been here a while and we finally tried it. BYO, which is always a bonus, and we sat outside in a really cute outdoor café with plants and lights.

We started with a bunch of appetizers, including hummus (super fresh), babaganush (which is just fun to say in addition to being super fresh), lentil fingers (red lentil, onion, red pepper, cumin, parsley, scallion, white pepper, cracked wheat served over fresh romaine lettuce & lemon, mild spicy) and falafil. Everything was really, really good.

For dinner, I’m not sure I remember everyone’s but this is what I have (yea, end of season….):

Wigs – Iskender with Adana and spicy butter sauce. Adana served over pan-fried bread with butter, yogurt with mild spicy butter sauce. I have no idea what Adana is, so of course went to wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adana_kebab%C4%B1

Kevin – Sultan Delight - char-grilled eggplant puree sauteed with mozzarella cheese & topped with lamb cubes cooked with onion, red & green bell peppers, olive served with rice or bulgur





Julie, Shelly & Heather – Chicken Shish Kebobs - chicken cubes marinated with veg oil, lemon juice, milk, paprika, garlic, oregano, black pepper

Although I think Heather & I had the kebobs and Shelly had the skewers.  I'm not sure of the difference, other than the presentation.   

Joe – no idea. Maybe it was the Uskudar?? - lamb cubes sauteed with onion, tomatoes, mushroom, red & green peppers, garlic wrapped with sliced eggplant served with rice.


Everything was really good. Shelly declared this her new favorite place to go after Cub games. Not too pricey, easy to walk to after game, nice patio, BYO. Definitely on the list!!

Recap:

Cubs Win 4-3

My season record: Visitors 25, Cubs 14

Parking update: No update today

Game #38 / Restaurant #27 – Cantina Pasadita

Game #38 / Restaurant #27 – Cantina Pasadita
Friday, August 30, 2013
Heather, Kathleen, Danielle, Craig & Julie

HOLY HOTNESS! This was easily the hottest day of the year. Sunny, very humid and heat index near or over 100. Yowza. My niece and her step-brother from Nebraska came down to the game with my sister, so fun to see them. And another surprise: the Curylo crew (sans Jim & Laura) - Mike Curylo, Johnny Erdman and Party Marty made an appearance. It was awesome that Mike sat right behind me so I could hear him bitch about the Cubs all day. Yeesh. It wasn’t very crowded and there was plenty of room in the bleachers. It still felt really loud to me though. For some reasons on Fridays, I feel like the noise level is super-high. Even when it’s empty, like today.

Sandberg’s first game as a full-fledged Manager. He got nice applause when he brought out the lineup cards. Way to go Ryno.

This game was so Cubs. Five run lead through 5 innings (off Roy Halladay!), and then Philly comes back to score 4 in the 6th and then 1 in the 7th to tie, and one in the 9th to win. Boo. Lots of hits in the game and the Cubs had lots of chances (9 guys left on base and 3 for 10 RISP), but of course we love our HR’s. Rizzo and Schierholtz both homered, and they are neck and neck with team lead in homers (21 and 20 respectively). From my gal Carrie (Muskat):

The Cubs now have two left-handed hitters with 20-plus home runs in the same season for the first time since Rick Monday and Billy Williams in 1973.

Funny game thing that I didn’t see until the next morning since it was below where we were sitting: Chase Utley hit a triple to right and the ball hit the ivy/wall and popped out. Along with another ball. So there were actually 2 balls. Ha. He picked the right one up to throw in.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2013/08/30/59024796/chase-utley-hits-triple-into-wrigley-ivy-two-balls-come-out

After the game, guess where? Yep. Cindy was there waiting for us – she was supposed to go to the game, but was running late from her bike ride. Wigs also came to meet us. The skies started darkening, and we shipped my sis/niece/Craig into a cab to get back to the Metra station. Once it starts raining, it would be really hard to get a cab and I didn’t want them to miss their train! Then Wigs, Heather & I grabbed a cab and headed to Cantina Pasadita. This was the place we tried to go to on a Sunday a few weeks ago, but it didn’t open until 4. Kevin had a hockey outing, so didn’t join us. Trish & JO texted, but maybe they didn’t want to go that far during the storm?? And Cindy was tuckered and headed home, so just us 3.

We spent about 45 minutes going 4 miles (?? maybe less?) due to the crazy rain storm. Our driver was clueless; I honestly think he must have just arrived in Chicago yesterday. The good news is the storm was over by the time we got to restaurant and we didn’t get wet.

Heather & I started with Sangria – they were huge!

Wigs had a Corona and tequila shot (on special). We also started with ceviche and guacamole. The ceviche was weird – like tuna salad vs. big pieces of fish. I wouldn’t order this again. Guac was good.

I had chicken tacos – I didn’t use the word “dinner”, so didn’t get any rice, beans. Just 2 chicken tacos. Which was fine. They were OK. Wigs had the tampiquena and Heather had enchiladas (?I think?).

Overall, it was pretty good. Not great. I would probably go back again, but definitely not get the ceviche.

Recap:
Cubs Lose 6-5

My season record: Visitors 25, Cubs 13

Parking update: No update today

Game #37 – Cubs vs. Nationals

Game #37 – Cubs vs. Nationals
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie

Another beautiful, perfect summer night. I love, love, love this weather. I figured that after our offensive explosion and super quick game last night, that it would be a shutout, 4-hour game tonight. Close, but not quite :)

Both teams were actually pretty bad. Washington had 14 hits and only scored 4 runs, leaving 12 men on base. Cubs scored 2 (off of home runs, of course), were 0-8 with runners in scoring position and left 6 men on. The Cubs are 2nd in the league in HR’s and dead last in batting average with runners in scoring position. Ouch. Castro/Barney had trouble with double-plays twice, only getting one out, one of which led to a run.

After all this ineptitude, they were actually still in it going into the 9th, down only 1 run. Russell came in for 1 batter and gave up a hit. (One batter, really??) And then Gregg came in to of course give up 2 runs, one being charged to Russell. I feel like I haven’t seen Gregg in forever.

Donnie Murphy (!) homered in bottom of the 9th to pull within 2 runs, but that was it. Which got me wondering who the heck Donnie Murphy is. So here you go:

• He’s been in the league for 7 years
• Started with KC in 2004 for 2 years, moving to Oakland for 2 years, was with FL for 2 years, and then Miami last year. Yes, I realize FL and Miami are the same team, but they changed names and that’s how it shows in his stats!
• He plays short and 3rd
• He makes $560K
• He’s 30

From Mark Gonzalez, the new Cub beat writer:
Murphy joined the Cubs' organization on April 3 on the recommendation of player development director Brandon Hyde, a former Long Beach player and coach who was with Murphy with the Marlins in 2011.
So was he unsigned and the Cubs picked him up??? I guess so.

