Cubs Weekend | 04/27/08

On Friday I left my house around 4pm to head out to Fin MacCool's for the Cubs pre-game bar party (barty). Despite being entrenched in the ghetto, Barracks's Row was pretty nice and the bar itself was safe and filled with 9-5'ers and a few coupled-off Cubs fans. I found a corner spot in the bar and I talked with the guy next to me for an hour about our iPhone case being the same; riveting, I know. I finally walked myself through Ghetto Lite to the stadium where I struck up a conversation with a Mennonite pastor (wear Cubbie blue of course) and offered Jamie's unused ticket to the game. With my six-hour friend in tow, we headed up approximately thirty miles of spiraling concrete to our seats. Everyone was glowing about how nice Nationals Stadium was but I was wholly underwhelmed. It's no Wrigley--it's not even a Miller Park. I'm sure the view is great if you're one of maybe 1,000 seats but if you're anywhere else your views are pretty lousy. Anyway, we met up with two of Jamie's school friends, Meghan and Sam, and naturally they were rooting for the Cubs. They were both pretty cool and although I felt really old when I knew who Jody Davis was, it was fun just hanging out with the three of them and talking baseball for a few hours. Meghan was kind enough to take this first picture--of me and Marmol. I of course had my custom Marmol t-shirt-jersey on and received a lot of "cool"'s and a few "dork"'s with it. After the Cubs had been thoroughly beaten, we blobbed our way to the Subway with 40,000 other people and metro'd home. Unfortunately, I have to take a bus from the metro to my house and (unbeknownst to me) the buses had already stopped running for the evening. After 20 minutes or so I struck up a conversation with a grad student at AU and we decided that since we only lived a few blocks away from each other we'd just walk. It took a while to get back but we made it safely back to her place across from the National Cathedral and I kept going to see poor Chomp, who had been her crate for a good eight hours.

On Saturday I was already missing Marmol so I went on Craigslist and got some killer last-minute seats to the game. Jamie needed a study break and we decided we could go together. We got there really early so I could chase down Marmol. Because he was in the bullpen and not taking batting practice, I found a nice rail-spot in the outfield corner so I could hopefully get his autograph AND a BP ball. Greedy, I know. Anyway, even though Marmol is nowhere to be seen I see Ramirez hit a ball on the ground RIGHT AT ME. Being a healthy 6'1" (or like 6'3" if I'm not having a bald day) I was easily able to outstretch the kids around me for the ball. Granted, my feet were on the ground and I was holding myself up with one hand and had the ball in the other. As I start to come up, this ten year old girl, who was also reaching over literally rips the ball out of my hand and holds it up. I was like "What the f*ck!" So now, I'm PISSED. What am I going to do--reclaim my rightful ball by pushing this ten-year old bitch over and taking it? I'm confident I could have kicked her all-too-proud Dad's ass and was tempted to when he started praising her for getting it. The fence was six feet tall! How do you think your daughter was able to reach her 3.5' frame OVER THE WALL TO GET IT?!?! Yeah, I'm still pretty pissed off because it's not like the ushers ever give the 30-year olds the ball; that little girl probably doesn't even know the names of three players on the Nationals LET ALONE any of the Cubs players. And she's probably lost MY BALL now anyway. Anyway, our seats were unbelievable--the only downside was that the guy next to us apparently owned them and had to make it known to us and every other person in the stadium that HIS SEASON TICKETS WERE SOLD ON ACCIDENT so he had to sit exactly two seats over--still in the front row right next to the Cubs dugout. That's what you get for spending $8k on Nationals Seasons Tickets, dumbass. If you're dumb enough to do that then you're probably dumb enough to give them the wrong numbers/dates for the games you're not going to. Ok, I'm calmer now. Because it was such a lopsided victory for the Cubs, and because we were so close, we got pictures of everyone who played up close except for Soto, who went 0-5 with five strikeouts (what's up Matt Murton). Zambrano was dominant and although I was sad Marmol wasn't going to come in with a 7-0 lead, I was still happy the Cubs won. I was rooting for Howry to come in and whittle the lead down to 7-6 to see Marmol but that didn't happen. The weather held off for the most part and while it got a little cold/rainy at the end, it didn't really hit until we were walking back to the metro. It was a lot of fun and in the future I'm definitely splurging for the good seats. Pictures soon!

On the off-chance you're not bored and not skimming by now, I did a pit bull rescue on Sunday and it was insane. Just insane. Since I don't really know the full legality of what happened I'm not going to write anything about it. Suffice it to say though, it was absolutely crazy. We "finished" around 2:30 and one of the other volunteers and I went to Olive Garden to recant the insanity that was our morning. After a pretty nasty lunch (OG is always disappointing) I drove home and took a nap. I watched the Deadliest Catch stuff for most of the night and finally hit the hay around midnight. And thus ended the Weekend of Cubs.

Comments

T-Chris (Unknown)

MARMOL! Coooool.

Mike (Unknown)

I think I'm going to make a Marmol fansite.

BU (Unknown)

Marmol sounds like a floor cleanser.

When has the Olive Garden ever been anything but disappointing?

Mike (Unknown)

Don't say that about Marmol--he certainly CLEANS UP the opposing team! And I wonder why my career in stand-up went nowhere.

OG is always a disappointment but each time I go I think that surely it will be better yet it never is.

Tree (Unknown)

I went to the Orioles / Sox game 2 on Saturday night. It was colder than fuck there. A 19 m.p.h. NW wind and a dampness that cuts right through you. The place was packed, really jumping and into it, and the Sox won 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th. Man, you should have punched that girl for the ball. The closest I got to a ball was a foul pop that was about 7 rows below me.

And the Olive Garden is just such ghetto Italian food. And the breadsticks? Overrated.

Mike (Unknown)

You mean packed for a White Sox game? If so, then it should have been no problem to get a foul ball seven rows away--the likelihood of anyone being in those seats I would imagine to be low.

Elena (Unknown)

dude - that 10 year old was so wrong to steal your ball. I think you would have been totally justified in taking it back.

Mike (Unknown)

The problem is that it looked, if you weren't thinking that it was 100% impossible, that she pulled it up. I know it was wrong and that if I could have argued my case in front of a jury I would have won, but people would have booed me at the very least and tried to kick my ass at work (I do emphasize *try* though--grab my wrists!)

Tree (Unknown)

I don't know if you actually realize this, but yes, people *DO* go to White Sox games. Thousands of them. 10's of thousands. There was over 30,000 people in attendance. Oh yeah, nice job of forgetting my birthday, AGAIN.

KBS (Unknown)

Dang, great seats! How much were your tickets?

Jamie (Unknown)

Like I said, next game we need to borrow a 2 year old to hold over the fence and shake at the ball girl...it's a no fail plan to get a ball.


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