Go Cubs Go

We hopped out of the Uber and paused for a moment as the majestic facade of Wrigley Field spread out before us. The moment was quickly shattered by the scent of hot dogs wafting our way from Murphy's Bleachers. We had a couple hours before the game, so the four of us - my dad, my brother, his girlfriend, and me - quickly decided that a hot dog and a beer was in order. We headed over to Murphy's, ordered, and swapped notes about our favorite Cubs players, past and present, as we ate. Our next stop was Gallagher Way, the open-air plaza right outside Wrigley Field. We beelined straight for the trophy room next to the plaza to take some photos with the crown jewels: the Cubs' 2016 World Series trophy. I'm a fourth-generation Cubs fan; summer evenings watching the Cubs on WGN with my dad defined my childhood. My family waited for a LONG time for this trophy, and we weren't about to miss the chance to snap a photo next to it.

Finally, it was time to head into the stadium. After the usual security shuffle, we made it to the concourse and started looking for our section. A friendly usher (after all, Wrigley Field is the Friendly Confines) showed us to our seats. As the field spread out before us, all I could say was "Wow." I've been to Wrigley before. I've seen games from the bleachers alongside all the other bleacher bums, and as a wide-eyed ten-year-old I even watched Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire trade moonshots during the home run race of 1998. But our seats for this game - I knew instantly that these would be the best seats I'd ever have at Wrigley Field, and this would be a game I'd never forget.

You see, my brother is a bartender in Key West. He has a fair number of regulars, and one of his regulars happened to own a construction company in Chicago. The company had season tickets at Wrigley in section 13, which is at field level on the third base side of home plate. The regular knew that my brother was a huge Cubs fan and offered him the company's tickets if we ever wanted to head to Chicago and catch a game. My brother jumped at the chance, a date was agreed upon, and here we were. To put into context just how close we were to the field, Tom Ricketts, whose family owns the Cubs, and Fergie Jenkins, legendary Cubs pitcher and Hall of Famer, walked up the aisle past our seats on the way from their pregame schmoozing on the field up to the secure doorway to the private areas of the stadium.

To top it off, it was a gorgeous July day and the Cubs were actually pretty good again that year. They were hanging around first place with a real chance of a playoff run, so we were hoping to see a good game - and we weren't disappointed. We had an excellent view of the alligator expert who tossed out the first pitch. Yep, you read that right - an alligator expert. He'd traveled up to Chicago from Florida to help catch an alligator swimming in a park lagoon, and his 15 minutes of fame included throwing out the first pitch at that night's Cubs game. After that, it was finally time for baseball. We settled into those fantastic seats, bought some peanuts and a soft pretzel from a stadium vendor, and prepared to enjoy the game.

Things started off a little rough, as the visiting Cincinnati Reds jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. But the Cubs soon battled back with two runs in the second inning before tacking on another one in the sixth, and the game went into extra innings with a 3-3 tie. The Reds got a runner on base in the tenth inning, but couldn't score. Then, in the bottom of the tenth, a Cubs player named Kyle Schwarber stepped to the plate. He'd become a folk hero during the Cubs' playoff run in 2015, when he crushed a mammoth home run that landed on top of the video board in right field. We were just hoping for a hit, and I jokingly said, "It'd be great if he could just hit a Schwarbomb and walk it off right now."

Well... you guessed it. Schwarber lofted a long fly ball... it went back... way back... and settled into the outfield basket for a walkoff home run. Cubs win! Cubs win!

The stadium erupted. Fireworks popped as Schwarber slowly trotted around the bases and disappeared under a mob of teammates at home plate; we had an up-close view of the victory scrum thanks to our incredible seats. Every Cubs fan in the place, including us, started belting out the Cubs' victory anthem "Go Cubs Go" as it played over the PA system. Finally, we filtered out of the stadium, exhausted but jubilant. The Cubs juuuuuust missed the playoffs that year, but hey - we'll always have that memory of the sweet taste of victory on a perfect summer night at Wrigley Field.