Have you ever wanted to venture deep into enemy territory?
I did!
All my life, I have been a baseball fan. And since 1984, my team has been the New York Mets. Prior to 1984, my father’s company had season tickets for Yankee Stadium and he’d take us to a game or two every year, usually a double header.
In 1984, however, his company switched to season tickets at Shea Stadium. At the time, I was eight years old, and in my most formative years for lifelong loyalties. And to top it off, I was a catcher on my Little League baseball team, and idolized Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos, who joined the Mets after the 1984 season. I was hooked!
Now, the Mets were one of the better teams of the National League East in the mid-late 1980’s. And one of their divisional rivals was the Chicago Cubs. Add into the equation that a good friend of mine was a die-hard Cubs fan from Chicago, and the rivalry increased ten-fold.
I hated the Cubs!
But I loved Wrigley Field!
As much as I loved the current game of baseball, I LIVED the history of baseball! I would spend hours on end reading about the history of the game. The old teams. The old players. And the old stadiums.
Chief among these ancient temples of the game were the two arenas of baseball futility: Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, and Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. These two stadiums held a very special place in my heart.
For their age. For their history. For their tradition.
I managed to visit Fenway Park a couple of times in the late 1990’s while I was living in Connecticut, but Chicago was so much further away, and as of 2006, I had still never visited the park.
I managed to change that in September, 2006, when some unfortunate events caused me to be in Chicago for a few days, and my family decided that one of the best things we could do in honor of the reason we were in town was to go to a game at Wrigley Field.
I wish the circumstances were better, but the experience at the stadium was one that I will never forget! A day game at Wrigley Field. Walking through the North Chicago Lakeview neighborhood to the stadium. A beautiful, sunny day spent with my parents, brother, and sister. Taking in the old stadium, built in 1914, with its iconic manual scoreboard. Enjoying an Old Style beer and a Wrigley Field hot dog. Truly an iconic American experience. It’s too bad I didn’t make it there before the passing of Harry Caray for his seventh-inning stretch crooning of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
If you’re looking for hotels in Chicago near Wrigley Field, note that the stadium is located in the Lakeview neighborhood in North Chicago, more than five miles north of downtown Chicago. The stadium is conveniently located at the Addison-Red station of the Red Line ‘L’ and Purple Line ‘L’ of the Chicago Rapid Transit system.
This post is in collaboration with Hipmunk for the #CityLoveProject, but as always, all opinions are my own.