Anyways – Cubs lose. I also thought this tidbit was good:
Anthony Rizzo has David DeJesus’ and Alfonso Soriano’s baseball cards at the top of his locker.

Nice.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 4-2

My season record: Visitors 24, Cubs 13
Parking update: No update today

Game #36 - Cubs vs. Nats

Game #36 – Cubs vs. Nationals
Monday, August 19, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie

No Sunday game for us this week, as it was time for “forced family fun” as Kevin’s family likes to call it. We are closing in on 40 baseball games, but have some work to do on the 40 restaurants. Wigs put together a list of the “Final 15”, saying I had veto rights on 3 of them. Ha ha. Will keep you all posted.

Beautiful night on Monday – warm, but not too hot. Perfect night for baseball! Before the game, we heard that David DeJesus was traded to the Nationals. Sad to see him go – he seemed like a stand-up guy who provided leadership in the clubhouse.

Great game – Samardzija pitched well and got the run support he’d been lacking in his last few starts. He had a complete game with 105 pitches (his 2nd this year) and 5 strikouts with no walks. He’s got 168 strikeouts on the year, which is 4th in the NL (behind Harvey of the Mets w/187, Kershaw of the Dodgers w/182 and Wainwright of STL w/173). Yu Darvish of Texas is leading the Majors with 214. Wow.

There were 5 home runs by the Cubs – 2 each by Schierholtz and Donnie Murphy (!) and one by Dioner Navarro – all to right or center field. Fun times! There was one HR by the Nats that went to Waveland Avenue. Even better – the game only went 2 hours and 14 minutes. I guess that’s what happens when 10 of the 11 runs are scored on homers. Zip, zip, zip.

A couple funny things: as I was getting ready to leave for the game, I looked at my watch and it was 5 to 7. Yikes – so in my hurry to leave, I grabbed the next game tickets from my season ticket book and headed out. Well, when I got to the gates, my ticket wouldn’t work. I thought maybe I gave them the ticket I sold on Stub Hub, so gave them the other ticket. That didn’t work either. The scanner guy looked at the ticket and they were yesterday’s tickets. Ugh. He told me to go over to the box office and see if they could help. I did that, and they were able to print a new ticket for me. (Phew - if I had to go home, I was not coming back… Which would have been a bummer since it was such a good game.) So back around to bleacher entrance, and into the game. And I just missed Schierholtz’s homer (in bottom of the 1st), which went right behind Heather/Wigs and the guy sitting right behind Wigs ended up getting the ball.

Later on in the game, Schierholtz threw a ball up between innings, and the guy who got the home run ball, was going for it. I’m not sure if he tipped the ball or someone else did, but in slow motion, the guy was losing his balance, falling down 3 rows and across the aisle, bent left leg way backward, his back also bent at an unnatural looking angle, and I thought he was going to face plant. He somehow came up with the ball and didn’t kill himself in the process. I was trying to stay away from the kerfuffle, and was practically in Wigs’ lap. (Sorry Wigs.) Wigs’ thought he was going to faceplant and die. I’m sure he’s sore today. And whoever stopped his fall is probably sore too. Was it really worth it??? Crazy.

Recap:

Cubs Win 11-1

My season record: Visitors 23, Cubs 13 (a .361 winning percentage…)

Parking update: No update today

Game #35 – Cubs vs. Cards / Restaurant #26 Wood

Game #35 – Cubs vs. Cards / Restaurant #26 Wood

Saturday, August 18, 2013

Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Another gorgeous day today! Since it was so nice out, we decided to go in early for batting practice. We stopped at the little grocery store next to Tango Sur for empanadas to bring in for lunch (corn, spinach and chicken – yum!!). We have to remember to include empanadas in our rotation for lunch. There is another place (café nola) over by the Jewel that also has them, so we’ll have to go there too. T-shirt giveaway today – it was a Large (vs. the normal XL) – the 1908 bear logo. Cute!

 

Another good crowd today (41,981) – this time the stadium was full all around, with of course lots of Card fans. Both yesterday and today, the Card players looked like they were having fun with the fans during batting practice. I was feeling optimistic after yesterday’s win, and our All Star Travis Wood on the mound. And things started out pretty well – the first inning had fly balls to each of the outfielders, 7, 8 and 9 in that order. Ha ha. Wood didn’t give up any hits until the 4th inning. He got on base in the 3rd, and then was hanging out there for a while (no runs scored), so don’t know if that affected him?? (It shouldn’t!) In the 4th, back to back doubles scored an RBI for Beltran (!). In the 5th, another run scored on huge mental mistake by Castro on shallow fly ball, allowing a runner to tag up from 3rd. He did eventually throw home, but not in time to get the out. 2 zip Cards. Kevin is still bitter about this – don’t ask him about it. I read later that the ump called the infield fly rule, which is weird cuz the ball was in the outfield and Castro was actually waving off Junior Lake.

 

Next inning, Castro no longer in the field. Donnie Murphy (our team leading .333 hitter) moved to short from 3rd and they brought in Ransom to play 3rd. So there, Starlin Castro! Cards tacked on another 2 runs via homer from Yadier Molina. I think this was his first game back after being on DL??? And Cubs had nothing. 5 hits, 7 left on base.

 

After the game, guess where??? You know it. Had a couple drinks here and then headed over to Wood for dinner (on Halsted in Boystown). We actually went to the wrong place (MiniBar, I think), and the waiter had brought us water. We were debating on having a drink cuz we felt bad, but Wigs had called Wood to get a table, and we didn’t want to make them wait. So we tipped the waiter for the water. Sorry dude – that was the easiest $5 you made all night! Wood was next door, and they had an awesome patio on a side street off Halsted, so it was not as noisy. Really cute.

 

This place had both small and large plates, so we ordered a bunch of stuff to share. Heather, Wigs and Kevin started with fancy drinks (whiskey for Wigs, gin for Kevin, and vodka (??) for Heather). I went right to wine since I had a whiskey drink at Bernie’s before we left : )

Here’s what we ordered - Small Plates:

• Cheese plate – 4 different types of cheeses, served with jam (yum!) and bread
• Oxtail Ragout – saffron risotto and shelly beans. This was Heather’s favorite.
• Tagliatelle – merguez sausage, tomatoes and nicoise olives
• Scallops – shelly beabs, bell peppers, tomato & Italian sausage. This was Wigs’ favorite.
• Country Ham Flatbread – raclette cheese, kale and mornay sauce

Large Plates:

• Whole Roasted Fish – Branzino (meaning head and tail). Kevin did a fantastic job deboning this; even the waiter complimented him! This was my favorite.
• Catalpa Grove Pork – sweet corn fritters, blistered pardon peppers and smoked cherry sauce. This was Kevin’s favorite.

