So, we went to that last Astros game, sat in our real seats even though we could have sat anywhere. The park was, well it felt like a game from long ago when the Cubs were horrible and beer was a buck or two and the seats were empty. The bleachers were pretty deserted too. (anybody hear what the announced attendance was?)
The Cubs started Darwin Barney at 3rd, Hoffpauir was at first, Colvin in right, Castro at short - it was pretty triple A. And the Cub bats were shut down by Houston's Brett Meyers and 4 Astro relievers while Randy Wells gave up 4 runs on 9 hits.
Gale Sayers sang the stretch which was kinda cool I guess. I even sang.
But then Tom Ricketts came walking through the cheap seats.
I've seen him do it a couple times before, only this time I shot some video.
For the owner of the Chicago Cubs to go walking around shaking hands and taking pictures with everyone - seriously this was at least 20 minutes - well I just think he's a pretty cool guy. At least on the being-open front. What he'll actually turn into as an owner only time will tell. But for all the bad press he seems to get, this is the guy's first year. He inherited a turd. So if you're gonna have to ride this season out you might as well do what you can, and I think I was watching it.
(I just posted this thing to You-Tube, so it might not be "live" for awhile, sorry. Many of the still photos were from a game I went to very early in the season. The video is all from that last Astro game.)
So he's shaking hands and taking photos and signing autographs and I'm sure answering questions, some silly and some hard, and towards the end there he's talking to these weird people who wore balloon hats into the park. For a photo op, they ask him to put on a balloon hat, and he does.
Of course he had to feel silly and at first I thought man, why would you do that?
Oh yeah, baseball is supposed to be fun.
Here's what I bet: I bet that when the Cubs finally turn this around and get on the winning track again, we're REALLY gonna like this guy. He's kinda nerdy and goofy, but hell man look around you the next time you're at Wrigley.
He fits right in.
