My First Cubs Game

In my previous post I talked about navigating Wrigley Field on a broken foot and sprained ankle. This post is all about the fun experience of the game itself!

I’ll admit I didn’t notice much as we entered Wrigley Field. I missed a lot while I focused on making it to a wheelchair without falling down. I hope to go back soon and take a tour of the stadium.

I mentioned that we had good seats: they were in the “Upper Box Midfield” section, which is pretty high up and under the roof. My engineer partner had carefully calculated which seats would be in the shade during the 2:20 PM game. The weather was absolutely gorgeous: sunny but not too hot, with a constant cool breeze. My partner commented that it felt like a day at the beach.

Before the game, various people were announced as they came on the field for different things: charitable donations and giveaways, I think? It wasn’t possible to see what was happening from our seats. Then players started coming out to stretch and warm up. That was fun to watch. Coaches or physical therapists helped them get ready. Physical therapist to an MLB team would be a fun job for a baseball fan; they get extremely up close and personal with the players!

I try not to idolize celebrities, because I recognize that they’re fallible human beings and I don’t know much about them as people. But it was still thrilling to be in the same real-life space as people like Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras. We got to see things that don’t get shown on TV, like Kyle Schwarber tossing balls to fans and dancing in the outfield before the game started. I suspect if we’d arrived earlier and I’d been more mobile, we could have gone closer to the field during pregame practice and maybe caught a ball or said hi to an athlete.

The game just kind of…started, with little fanfare, and I didn’t notice at first. Oops. The first inning went great for the Cubs, with no score in the top half and Jason Heyward hitting a home run in the first Cubs at-bat. The Cubs stayed ahead of the Brewers the whole time, eventually beating them 6-2. I don’t know if a closer game might have been more exciting, but it was fun to watch the Cubs hold the lead. I was especially glad they won because I was hoping to hear the whole stadium sing the victory song, and I was not disappointed! We sang along, of course, but I don’t know all the words. I’ll have to learn them for next time.

The manager or head coach—I’m not sure who makes these decisions—kept switching players out and moving them to different positions. I wasn’t clear on whether it was for offensive or defensive reasons. There was a lot of armchair coaching happening in the stands; I couldn’t tell whether those fans knew more than me or just had higher opinions of their own expertise. I suspect a combination of both.

One of the most entertaining and enlightening experiences of the game was watching what happens to foul balls that pop up behind the batter. On TV it doesn’t look like much, but those balls travel an enormous distance! About six or seven of them landed on the roof of the stadium, and four landed so far back that they rolled right out and presumably onto the ground below. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be standing outside Wrigley Field when a baseball suddenly drops from the sky, but I assume it’s pretty weird.

After the game, when Roberto was wheeling me back to the entrance, he, my partner and I had a conversation about Cubs coaching strategy. Roberto was concerned that the Cubs haven’t been winning away games, and he thought it was because of relief pitching and Joe Maddon being too soft on the players. He referred to the Cubs as “we” and “us,” which confused me for a few minutes because I don’t think of myself as a member of an MLB team! I bet that’s a big part of why people like sports, though: they present an opportunity to be in community with other people.

The day after the game, we were on our way to somewhere else when we spotted a Cubs store. I’m glad we did, because it was fun to see an entire store full of something I like. We bought a hat I’d been admiring online (classic Cubs logo and colors with little red flowers on the blue background), a keychain to turn into an ornament—they didn’t have any real ornaments—and an old-fashioned pennant that features the Cubs logo from 1911-1914. It would have been easy to go a little wild and buy even more stuff, but I’m happy with what I got.

The logistics of the game were difficult with my injury, but my lasting impression is positive: it was so much fun to be there. When Roberto rolled me up the ramp and I got my first real view of Wrigley Field, it felt magical. My fan status definitely turned up a notch. I hope I get to go back soon!