I had gone inside to go to the restroom, and it was totally fancy in there with people all dressed to impress. And here I was in my Cubs shirt. Oh well.

 

Check out all the accolades according to their website:
WINNER, 2013 MICHELIN BIB GOURMAND AWARD
Zagat: "Chicago's Hottest New Restaurants"
Michigan Avenue Magazine: "Best Places to Dine 2013"
Celebrity Chef Art Smith: "Every dish was beautiful and tasted wonderful."
2013 Award: World's Best Bars
Phil Vettel, Chicago Tribune: "Every single dish is impressive."
Chicago Eater: "Wood has achieved a reputation as a go-to for interesting dishes and cocktails."
Chicago Social: "Chef Ashlee Aubin is turning out what have become some of our favorite dishes of the year— "

 

I agree that the food was really good, and I would definitely go back. But dressed better : )

 

Recap:

 

Cubs Lose 4-0

 

My season record: Visitors 23, Cubs 12

 

Parking update: No update today

Game #34 – Cubs vs. Cards / Restaurant #25 Bartoli’s Pizzaria

Game #34 – Cubs vs. Cards / Restaurant #25 Bartoli’s Pizzaria
Friday, August 17, 2013
Trish, Cindy, Heather, Kathleen & Julie

Cubs/Cards – oh boy. I usually hate these games, primarily because the stands are full of Card fans, the Cards are always good, and we usually lose… Jake Arrieta was on the mound for the Cubs – we got him from Baltimore in the Scott Feldman trade in early July. And wow – he was the 2012 Opening Day starter for Baltimore. Huh. He pitched a really good game, only giving up 2 hits (both to Beltran, boo). He also had an RBI sacrifice fly. That’s the 25th RBI by a Cub pitcher this year – which leads the National League – ha!

Cards starter Westbrook walked the first 3 batters which led to a 3 run first inning for the Cubs. So that was a good start and it was nice to quiet the Card fans. The Cubs added more runs in the 5th, 6th & 7th, and won the game 7-0. Yippee!

The giveaway was a Cubs travel kit, which included sunscreen and chapstick. I didn’t make it in time for the giveaway so we lurked around after the game trying to scope one out. Yea – found one!! It was kind of like old times at the ballpark today – good crowd in the bleachers (upper deck was not full), and all the girls in attendance for a Friday afternoon game. Nice sunny, warm day. Even saw a little batting practice. Fun times all around.

After the game, where else? Bernie’s. Good crowd there as well, but not super-crowded. We had a couple drinks, and Shelly, Kristen, Lyletta, JO and Wigs joined us.

We were planning on Bartoli’s Pizza for dinner (over on Addison – used to be Carreno’s or something like that, which we had never gone to). The girls peeled off and were meeting up with Colleen & Carrie at Caro Mio, so it was just Cindy, Kathleen, Heather, Wigs, Kevin & I for dinner. We walked, as did Kevin who got there right as we did – perfect timing! This was BYO place so the boys picked up some beer & wine from across the street. This was also a counter-order type of place, but one of the workers took our orders for us since we were starting w/appetizers and then figuring out our pizza.

We started with Bruschetta, a Salad – both very fresh – and “Badger style cheese balls”. Gotta love fried cheese! And for pizza, we ordered thin crusts: “The Chicago Stockyard”, which was sausage, bacon, pepperoni, prosciutto and Italian beef. Yikes. Also “The Vegetarian”, which was mushroom, onion, green pepper, black olives, sliced tomato and spinach. Again yikes – talk about a load of toppings! All very good. Heather/Wigs took home the leftover pizza and we took home the leftover booze. Ha ha. All was good. 1000 times better than restaurant #24, but that’s not saying much : )

Recap:

Cubs Win 7-0

My season record: Visitors 22, Cubs 12

Parking update: JO/Trish worked from home today so were able to sell the parking. Just one spot as they are letting a friend borrow a spot until they get a new lease in Sept.

Restaurant #24 - Flacco's Tacos

Restaurant #24 Flacco’s Tacos
Friday, August 9, 2013
Trish, John, Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

We met the gang at Vines (next to Cubby Bear on Clark) to sit outside and enjoy the summer evening. It was a really nice night and perfect for sitting outside. Vines has a huge outside patio, with tables nicely spaced apart so you aren’t on top of each other. We had some wine and drinks which were good (including Heather’s fancy strawberry martini). We also ordered a flatbread appetizer – artichoke and goat cheese. It was good, but a little too cheesy for me.

After drinks/apps, we walked over to Flacco’s Tacos. Since this is right in the heart of the Wrigleyville bar scene (and south of Addison – oh no!), we’ve been waiting for a non-game day to try this place. It was kind of a weird setup – you ordered your drinks from the waitress, but for food, you had counter service. Meaning you went to the counter, ordered and they gave you a number to display on your table. They delivered food to the tables. Like I said, weird. Kind of like the old Bernie’s days when you had to go to the garage to order your own food!

Here was a funny thing – waitress said Margaritas were on special for $5. On the menu, they were listed at $4.95. Cracked us up – the special was to pay $0.05 more. Whatever. Everything was pretty terrible. Kevin didn’t even finish his burrito, and you know he likes his burritos!

I had grilled fish tacos. Pretty dumb of me to order fish here, but it said grilled, so I thought it would be ok. Nope, terrible. The Nachos we started with weren’t awful, but I don’t think anyone was impressed with their dinners. Oh well – we’d been wanting to try it, so it worked out fine. As we were getting ready to leave, they were clearing the tables off the floor to make way for some dancing (we assume). We’re like “time to go”.

So of course we went to Bernie’s for nightcaps. Couple drinks there and then home. Fun night – good friends and good conversation. Terrible food.

Game 33 - Cubs vs. Dodgers / Restaurant #23 Café El Tapatio

Game 33 - Cubs vs. Dodgers / Restaurant #23 Café El Tapatio
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Heather, Cindy, Wigs & Julie

Kevin had his 30 year class reunion/golf outing today, so no game for him. Dodgers coming into this game having won 13 straight games on the road, and they are one of the hottest teams in baseball. Boo.

Cindy & I started with lunch at Uncommon Ground. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to sit outside. Good food; typical slow service. We made it into the game about 2:45 for a 3:05 start.

The Shark was on the mound, and he didn’t do terrible, but once again, the Cubs didn’t do anything offensively to help him. Well, they had 8 hits, and left 7 men on base. On the season, they are hitting just .226 with runners in scoring position – 2nd lowest in the Majors. Samardzjia lasted 6 innings (on a HOT day – yea!!) throwing 112 pitches (69 for strikes), walking 5 and striking out 9. Capuano started for the Dodgers and went 6.1 innings giving up 6 hits, 1 walk and striking out 5.

