May 10th, 1998

Sunday May 10th, 1998

San Francisco Giants 3 vs. Chicago Cubs 0
Stadium: Wrigley Field
Current: Same
Gas:
Franksville, WI $8.75
Lodging: Chicago, IL

Today we made the short drive from Milwaukee to Chicago in order to catch an afternoon game at Wrigley Field.  We were meeting up with one of our friends who we dormed with our freshman year, Brian Sweet.  He had transferred to the University of Notre Dame his sophomore year so he was in the area.  His friend's brother had a place in Chicago that we were going to spend the next few nights at.  We really didn't know where we staying and it's proximity to Wrigley Field (remember, this was pre-Google maps).  Sweet had just told us it was nearby the stadium.  So we figured we would drive by to see where we were staying before the game.  As we were getting closer, we looked up and realized that we were driving right pass the stadium. After driving the wrong way down a one way street (oops) we finally saw the house  The house we stayed at ended up being literally 1 block from Wrigley Field.  WE WERE STAYING IN WRIGLEYVILLE!!!  

When we got to the stadium, we did our usually picture taking from every possible vantage point we could.  We were very excited as well to see Kerry Wood a mere 3 days after his 20K game.  We met Brian Sweet outside of the stadium who had also brought some friends from Notre Dame: Dave, Brian Lutz, Eric, Erica, and Matt.  Now Wrigley Field is a great place see a baseball game with a great sense of nostalgia: Ivy in the outfield, homeruns hit onto Waveland & Sheffield Ave., the seats on the houses across the street, the manual scoreboard.  But it was still built in 1914, which means obstructed views which is what we had at our original seats. I could not see any play at second base because of a big pole right in my way. Luckily, the game was not sold out so we were able to move to less obstructed seats.  

After the game, we pretty much just hung out, walking around Wrigleyville enjoying to the local atmosphere.    Back at the house, being the huge Notre Dame football fans they all were, we watched endless tapes of previous Notre Dame Football games.

May 1oth also happens to be Christa's birthday.  I had planned it, with the help of her Grandma when we were in Kansas City, that a bouquet of flowers would be delivered to her door in the morning.  I also had called ahead to have a message on the scoreboard read "Happy Birthday Christa Bryan".  It was supposed to come up in between the 4th and 5th inning.  When the Cubs made their last out, I was ready with my camera and snapped a picture of it.  Of course, wouldn't you know of all the pictures I took (31 rolls, back in the day before digital.  More on this in later posts)  this was the only, literally the only one that came out blurry.  We were able to have it digitally adjusted, but still...