Wow.
What a specTACular way to open the season at Wrigley Field - a lopsided non-nailbiter with a bunch of Cub homers, some gritty pitching from Ryan Dempster, nothing scary with the bullpen, and our first encounter with the Singing Ricketts.
I parked way up on Paulina since it's illegal anywhere close, walked down Southport and hung a left on Waveland. At Clark you were greeted with the new marketing slogan (I'm cutting the Rickett's some slack here since I think they had something to do with it, but you know if you just switch the flags and look for L's instead of the W's... it's just too easy to pick apart).
Then you walk past all the people getting their pictures taken with the Ernie statue and see the gigantic posters of Cub Studs on the side. Pretty cool. I think they're not leaving them up for long, tho.
I walked in and met Sutter and Don on that upper deck middle patio (I think it was the Smirnoff Patio last year, maybe it still is), grabbed a cold one and we went to our seats.
The game was fantastic. The 5-run 3rd - we'd seen a couple pretty well hit balls that went nowhere, and I didn't think anybody could get it out. Then came Nady. That man has some power - the ball took off like a shot but you could see it kinda dying as it went over. So I figured that might be it. Cubs 3 Brewers nothin. Then Baker (Baker?) with the two run homer and after that it was pretty much auto-pilot. Marlon Byrd was awesome. Aramis hit one out too.
I did see D Lee with that single and he was jumping around on first and you knew something was hurt, but no trainers or anything so (you know by now it's something with his thumb and x-rays were negative but I figure we'll see Nady at first tomorrow).
Then the Ricketts' Family with the 7th inning stretch and you know, they're the owners? You just gotta love these guys.
Now, how much have you heard about the improvements at Wrigley? I understand that there's a new kitchen and weightroom for the players, but I couldn't see any real difference on my side of the fence. So the funny part came when I went to the head the same time Sutter did, and there it was: the Wrigley Renovation.
Nope, not the troughs. I was afraid they'd change them, but really they're a genius solution for a baseball stadium with limited bathrooms.
Here's a photo I took maybe a year or so ago - people would get the sink confused and sometimes use it for the... wrong purpose. So somebody would take a piece of cardboard and label it "sink".
It cracked me up just reading the word "sink" at Wrigley Field - like it had another, deeper meaning - which was why I took this photo.
Well, Sutter noticed this first and snuck a photo with his phone. Can you spot the improvement?
Awesome, right?