Puig (!) had 2 more hits to keep his average at .376. He also made a great catch and hurt his thumb in the process. Boo hoo. He had a great diving catch on Friday, and then also had a crazy catch that didn’t count. Here’s the video on that one:

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2013/08/03/55813168/video-yasiel-puigs-amazing-foul-ball-catch

Cubs lost 3-0. After the game, we went to Bernie’s for a beer, and then over to Guthrie’s for another where Randy also met us for a drink. Then to dinner at El Tapatio on Ashland. I’d been to this place years ago and it was kind of just a small, dumpy café with very basic table and chairs (one step above card tables…). They have totally upgraded and it is very cute inside.

We ordered drinks to start and they were HUGE:

We started with appetizers of Guac and Ceviche. Yummy. Especially the Ceviche. For dinner, Heather had the combo which consisted of a taco, tostada and enchilada (all chicken). She said it was good, but also hard to screw up. Cindy had Carne Asada, and Wigs had chicken enchiladas in dark mole sauce. I had Tilapia Al Tamarindo (basically pan-seared tilapia).

All very good and I would come back again.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 3-0

My season record: Visitors 22, Cubs 11

Parking update: I did hear from Trish and they were in the burbs on Saturday, so no parking update. Sunday they sold the spots for $40 each. (I did not go to the game, so no blog entry for that!)

Game 32 - Cubs vs. Dodgers / Restaurant #22 Vincent

Game 32 - Cubs vs. Dodgers / Restaurant #22
Friday, August 2, 2013
Heather, Kathleen & Julie

Three words sum up this game: Longest. Game. Ever. Three hours and 29 minutes, but it felt like 5 hours and 59 minutes. We got to the park around 2 or 2:30, so that added to the time, but it still felt like forever. Not very crowded, and the weather kept threatening to rain, but it did hold off.

Lots of Dodger fans in the park. I think there were a lot of people in for Lollapalooza and taking in a Cubs game while there. (I neglected to mention in last night’s post that Wigs’ friend the cop - who we met in the bleachers a few years ago - was there with his girlfriend from LA and some other dude from Bloomingdale who knew the girl?? She must’ve lived here before? Anyways, cop and girlfriend were in love – smooch, smooch – and they were also doing Lolla this weekend.)

There were also a lot of Korean fans in the park for the Dodger’s pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu – lots of signs (in Korean), and also people waving little Korean flags. Fun!

Travis Wood – our All Star (and maybe competing with Samardizja for staff ace???) was on the mound. Unfortunately, he only lasted 3 1/3 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 walks, and 5 runs while striking out 2. Yikes – with our inconsistent offense and questionable bullpen (23 blown saves…), a long hole to dig out of.

In the 1st inning Puig (!) singled to drive in the first run. They drove in 2 more in the 3rd after back to back doubles and 4 walks in a row. (Of course Puig (!) scored via a walk with the bases loaded.) Wood was totally getting squeezed in the strike zone. (Home plate ump = Alan Warner.) Not all ump’s fault, but there were at least 5 balls that could have been strikes. So frustrating that this led to his early departure – 41 pitches in this inning alone. This is the inning that felt like it lasted 90 minutes. Wood was totally a stand-up guy after the fact saying this:
"As much as I was missing, it made it hard for him to make a good call on a good pitch. It was pretty much all on me. You don't walk [five] guys without something being wrong."
Here’s the funny thing: in the top of the 4th, one of the LA batters (Ellis) griped about a called 3rd strike and was ejected. He was kind of going nuts with his complaining, and then we thought that even the next batter Punto was bitching and thrown out of the game. (He wasn’t.) But the coach Mattingly also came out and was complaining and tossed from the game. We’re like – did you see the 3rd inning when we were getting screwed?!?! And they were winning! And of course, after the ejections, the Dodgers scored 2 more runs. Ugh.

The cubs did score one run each in the 2nd and the 4th. Cubs were still losing 6-2 in the bottom of the 9th when Julio Borbon doubled. I honestly don’t remember this being awful, but he was thrown out at 3rd after a ball bounced away from the catcher, which led to his demotion to AAA the next day. Huh. As Paul Sullivan would write: #CubsWay.

Good news: Junior Lake had another 4 hits. He should be fun to watch!

After the game a couple drinks at Bernie’s where Kevin & Wigs met us, and then up to Andersonville for dinner at Vincent – 1475 W. Balmoral. We had seen this place when we went to Big Jones for dinner, so kept it on our radar, and decided to give it a try tonight. Outside tables were full, so we sat inside.

We started with the 1st 4 appetizers on the menu, which were:
• Bone marrow with sweetbreads
• White wine chicken and pork sausage with fava beans
• Crispy polenta with some other stuff (??)
• And a 4th one…. We think it was maybe pork belly? (I really need to write these on a more timely basis…)
For dinner:
• Kathleen – pork (served on a cutting board)
• Heather – gnocchi with tomato (the actual juice of the tomato?) sauce....I can't remember what else was in it...asparagus?? It was good. & I think pillow-like....the pasta wasn't very thick so I didn't feel full & gross after.
• Wigs – I had the lamb burger and fries. Burger was good, but nothing special.
• Kevin – hangar steak (served on a cutting board)
• JK – artic char – huge piece of fish!

After dinner, we had a drink at Hamburger Mary’s and then headed home. Overall, Vincent was good and they had fun “big girl” drinks with funny names. e.g. Wigs had one called “Harvey isn’t Gay”. Haha.

Recap:

Cubs Lose 6-2

My season record: Visitors 21, Cubs 11
Parking update: still no update…

Game 31 - Cubs vs. Dodgers

Game 31
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie

Kevin had a hockey game so just me, Wigs and Heather for the first game vs. LA. The game started out very promising with back to back jacks by Junior Lake and Anthony Rizzo. (I always hear Ron Santo’s voice when I think/type “back to back jack”.) JR’s was a monster that went onto Waveland Ave – his first home run at Wrigley! I wonder if someone from the Cubs went to the street to get the ball back. Rizzo’s was a line drive to right field – his 16th of the year.

Things going along ok until the 3rd when Hanley Ramirez doubled in 2 runs (the oh-so-famous Puig and A Gonzelez). Rusin was able to escape the inning after that. Bottom of the 3rd – JR does it again! Homer to left center. Can Rizzo do another one for 2 back to backs??? Um, no. Strikes out swinging. All tied at 2 after 3 innings. A few more scoreless and then into the 6th. Rusin gives up a single, and a walk, and that’s it for him on the night. In comes Bowden. A bunt advances the 2 runners, and then pinch hitter Jerry Hairston Jr (remember him??) singles to score the 2 runners. Puig doubles to move JHJR to 3rd and then Adrian Gonzelez drives JHJR in with another single. Puig is called out at the plate trying to score on the play on a great throw by DeJesus to Navarro. Good! I don’t know why but I’ve grown to hate him over the course of this weekend. Dodgers leading 5-3.

