Return to Wrigley

Oh what a day! Taking a week off to prepare for my visit to the friendly confines was well worth it as we were treated to great weather, a great speech by Ryne Sandberg, and a great win for the Cubs.

I guess you could say the whole trip started on Thursday night when I placed a call to Gaddis to see if his dad would want to go to the game with us on Sunday. After a quick call, Gaddis called me back and said yes, it wasn't even a choice for his dad, who has been a lifelong Cubs fan, he had to be there, especially on the day Ryno was getting his number retired at Wrigley. Apparently he hadn't been having the best of days, but receiving that call made everything better for the elder Gaddis. The Cubs have that effect on people. When you are watching them on tv or listening to them on the radio, you get mad and don't want to do anything for a few hours, but when they are playing well, or you know you are going to go to a game, you feel euphoric.

Even with a 31-34 record going into play yesterday, we couldn't wait to get to the park. Knowing that it was Ryne Sandberg's day and the fact we had bleacher seats, we knew we had to get to the game early. For the 1:20 start, the gates opened the normal 2 hours before game time, even though Sandberg's ceremony started at 12:30. We got off of the "L" at about 1o:30 and saw the line for the right field bleachers went from center field (where all bleacher tickets enter) to almost the right field foul pole, so we knew it was going to be a long-shot to get the seats we wanted. We got in the left field line and were directly under the left field foul pole when we got in line. The people in the front of the line got to the game at 8:00am, so we were content with where we were.

Into the ballpark, and we were racing up the ramp to get into the left field bleachers. Gaddis' dad took us to some great seasts in the third row, about 15 feet from the ferm filled section in straight away center. If you've never been to Wrigley before, no matter how the team is playing, the fans you are around will make the game for you. We were in a great section, everyone friendly, joking around, talking Cubs, interacting with Marlins pitcher A.J. Burnett during the Florida batting practice, and cheering for him to throw balls to us, which he did (mostly to women and little kids, but that's the way it should be). Burnett even threw one ball right to me, but it reflected off of my left thumb and went to the little kid behind me (for the record, he would have gotten the ball had I even caught it, but I'm glad he caught it himself). The Marlins ended batting practice and we knew the ceremony was about to start.

Sandberg came out and was greeted to thunderous applause and cheers. We held up a sign made by the cousinof a diehard who was sitting in front of us, and were told by way of many cell phone calls, that we ended up on WGN, so I made my national television debut! The best part of the day for me came during the speech by a representative from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He was speaking of Sandberg being in the Hall of Fame, joining the other Cubs who have made it into MLB's most exclusive club, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Ferguson Jenkins. The second he got done saying that, the entire crowd started chanting, "SANTO! SANTO! SANTO!" for Cub legend Ron Santo who is inexplicibly absent from the Hall. It was quite a special moment for all of the fans, and I'm sure for Santo himself.

When all of the introductions were done, Sandberg came out and made his speech, and guess what, it was filled with humility and nothing but gratitude to the Cubs organization, his teammates, the city of Chicago, and the fans. An absolutely classy player and person, even returned a shout of "I love you Ryno" with "I love you too!"

The flag with his number was raised on the right field foul pole, joining Billy Williams on that pole and Ernie Banks and Ron Santo on the left field pole.

When his speech was finished and his number was raised, he saluted each and every one of the fans by walking around the edge of the stadium with his wife. While he was walking past the left field bleachers, a ball and sharpie came flying from the stands, he politely obliged, signed the ball, and threw it back into the stands. With that, Sandberg finished his walk, went into the clubhouse, walked around the catwalk of the park to acknowledge the fans once more and came back out for the seventh inning stretch.

It was a great day at the park. The Cubs could have lost 14-3 and we wouldn't have cared because it was Ryno's day. He made everyone remember what it was like to watch him play the game, remember the grace with which he played, remember when baseball players respected the game, and gave us hope once again of what it could be like. Thank YOU Ryne for all of the memories, even after you stopped playing the game. The feeling at Wrigley on this day was one of nostalgia and gratitude. Anything you read about the day will bring you what happened, but nothing you will read can give you the feeling of what it was like to be in the stands on this day. It really was special, you hear it a lot, but there really was an electricity in the air yesterday. I really can't explain what it felt like to be there, but I'll tell you it was special. Sure it helped that the Cubs won on Ryno's day, but we weren't there for the game, we were there for Ryno.

-Until next time...