Cubs vs. (AL) Astros
Friday, June 21, 2013
Heather, Kathleen, Kevin, Darren, Angie, Kristen & Julie.
Wigs met us for dinner.
Happy Summer Solstice!!! One of my favorite days of the year because it has the most sunlight. Well, it’s supposed to have the most sunlight. The rain made it difficult to tell. Kevin’s grad school friend Darren & his wife Angie were in town from CA and Wrigley Field is on his bucket list. Kev met Darren & Angie at Bernie’s while I waited for Kathleen and finished up some work. We headed down to the stadium, and as we were walking by Clifton, we heard the announcement that there would be a rain delay. (It hadn’t started raining yet, but they knew it was coming.) I texted Heather and she was already inside, so Kathleen & I headed in to keep her company. It was super windy, and not at all the hot/humid day I was led to believe we’d be having. The tarp was on the field, and we were hanging in the bleachers listening to Gary Pressy (sp?) on the organ. When we saw a flash of lightning, we decided it was time to head below.
We basically stood against the brick wall and did a lot of people-watching. The rain did come down, and the ushers weren’t letting anyone up to the seats, so it must’ve been lightning. A big cheer went up when the ushers let people back into the seats. But it was still raining pretty hard, so we stayed downstairs. I was following the Cubs on twitter, and they tweeted a picture of the couches in the batting cages and said the first x amount of people there would get free tickets to the Metro for the Hot Stove/Cool Music show. So I got tickets! Not sure if we’d make it to the show, but we had them just in case, and I thought maybe Darren/Angie would be interested to enhance their Chicago experience.
So three hours later…. Game finally scheduled to start at 4:35. (Dang – I could’ve worked a full day!) Kevin, Darren & Angie came in with enough time to see some of the players hitting in the batting cages below right field, and Kristen came in right when the game started. Figured there were going to be a lot of drunk people after that rain delay, and they did end up cutting off beer sales earlier than normal. I didn’t think people were that bad, but definitely a few.
Garza on the mound today, and had a really good game. He held the Astros to 1 run over 8 innings (OK, I know it’s only the Astros….). His pitch count was pretty low, but when he walked a guy in the 9th, Sveum wasn’t going to risk anything and pulled him out. Home runs by Rizzo, Barney and Hairston for the Cubs, and Carter for the Stro’s. Garza is looking like good trade bait – he’s only given up 1 run over his last 15 innings (thanks gal pal Carrie M!). I hope that Hairston is also trade bait, but I’m not sure his .161 batting average is going to attract anyone. Barney was just a triple short of the cycle, and had a long flyout to center field in the 7th, that we were hoping would be dropped, but no such luck. The girls left in the bottom of the 8th inning since we had dinner reservations at 7:15 and we wanted some of us to show on time. Kevin & Darren waited out the 9th and sang Go Cubs Go. Darren thought that was cheesy. Yea, I guess it kind of is, especially when playing the last-place team…
Dinner was at Mia Francesca’s on Clark Street. We didn’t walk the full “gauntlet” of Clark Street south of Addison, since we cut over on Sheffield, so Darren & Angie didn’t get to experience that. Ha ha. Wigs met us along the way and magically appeared while we were walking. We haven’t been there in ages, and we were hoping to sit outside since they have a nice little patio garden out back, but with the threat of rain, they weren’t seating anyone out there. We started with a Pizza Spinoci, bruschetta and fried calamari as appetizers. All very good. We ordered a few bottles of wine and Wigs/Kristen had big girl drinks. For dinner, we had a variety of meals from fish to pasta. I think everyone enjoyed, and all was delicious and very fresh tasting. After dinner, we walked back up the Clark Street gauntlet - Darren/Angie went to the red line to head back to their hotel, while the rest of us went to Bernie’s for a nightcap. We persuaded Tommy Peak to join us for a couple, and then he had to head home before Ginger locked the doors on him.
Recap:
Cubs Win 3-1
My season record: Visitors 14, Cubs 8
Parking update: No parking today!
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