Bottom of the 8th, Rizzo homers again! That’s 2 for both him and JR. In the 9th, Puig (!) homers (his 11th of the year) to make it 6-4 Dodgers. And all 3 Cubs strike out in the bottom of the 9th to end the game. Boo. Dodgers scored 6 runs on 12 hits, with the Cubs scoring 4 runs on 5 hits. Dodgers 11th win in the last 13 games while the Cubs have lost 4 of their last 5. No wonder the Dodgers went from last to first and have been one of the hottest teams in the league. And 3 more games against them. Ugh.

Cubs have 72 home runs as Wrigley, which leads the National League. Hmm. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I always used to say that the Cubs were Home Run or Bust. I guess the tradition continues.

Oh and this tidbit from Cash Kruth from mlb.com
“Lake is only the third Cubs rookie since 1949 to record a two-homer game in his first 15 games as a Cub, joining Brant Brown (June 18, 1996) and Angel Pagan (July 2, 2006).”

Don’t those names bring back memories! And this tidbit too:
“Rizzo added his second homer in the bottom of the eighth, becoming the first Cub since Ron Santo to record two 15-homer seasons before the age of 24.”

Oh, and Lake also learned about the hard brick wall in left field tonight, slamming into it on a fly ball in the 9th. When asked if he knew the wall was made of brick, he said: "Now I know."

Welcome to Wrigley Junior Lake!!

Recap:

Cubs Lose 6-4

My season record: Visitors 20, Cubs 11
Parking update: still no update…

Game 30 - Cubs vs. Brewers

Game 30
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Kevin & Julie

Awww – Kevin & Julie couples night at the ballpark. Well us, and the parents with the 10 kids in front of us. They were kind of annoying, but I think I was just annoyed in general last night. It was a beautiful night. After a crummy day of rain and clouds (which cancelled Kevin’s skydiving attempt with his niece…), the sun finally comes out and looked to be a beautiful evening.

The Trading Deadline passed without any additional changes, so now the next watch will be the Aug 30 waiver wire. (Is that what it’s called??) BTW – did anyone see the picture of Kim DeJesus (David’s wife) chugging a bottle of champagne after the trade deadline passed? Haha. Saw it on twitter.

Hoping we don’t get swept by Milwaukee, so hopefully we can salvage one game. So pathetic. We started with tacos from Azteca D’Oro. (Kevin was disappointed with the D’Ags deep dish pizza on Tuesday night.) Got there right as Cubs were running onto the field. Perfect timing. Valbuena at 2nd base again, as apparently Barney is getting the day off?

In top of the 3rd, Betancourt doubled off the wall in left field. I thought Borbon’s throw to 2nd was really good – it bounced but was dead on, and almost got him. Nice job Julio! They got out of the inning after sacrifice butn, strike out and ground out. In bottom of 3rd inning, Rizzo belted a 2-run homer to deepest part of center field.

In the top of the 4th, the diminutive Gindl singled to left field and Borbon shows off his arm a little more with a laser to Wellington at home to get Lucroy out. Nice!! Bottom of the 4th and Castro hits solo homer to Waveland Avenue. You don’t see as many balls leave the park as in the old days (e.g. pre-bleacher expansion), so that’s always fun to see. Well, at least when it’s your team hitting it. DeJesus drove in Ransom, to make it 4-0. Still not a big enough lead with our bullpen – keep it going!!

5th inning, Kevin: “why do these games always slow down in the 5th?” Me: “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Top of the 6th, a few raindrops start falling. Then they become HUGE raindrops. Then the deluge hits. That all happened within 7 seconds. Umps wasted NO TIME, and called for the tarp immediately. They must have seen the radar. We’re like, um, we’re done. (It was about 9:00 and we figured it would be at least an hour until the game started again. Given the 3rd night game in a row, totally fine w/leaving.) I had an umbrella, but not big enough for the both of us. So poor Kevin got drenched as we walked home. Oh well.

As it turns out, the rain delay lasted 1 hour and 6 minutes. And Jackson came back out to pitch again for the Cubs! I was surprised at that. Although with the way our bullpen has been lately, totally understand this. The paper said if he went longer than an hour without throwing, they would’ve replaced him. He was able to start throwing at the 55-minute mark, so was able to stay in the game.

DeJesus doubled in bottom of 6th, scoring Ransom and Castillo. Ransom was in a 0-22 slump before doubling. Milwaukee scored 1 run in the 8th on a Lucroy double, but that was all the damage. Parker (2.49 ERA) came in to close it out in the 9th, giving up one hit and one walk, but no runs!! Hooray – we didn’t blow a save today!!! (22 on the year btw…)

Good News: Cubs won! DeJesus 2 Hits and 3 RBI’s – average up to .273 (which I think is highest on the team…). He’s actually batting .355 since coming off the DL. Only 6 men left on base!

Cubs July record: 14-13, their 1st winning month since going 15-10 last July.

Recap:

Cubs Win 6-1

My season record: Visitors 19, Cubs 11
Parking update: No update… I need to get back on Trish & John to provide this to me. Did he buy the new laptop yet??? I’ve been traveling too much and out of the loop. I’ll get back on this : )

Game 29 - Cubs vs. Brewers

Game 29

Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Second game of a day/night doubleheader. The Cubs lost the day game of the doubleheader 6-5 after the Brewers scored 4 in the 7th to take the lead and win the game. This was after last night’s game when the Brewers scored 5 in the 9th to take the lead and eventually win. Oh boy, let’s see what tonight brings.

First things first: Luche Libra mask giveaway. I have no idea if that’s the right name, but that’s what I’m calling it! I don’t even know who/what that is. Mexican wrestling mask modeled by dude in front of us:

I think they were only giving them away to bleacher fans, but the bleachers were still pretty empty and they had tons of masks left when I came in the gates around 6:59 PM for a 7:05 PM game. Kev got there at some point in the first inning, and H/Wigs in 2nd or 3rd, and they were all able to get masks too.

Cubs debut of Jake Arrieta, who the Cubs got from the Orioles in the Scott Feldman trade. He actually pitched a good game, not giving up any runs until 1 in the 5th. And that was all he gave up. He went 6 innings and only gave up 2 hits! Bowden came in for the Cubs, and only gave up 1 hit, 2 walks with 4 strikeouts in 2 innings. Why did I feel like he was doing worse than that?

