4/11/06 Saw it was gonna be in the seventies with a South wind blowing 20-30 miles, which means out at Wrigley, which means lotsa home runs, which means I had to be there. Got to Wrigleyville at 9:30 AM, picked up my ticket at Will Call, and proceeded to the Salt & Pepper Diner South of the ballpark on Clark Street. Ate a delicious Greek Salad and a MUST HAVE chocolate malt. My waitress even put in extra malt, YUM! Then got in line to go into the Bleachers at 10:30 AM. Got to talkin to the people ahead of me in line and it turns out the lady in front of me’s father won the largest Lotto jackpot in Ohio history $255 million. So he calls her cell, he just got 8th row season tickets on the 50 yard line for Ohio State football games. He also bought himself a place in Arizona, his kids new homes, Suns season basketball tickets, D*Backs season tickets, and a new Porsche. It must be nice, I was even inspired to buy Lotto tix after the game, after eating a very tasty veggie Sloppy Joe at the Chicago Diner on Halsted & Roscoe. But enough about the other stuff lemme tell you about the game and the Bleachers.
The Bleachers were totally full while there were plenty of other seats to be had throughout the ballyard. Cincinnati’s batters were really nailing balls and they were flying over the wall. Everytime one of the Reds shagging balls in the outfield would snare one, the Bud Light Bleacher Bums would scream they wanted the ball, everytime the Reds players didn’t throw the ball into the stands they were called names & told they sucked! “You Suck!”, became a rallying cry for fans all over the Bleachers, but it was a special mantra for one fan in particular in the CF Bleachers, from the start of the game till the last out he yelled, “Griffey, You Suck!”, at least ten times per inning for nine innings. I was wishing Griffey would get a shot at pummeling this idiot once for each time he yelled this at him. The Cubs spent all this money on improving the Bleachers and then allow this type of behavior to persist, ridiculous! The new & improved Bleachers are very nice and you wouldn’t know they were even changed. There is a bar on the halfway up level, an elevator, a flat area in CF (possibly for wheelchairs), and a bathroom for wheelchairs on the upper level. I once peed in the Bleachers under my poncho on a rainy day rather than risk walking down & up the rain soaked & slippery ramp, so the elevator is a good idea.
Griffey Junior launched a shot in the first, Adam Dunn blasted a monster in the 2nd, Bronson Arroyo (the pitcher) hit a bomb onto the street beyond LF in the 3rd, in the 4th Dunn cracked another, nothing in the 5th, and then Edwin Encarnacion hit a Grand Slam & Austin Kearns added a solo blast in the 6th to make it 9-0. I couldn’t resist yelling, “Let’s Go Cubbies!”, I was really enjoying myself and half thought security might ask me to leave. God Bless Michael Barrett broke the ice for the Cubbies with a meaningless home run and the Cubs scored once more to make the final 9-2 Reds.