Chicago, Illinois
I grew up getting off the bus from school at my grandparents’ house. From April to September, my grandfather often had WGN on, carrying the Cubs game from the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. For a young boy, those times watching games with my grandfather built a lifelong love of baseball. The Cubs only had a few good seasons when I was a kid, but watching the games was always a treat. The Cubs had a few good players, such as Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston, and Greg Maddux, but the highlight was usually listening to Harry Carey on the call during those day games. One of the players, Dwight Smith, played for my Uncle Lon at Spartanburg Methodist College before being drafted by the Cubs, which always gave me a rooting interest in those Cubs games. I could count on those games to be something I could look forward to while finishing my homework. The Cubs were not always successful, but there was a charm to watching all those day baseball games that were not always found under the lights. I always wanted to go to Wrigley, but it was many years and three sons later before I caught my first game.
Appropriately enough, my first game at Wrigley Field was a day game against the Cardinals. Wrigley was a packed house, and the stadium showed its authentic charm. However, the stadium also showed its age: It was challenging to move through the concourse when everyone entered the game, and beams blocked the field’s sight lines, depending on your seat location.
The atmosphere was great in the stadium, enhanced by the Cubs playing well throughout the game and eventually “Raising the W.”
The afternoon’s highlight was going onto the field with my two younger sons, who had the chance to run the bases. Walking out onto the field through the ivy was not an experience I expected, but it quickly became one of my favorite moments ever at a Major League Baseball game. I want to think that my grandfather is somewhere smiling, knowing that the three of us had the chance to go on the same field where we saw all of those games many years ago.