In the bottom of the 7th, Cody (#1 in my heart) Ransom and Cole (#2, he’s no Theriot) Gillespie reached base on back-to-back errors by the Brewers. Then a passed ball and they both moved up. Barney grounded out and David DeJesus doubled to right scoring Cody and Cole. Cubs leading 2-1. Cubs hung on to this into the 9th inning, when in comes Kevin Gregg. Fasten those seatbelts as Pat Hughes would say. Oh and the Father and Son in front of Heather put their game faces/rally caps on:

Single. Pinch Runner. Fly out. Strike out. PH singles. Walk. Bases now loaded. Bianchi hits line-drive to Starlin, who does the full extension dive to his right and closes his glove as the ball pops out. Two runs score. Before Bianchi, I said to Kevin, “I’m leaving if they score.” He said “me too”. Off we went, to miss out on the Cubs bottom of the 9th:

Pop out. Strike out. Single. Strike out. Buh bye.

Good News: DeJesus 2 hits, Navarro 3 hits, Arrieta pitching, Arrieta sac fly.

Bad News: Lake 3 SO’s, Rizzo 2 SO’s, Assorted others 4 SO’s for 9 on the night. Castro caught stealing (again). 19 men left on base. Yikes. Gregg – goes without saying. (His ERA is 3.05 by the way – those early games where he didn’t give up any runs are really helping him out now…)

This is the first sweep of doubleheader since 6/28/11, when they were swept by Giants..

One more against the Brew Crew. And trading deadline 3:00 Wednesday!!! Please take Gregg, please?!

Recap:

Cubs Lose 3-2

My season record: Visitors 19, Cubs 10 

Game 28 - Cubs vs. Milwaukee

Game 28
Monday, July 29, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Randy, Kevin & Julie

It feels like forever since I’ve been to a game. I guess it’s been 17 days, which kind of is a long time for me. So I was looking forward to a nice night at the park and playing the Brewers, who are worse than the Cubs, so we should have a pretty good chance. According to Paul Sullivan (who is leaving the Cubs beat – boo!!):
The Cubs had the fourth-best record in the NL since May 26, trailing only the Dodgers, Cardinals and Pirates. And there are those 20 blown saves that can't be erased.

Samardzija was on the mound, and Wigs was hearing on the radio that even though he has a long-term contract, his name was still swirling around with the trade rumors. He ended up with a no-hitter through 4, giving up a hit to Caleb Gindl with 2 outs in the Top of the 5th . Serves us right cuz we were commenting on how short this guy was (he’s the new right fielder). Randy called him Ron Cey – the Penguin. Hahahaha. Randy thought it was the 4th game in a row where our starting pitcher made it to the 5th without giving up a hit. Close – here is what Paul Sullivan had to say:

Samardzija kept up the Cubs' dominant starting pitching that began over the weekend in San Francisco.
Chris Rusin allowed no runs over seven innings on Saturday and Travis Wood allowed no earned runs over seven on Sunday. Monday marked the first time the Cubs had three straight starters with at least seven innings and no earned runs allowed since Bill Hands, Milt Pappas and Juan Pizarro did it on Aug. 3-5, 1971.

Interesting. The game was moving along pretty well (I guess no hits will do that…), and we were all hopeful to make it home at a reasonable hour. Well, 5th inning started to slow things down. Samardz was pretty solid and pitched 7 innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 7. The Cubs wasted plenty of opportunities, stranding 9 guys. They are hitting .107 (9 for 84) with runners in scoring position since the All Star break. Yikes.

Scoreless into the 9th inning and by this time, the game was really dragging. I went from “Yea, I haven’t been to a game in forever!” to “OMG, I have 6 straight days of Cubs games this week” in a matter of 3 hours and 5 minutes. Strop came in during the 9th and quickly proceeded to give up a run and then our friend the Penguin bunted to load the bases after throw to 3rd pulled Valbuena off the bag. Grindl was 2-3 on the night. Bianchi (who has a weird pronunciation of this name – I thought it was “Bee-on-kee”, but on the radio this morning it was “Bee-yankee”) doubled home 2 runs and Rickie Weeks doubled in 2 more before we got out of the inning. 5-zip bottom of the 9th. This is so Cubs. A pretty close, tight game gets blown wide open in the top of the 9th spoiling a nice outing by Samardz. I guess better then vs. top of the 1st…

Cubs did nothing in the 9th – well Darwin walked, and then Castillo grounded into double play, followed by PH Borbon flying out to center.

Funny game event: After the bottom of the first inning, the left field doors opened and the ground crew came running out to re-do the lines between home and first. Never saw that before!

Trade deadline approaching quickly, so we’ll see what the rest of this week brings!!!

Recap:

Cubs Lose 5-0
My season record: Visitors 18, Cubs 10
Parking update: No update…

Restaurant #21 – Cosina Grill

Restaurant #21 – Cosina Grill
Friday, July 26, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Finally – we’ve passed the halfway point in our restaurant quest!! Wigs and I were trying to figure out a place to go while we were waiting for our respective spouses. We chose Cosina Grill, a BYO Mexican place at 1706 W. Foster. Their description: Mexican gastronomy with a touch of contemporary flavors. All dishes come from recipes passed down through generations in the families of the owners.

The décor was warm – kind of darkly lit with lots of oranges and reds, and decorated with cool pictures. We started with guacamole and queso fundido with chorizo. The guac was really fresh and flavorful. Queso was as you’d expect – kind of greasy. I just tried a small bit of that, but everyone else filled the corn tortillas with the gooey mess and said it was good.

For entrees:
Heather – Enchilada Trio – one steak with mole sauce, one chicken with green mole, and one plantain and Caribe cheese with guajillo mole covered w/fresh cheese. The presentation was cute on these – red, green and yellow.
Wigs – Carne Asada with (I think..) black mole sauce
Kevin – Adobe chicken enchiladas
Julie – Tilapia Hidalguense - Wrapped in cornhusks and filled with fresh herbs, nopalitos, onions, fresh garlic and medium spice arbol sauce. This was awesome – enough kick to it to feel the burn, but not enough to want me to ask for a glass of milk. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been hot enough for wigs 

All dishes came with black beans and rice, except mine which came with rice and potatoes. Because if you’re ordering fish, apparently you need more starch. It was all really good, and with BYO, totally affordable. This one for sure is worth a repeat. I like their web address:
http://co-si-na.com/

After dinner, we walked down to Big Jim’s (or was it Big Joe’s???). They had turtle races going that night. Which I thought were hilarious when I was 20-something. Now I just felt sorry for the turtles – they were in this cardboard box and taken out for the races and then back in the box when it was over. Poor things. The guy putting them on the table and back in the box actually put plastic gloves on to handle them. I don’t want to think about why. Ick. And the announcer was pretty annoying – you were either a Turtle Virgin or a Turtle Whore. OK, funny the first time he said it, but after the 50th time, it got old. The bar was pretty crowded though and each time you bought a drink, you got a ticket that went into the pool that they drew from to participate in the turtle races. Heather won! She gave the ticket to a guy we were chatting with at the bar and let him do the race. He was a Turtle Whore. Their turtle lost. (If you won, you got a t-shirt – not sure if it was just the bar name on the shirt or something about the races.)

