Look, I witnessed that disaster in person today, and the last thing I want to do is talk about it. It was bad enough having to watch it unfold before me. So instead, here are some photos I took today.
(Pretend you are looking at a photo of Jeff Garlin. He walked right past Doc and me while we were at Rockit. We had a debate about whether or not it was actually him until we saw him taking photos with people. If I had taken a photo of him, it would be here.)
Here’s the outside of Wrigley with the giant banner. And believe me, this is the GOOD banner. The other side had Maholm and Sveum on it. This side is blessed by Samardzija’s flowing locks.
Moving right along, this bit of marvelousness awaited me upon entry into the Friendly Confines:
And if you can’t tell, the banners went like this: Baker, DeWitt, Mather, Williams. One of these things is not like the others.
Even though it was so so so so so cold:
I couldn’t complain about the view:
I could, however, complain about this:
I’m not sure which jersey was more ill-advised; that one or the Rich Hill one I saw wandering around.
Oh, and the video board is unobtrusive and really not that big of a deal:
Speaking of obtrusiveness, I can’t even tell you all how gross the noodle looks with pieces of fake bacon stuck all over it. It looks like the noodle has some sort of flesh-eating virus. Seriously.
A big thank you to everyone who hung out with me today, especially Doc, who didn’t tell anyone I ate an entire Rockit Truffle pizza by myself (I don’t think), and who understood why I had to run away from the giant guy who dresses like ivy (he scares the bajeezus out of me).
All in all, it was a great day at Wrigley. Unless you count the game.
Thanks for the pics!! As usual, they got my hopes up only to disappoint. GO CUBS GO!! Nice pic, Jules.
Finally! A comment!
JEEZ, does everyone curl into a ball and go to sleep after dinner around here?
Sorry…I had to drive home, eat dinner and get my own post for opening day up on my site.
Then I was tired and went to bed.
You should have come and sat down by me where the guy behind me was telling me how in the movie Moneyball they based the “character” of Billy Beane on Theo Epstein. You would have just loved that discussion.
Sorry. Didn’t see your email until after I bailed.
I had a girl next to me who cheered LOUDLY every time the Cubs made a routine play. “Yeah!!! Woooooo!” Then she proceeded to tell me how much she loved baseball . . and she knows it’s weird for a girl to like baseball, but she’s just unique that way.
That’s too bad. You would have gotten a chance to see Bill Murray up close.
He’s kinda grumpy when he’s not running around the bases.
At least the noodle’s across the street. Maybe next year they’ll move it behind Taco Bell.
They should move the noodle to the White Sox park…
I tried to pull some bacon off to give away in a contest, but it was on there pretty good.
I have a great picture of Julie sitting up in the upper deck freezing her ass off all alone before the game. You it’s hard to make out that it’s her, but I know it was. Julie, you should have wandered the ballpark with me as I searched for every little spot where they replaced concrete during the offseason. (And might I add, they replaced a lot of concrete this offseason, more than I have ever seen.) I’m such a fun guy to hang around with. The best part is getting yelled at by the ushers as I took pictures of ramps and other random pointless things. I think they thought I was a terrorist or something.
yay for concrete repairs! I wonder if there was some masonry repointing too, and waterproofing?
sigh, this is not a sarcastic post, I would absolutely be the person looking at this too. And I bet there is at least 1 person in the front office that bores everyone else about this.
I’m still amazed and disappointed by the lack of repairs done to the concrete in the upper deck. They’ve done a lot with the ramps up to the upper deck, but the main structure is just crumbling right now. I guess that has to wait until the major renovation is done.
I seriously envied Julie’s view of the game yesterday. It was nice to sit somewhere other than my old seats in the upper deck for once, but I noticed how much more difficult it was for me to judge balls and strikes and where the players were being positioned from my seat yesterday. It was either that or I was distracted by the genius behind me who was telling me how the Nationals have absolutely no good players and that this Strasburg guy has no talent.
the more I read on the renovation the more intrigued I am. they mention trying to get a waiver on part of the historic protection, specifically “the sweeping nature of the grandstand” which doesn’t make any sense to me because you can make alot of changes/repairs and still keep in the spirit of that, just like the changes in the bleachers without affecting the ivy wall or scoreboard.
Just a guess, but I think part of the financial deal with the city will be a relaxation or complete removal of the historic building protections that currently exist on Wrigley. I think the Ricketts family would be perfectly willing to pay for a larger share of the renovation if they could get that designation reduced or removed.
I think thats why I’m intrigued, they are definitely pushing for it which I find interesting, I would think they would push for tax breaks for keeping the designation
I don’t know the politics of having a locally designated landmark in Chicago, some places this is a big deal (DC comes to mind, its notoriously difficult to change anything there) and some places historic designation works in your favor, Fenway wouldn’t be Fenway now without becoming landmarked and getting benefits from that
without bring my own beliefs in what they should do *cough*teardowntheprecastpanels*cough* I’m just curious as to the end plan
I haven’t been in the upper deck for a few seasons . . I forgot how steep the stairs up there are. I’m surprised more drunkards don’t do a header down them.
I’ve seen a few…usually trying get a foul ball. One thing for sure…the railing at the edge of the upper deck is really really strong. I saw a guy well over 300 lbs crash into it one time and it held.
I’m going to get donuts for the gruesome twosome, and then I’ll do today’s headlines. Since we don’t have to worry about a game thread, we have all day for headlines.
and where are OUR donuts???
Agree about the guy dressed as ivy. That’s pure nightmare fuel, that is.
I was also puzzled why people were paying the guys in the bear outfits for the privilege of taking their picture. Very strange.
This morning my 3 year old old me she wanted to grow up to be a baseball player “just like daddy”. I had to tell her I’m not a baseball player and that I was never very good at baseball.
She looked at me with a very disappointed look and walked away.
Way to crush the kid’s dreams.
Well…she came back and ask if she could grow up to be a runner just like me, and I said, “Well, sure. And hopefully you can be a better runner than I am some day.” Then she asked my wife if she would allow her to go out running with me in the morning. My wife said, “Maybe when it gets a little warmer out.”