Go Cubs Go!!!

What a long and wonderful day. It started at 6:00AM when my alarm went off, and ended when I got home at about 8:30PM. My aunt and I met the tour bus at her bank at 9:00AM, along with about 30 other people. The bus drove to another town nearby to pick up the rest of our group at another branch of the bank, and we were on the road around 10:00AM. Along the way, the two bank employees that were leading the group had a mini trivia contest for giveaways. The very first question was "What is the significance of today's game?" I was the first person to raise a hand, and after answering "Today is the 20th anniversary of the first night game at Wrigley Field," I won a bag of peanuts. So Iggy, I did in fact eat some peanuts at the game, and I threw the shells all over the place.

Our bus dropped us off outside Wrigley Field just past 11:30AM, for a 1:20PM scheduled start against the St. Louis Cardinals. We were on bus 218 (very important to remember the bus number so you get on the right one after the game), and we were seated in section 218. How convenient! Since we were part of the first 10,000 fans to enter, we got the commemorative hat for the 20th anniversary of the lights at Wrigley Field. The hat says Wrigley Field Home of Chicago Cubs Opening Night

The game was very close, the Cubs scoring two runs on solo home runs by Jim Edmunds (one in the 2nd and one in the 7th), a former St. Louis Cardinal, no less. The Cardinals scored on a solo home run by Joe Mather in the 3rd, and a run scored by Skip Schumaker in the 6th. After 9 innings, the score was all tied up, 2-2. I purchased a scorecard and was able to keep score for the entire game. I guessed at a couple of the scoring marks, but it's not something I do very often, and was kind of fun. It forced me to really pay attention to every play, instead of just sitting there watching and waiting for a hit or a run. The scorecard only went up to 10 innings, so after the 10th inning, I had to stop, and of course, that's when the game was won, by Henry Blanco getting a base hit to bring in the winning run.

Cubs win! Cubs win! Holy Cow! The Cubs now have a 5 game lead over Milwaukee in the Central Division. St. Louis fell to 7 games back, and there are two more games this weekend between the Cards and the Cubs.

This was only my 5th Cubs game, and I loved every minute of it. If I win the lottery, one thing I'm going to buy is season tickets and go to lots and lots of baseball games!

Oh yeah! I almost forgot! During the game we saw Rich "Goose" Gossage walking up by the Suites, and it turned out he was singing the 7th inning stretch. He was a relief pitcher, played from 1972-1994, for nine different teams, including the Chicago Cubs in 1988. He was well known for having wild facial hair during his playing days, and even today is recognized because of his moustache. And the traditional "first pitch" was thrown out, or should I say sling-shot (shotted?) by three members of Blue Man Group.