Anyways – we watched the end of the Cub game (Cubs win!), and then headed home. Fun night. Great dinner.

Restaurant #20 - PitchFork

Restaurant #20 – PitchFork

Sunday, July 21, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

It was a beautiful day in Chicago, and we wanted to spend some time outside. Kev had to leave for Houston this afternoon, so we decided to find a lunch spot outside before he left. We thought about Cantina Pasadita, which is on Irving about 3000 west. Wigs called them to find out if they had outdoor tables, and the guy said Yes, they had 2. So Kev & I hopped on the bus, and Heather/Wigs walked over. When we got there, sign said open at 4. Hmmm. We texted Wigs to let them know. And I thought the address Wigs gave me was 2925 W. Irving, which is the little Pasadita takout place across the street. And Yes, they did have 2 outside tables. Haha. The Yelp listing Wigs was looking at had the wrong Address/Phone # associated with the restaurant name.

Ah well, next option – a few blocks east is PitchFork. We went here a long time ago when it first opened (with the former Cordis Brothers bartender and manager – they are now long gone). We were all trying to remember, but I think we weren’t that impressed at the time. But it was close to where we were and they had outdoor seating on the side street, not Irving Park, which offered a little bit of piece. (Except for the guy working on his front porch a few houses down.) We got there around 1:15 or so and they were still serving their Brunch menu.

We started with red Sangria’s for Kev, Heather & I, and Wigs ordered a Bourbonade - Maker’s Mark, lemonade, ice tea & sweet vermouth. We also ordered the Roasted Corn Salsa, which was fresh corn, black beans, onions, cilantro, tomato & avocado cream served with chips. This was really good – much thicker than normal salsa. The chips were super thick and crispy. Yummy. For entrées:

• Heather - Breakfast Polenta: Crispy cheddar polenta, chorizo sausage and sauteed peppers & onions. This looked good – she even took some home for leftovers. Wigs reheated them in the microwave and then to a hot frying pan to crisp it up. Said it was perfect.
• Wigs – Brisket & Gravy: 2 buttermilk biscuits topped w/ brisket, homemade gravy & 2 eggs any style. Wigs said it was good, but not great. The biscuits were nowhere near as good as those at Endgrain.
• Kevin – BBQ Beef Brisket sandwich. He gave it a thumbs down.
• Julie – Southwest Salad: Romaine lettuce tossed in cilantro lime vinaigrette w/black beans, corn, tomato & crispy tortilla strips topped w/marinated chicken breast. It also came w/avocado, but had them hold that. This was just OK, primarily due to the chicken. It tasted rubbery and fake. Blech. The dressing on the salad was really good (and not over-doused) – so the salad itself with the corn, tomatoes and black beans was good; it was just the chicken that made it icky. I didn’t even finish the chicken, but did the rest.

Overall, it seems like Heather had the best meal, and everyone else’s was so-so. Probably won’t go back for food. But I did like the salsa, so yet another place that’s good for drinks, apps and sitting outside. Although service was super slow.  I think there was only 1 waitress for both inside and out, and while there were only 2 tables outside, the inside seemed pretty full. 

After lunch, we walked back down Irving and checked out the swimming pool on California while Wigs ran the leftovers home. Kev caught the bus back home while Heather, Wigs & I went to Benfest (St. Ben’s school). As you can imagine, lots of families, kids and as Wigs put it “adults making fools of themselves for the kids”. Heather bought a couple cute little Cubs/Hawks barrettes for her nieces and we watched some Irish dancing (and lots of people, including maybe the guy who played Miranda’s boyfriend “Steve” on Sex and the City. If it wasn’t him, he was a dead ringer. We did see someone taking his picture.).

Made it home before the rain to pack for another lovely week in Pittsburgh.  Where a GIGANTIC bug in my hotel room walked under my work desk.  Looked like a Palmetto - which is basically a cockroach, right???  Yea, there was no sleep Monday night...

Restaurant #19 – Endgrain

Restaurant #19 – Endgrain

Saturday, July 20, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Heather had made reservations at this BYO place for last Friday, but due to pre-vacation stress, we didn’t go. On that day, we couldn’t get in until 8:30. Kev called earlier this afternoon, and we were able to get a table for 4 at 7:30 tonight. Kev & I walked over (it’s on Addison and Wolcott), and the place was pretty wide open. Upon later discussion w/server, he said their slowest night was Saturday. Huh, who knew?? After going and reading on Yelp, their Saturday and Sunday brunches are their most popular times. Too bad for you people – you’re missing out on a great dinner!

When we first walked in, Kev says “wow – big bar”. (You know we love eating at the bar..) And the host offered us a normal table for 4 or to sit at the very end of the bar, where they could accommodate 2 stools on each side (vs. 4 in a row). Sold on the bar seating! The term ‘endgrain’ refers to wood and woodcuts (I’m sure I’m saying that incorrectly), and so there was a wood/2 x 4 theme to the décor. Nice setting, with lots of artwork on the wall. (I didn’t ask, but presume it’s all for sale??)

For appetizers, we ordered 3 things:

• Shaved Vegetable Salad, with mixed greens and garlic croutons
• Braised Pork Hand Pie with soybean sprout kimchi, ramps and radishes
• Pumpernickel pasta with heirloom tomatoes, roasted artichokes, zucchini, chevre and basil

They accidentally brought us a Mushrrom and Rapini Tart with cippiloni, parmesan and greens. So we got a bonus app!

  All were scrumptious. (This is getting embarrassing trying to find new adjectives for YUMMY.) The Hand Pie, was like a tart with 4 folded over corners and the delicious kimchi goop peeking out from the middle. I didn’t think the kimchi was as spicy as others I’ve had (and that’s not a bad thing). Just different. And delicious.

  For entrees:

 

• Heather – Smoked Chicken Pot Pie, masa corn crust, poblanos, mushrroms and peas. This looked fantastic.

 

• Wigs & Kevin (no, they didn’t share; they just both ordered the same thing) – Ham chop with beer chili glaze, cornbread crumble, rainbow chard, bacon and cheese curds. I asked the server what a ham “chop” was, and he gave us a great description… that in no way can I remember. It was basically a thick/fat piece of ham on the bone. (Not a round bone – it looked like a pork chop.) I had a taste of Kevin’s and it was super tender. Flavor was well, ham-like.

 

• Julie – Crispy Perch (yes, fried – I broke my fried food embargo for the evening) with cherries, snap peas, fennel, smoked maple ponzu sauce. I have no idea what ponzu sauce is/was, but it was served in a separate little bowl for dipping the fish in. It was very light, yellowish/clear/watery in color. Oh fine, I’ll look it up. According to Wikipedia (ha ha – my Go To):

 

o Ponzu (ポン酢) is a citrus -based sauce commonly used in Japanese cuisine. It is tart, with a thin, watery consistency and a dark brown color.

 

o Mine was definitely not dark brown, but yes, light and citrus-y, but not in your face citrus. I should also mention that this was an appetizer that I ordered for my main dish. It was 3 little pieces (2-fingers wide and a little longer), but was perfect for me.

 

Oh, and Wigs & I both also ordered a homemade biscuit which came with peach preserves. OMG - this was awesome. The peach preserves were so good – it was like eating peach cobbler. (I miss my Mom’s peach cobbler!!!) I couldn’t even finish the biscuit, nor could Kevin finish mine off.

  The waiter was also telling us about their homemade donuts, which got rave reviews on yelp. Some of them are flavored (I think – I didn’t look it up), like maple syrup and bacon. They are open for breakfast on weekdays, so people can stop by on the way to the El.

 

All of us give this a Thumbs Up. And since it was BYO, our bill was only like $120.

 

It had started raining while we were there, so thank goodness we had 3 bottles of wine to finish off. By the time those were gone, the rain was done and we headed over to Black Rock (on Damen) for post-dinner drinks. We’ve driven by this place a hundred times (on the way to Costco!), but never in. It’s way bigger inside than it appears, very deep. Great beer list, including Chicago brews. We sampled a couple and then headed home.

  It was a warm night (my favorite kind of summer night!), and just a laid back evening all around. All good. Yea Summer!!!

Game 27 - July 12 vs. St. Louis Cards

Game 27
Friday, July 12, 2013
Heather, Kathleen & Julie

Hey Everyone - Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been off the grid. Literally. Today’s game was the day before vacation “Up North” to Wisconsin. I had been in Pittsburgh for work, and had a 6:30 AM flight out of PA, landing in Chicago about 7:00 AM. I am so totally unprepared for this vacation… This isn’t a place where you go to a hotel and boom you’re just there. No, we have to bring towels (beach, kitchen,bath), food, booze (LOTS of booze), soap, shampoo, etc. – the whole nine yards. Cell service up there is really spotty, and the emails on my phone download maybe once a day when the planets are aligned and the skies open up. Being in PA all week, I didn’t do any prep. Luckily Kev was in town and could shop (sunscreen, snacks, booze – did I mention booze??).

Anyways – landed at 7 AM, and took El, then bus home and then worked for half day before the game. It was a 3:05 game (yippee!), except for my sister, who would have preferred the 1:20 start to give her enough time to get back home and get her crap ready for Up North.

To pile on to my unpreparedness, I was chosen for today’s Season Ticket Holder Autograph Session. We had a couple friends who were chosen for this a few weeks ago (remember that 4:00 Hawks game/6:15 Cub game, rain delay and giganto glasses of wine at Bernie’s? Yea, that game. Our friend Mary was doing the autograph session. I haven’t seen her since, so not sure who her Cub signer was). This also meant I needed to get to park by 1:30. (Ugh – today’s game of all days??). Well, I guess I’m done w/work and onto vacation mode! It was also Cubs Cowboy hat at the ballpark, and I wanted to make sure I got that friggin hat!!

Done!

I went to Window 11 for my Autograph packet, and then into the VIP entrance right under the red marquee entrance (and worried about my bleacher ticket scan – whole ‘nother story that I’m not going to get into…). I was trying to follow the map the Cubs gave me to find the autograph room. I really should have taken a picture of this map, cuz it was terrible. I went up the ramp as they told me, and then was hopelessly lost after that. It would’ve been way more helpful if the map had section numbers on it! So I finally asked an usher, and showed him the map, to which he said “This is a horrible map!”. No shit!!! So these 2 usher dudes didn’t know where to send me, and then they called over another dude, who said “I think it may be this way…”. And off we went. He found it, so yea for him!! It was on the Clark Street side of Wrigley, right across from McDonald’s, but on the outside of the “bowl”, not in the stands. I’m not sure I could find it again today.

So, I got to the right place, and it was this long, rectangle room and a bunch of people were in line inside. (Maybe 50??) And we were just hanging out waiting for the Cub player (to be named later…) to show up. He was supposed to be there at 1:45, but we were told there was a team meeting called after batting practice and so he was running late. Around 2:15 (maybe?), they finally told us it was going to be Cody Ransom - #1 on the field when lefties are pitching . After the announcement, the 2 couples in front of me walked out. They were kind of douchy anyways ( eavesdropping on their conversations) but really??? Who were you expecting – Soriano? Rizzo? Castro? Smardzija? DeJesus? Um, yea, not gonna happen. In talking to the Cub workers, the other players doing these autograph sessions were Valbuena, Marmol (?!), Hairston, Sappelt – you get the picture. Pretty much the B Team. (Although, one could argue this entire Cubs team is the B team…).

The “rules” said the Cub player would only sign a picture (provided by the Cubs during the session), and people couldn’t take pictures with them or ask them to sign anything else. Of course, there are always rule-breakers, and so people were doing the exact opposite of that. Whatever. Here’s pictures I took while waiting in line, and a copy of the signed picture I got. He looked like he wanted to be anyplace but here. Poor guy.
Here's some photos:

And I also thought with a name like Cody Ransom, he’d be an All American white kid from the heartland. Nope. Looked Hispanic. So I went to my Spring Training Guide and found he was born in … Hmph. He wasn’t listed. Where did he come from?? So I went to ESPN. Holy Crap – he’s 37 years old!!! And making $550K. Wow. (And born in Mesa, AZ for the record.) Now I really feel sorry for him. Too much to write; read for yourself:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/4945/cody-ransom

Here's the signed photo:

OK, and since this is long enough (and way late), I am going to super-summarize the rest of the day. Cubs lose 3-2 vs. the Cards. (Another 1-run game, although it’s good to see them play the Cards tough). Beltran (ugh!) had 3 hits, and was a HR short of the cycle. Castro had a homer in the 8th to make it close, but the Cubs couldn’t pull it off. Game over. Kathleen scooted out to catch the Addison bus to catch her 7:00 Metra train – she texted she made it with 1 minute to spare. Yikes - thank goodness!
We headed to Bernie’s after the game, were met by Wigs, Kevin, and then later Trish. Stayed way later than we wanted to and picked up tacos from Azteca d Oro on the way home.

Up at 6 AM to get ready for Up North. A week at the lake in the middle of nowhere with 25 of my relatives. This vacation is a combo of Yea (relaxation, fun, family)!! and Ick (gross cabins, lots of bugs, family)!! We go to Phelps, Wisconsin, which is 20 miles north of Eagle River, WI and south of Land of Lakes, MI. The lake itself is half in Michigan and half in Wisconsin. More to come…

Recap:

Cubs Lose 3-2
My season record: Visitors 17, Cubs 10
Parking update: No update…