Day 4 - Chicago, Chicago My Kind of Town

After seemingly killed every flying bug in the state of Michigan and quickly saying "Hi" and "Bye" to Indiana, we reached our destination of the Omni Hotel on Michigan a little after midnight central time.  It was the first time in my life that I actually DROVE to a different time zone. In the span of three days we had driven from DC to Pittsburgh to Detroit and now to Chicago.

Tieff and I got an early start to day four as we were wired for sound when we got to our hotel room.  The two of us made an executive decision to walk around town, due to the fact I promised him that he had to go down Rush Street, which probably has the most hopping night life in Chicago.

This was Tieff's first time ever in Chicago.  For me, this was now my fifth time here.  Three times I have been here on business, most recently in May when I did my PMP bootcamp training (I received my PMP certification a week later when I passed the exam).

The only other time I was in Chicago for pleasure was back in October 2001, not too long after the ban on air travel was lifted.  My friend Mal and I decided to support the airlines and see Wrigley for the first time.  We made it a sports weekend as we watched Northwestern win an exciting college football game at home over Michigan State that Saturday.  And then that Sunday we watched the Cubs lose to the Astros.  It was an unusually warm October weekend in Chicago, and I remember the two of us hanging outside on Rush Street amazed at the fact of how busy Rush Street was on a Sunday night in October.

And here Tieff and I were nearly nine years later on the same street (Rush is a very short walk from the Omni Hotel).  The first thing you notice about Chicago in the late spring/summertime, well ok, if you are a guy this is the first thing you notice, there are a lot of beautiful women in Chicago ( I warned my wife I was going to write this -doesn't mean I will be ok, but I warned her).  I noticed this when I was here in May and I forewarned Tieff as were driving towards Chicago.   The great thing if you are a single guy is that a lot of women are traveling as a group unattached seemingly or even by themselves.

The next thing that Tieff noticed is how clean Chicago is (or at least the sections of Chicago we walked around).  And that's very true. Chicago is very clean and also happens to have good drinking tap water (always helps to have a major lake, Lake Michigan, as your water supply).  Another thing we noticed, and it might have had partly due to that we were there on an extended weekend, was that it was surprisingly easy to drive around the city.  Finally, the mass transit train system works very well.  We took the Red Line to both Wrigley and U.S. Cellular (more on U.S. Cellular in my next post).

So on the morning of July 4th, we walked around Rush Street, then ended up at Pippin's on Rush till about 2:00 am in the morning.  We headed to our hotel rooms and ended up running into two cute twin blonde young twenty something females who were seemingly as lost about the Omni's entrance as we were.   Tieff and I made it to our hotel room and hit the hay.  Before we knew it, it was 9:30 am and we headed out to the Red Line stop to go to Wrigley.  We tried to find a place serving breakfast that had no long wait.  No such luck, thus we got on to our train and headed uptown to the Addison street stop where Wrigley is located.

Once we got to Addison, along with hundreds of other Cubs fans, again we tried to find someplace to eat breakfast a little after 11:00 am.  We ended up at a McDonalds that of course stop serving breakfast at 11:00 am.  A note to the moronic folks at Mickey D's - On a SUNDAY, people eat breakfast late.  It's called BRUNCH.  You should seriously consider serving breakfast on Sundays till about 1:00 PM.   That might explain why the Mickey D's DIRECTLY ACROSS from Wrigley Field had no lines at the counter at 11:00 am.

So being starved, we ended up eating Angus burgers at 11:00 AM on a Sunday.  Then we made our way to magnificent Wrigley on a warm sunny Sunday morning, but not before stopping at every souvenir stand around the park to see if we could find a cheap Cubs hat to wear, because I knew we had field level seats down the RF line.  And on a 93 degree day with the sun pounding on us, we needed all the cover we could get.

Tieff ended up getting the pictured hat from a vendor for five bucks.  I decided I didn't want a hat that badly.  And here is the ironic thing, as we walked in and get our tickets scanned, we see it was a giveaway day. The giveaway was a fitted Cubs cap with a red white and blue C.  A free hat.   All that work to find a cap/hat and it was Cubs Cap Day.  Tieff still decided to wear his hat for the game.

There is no better way to spend the Fourth of July then at Wrigley Field.  Wrigley is a really great ball park with the scoreboard, the apartment buildings with skybox seats, and of course the Ivy and brick.  I was here in 2001 and my seats were field level on the first base side but way up, under the overhang, near a pole, thus I had an obstructed view of the field.  I wasn't taking any chances this time. I purchased tickets on Stubhub and got field level row 13 on the RF line.  We could have used the shade today, but I wasn't complaining.  It was still a great day for a ball game.

Well it turned out it was a great day for a ball game if you were a Reds fan (or a neutral observer like us).  The Reds are in first place for two reasons.  One, they have talented young hitters like Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto.  Second, they have been getting excellent starting pitching from Mike Leake, who started our game, Johnny Cueto and Brandon Arroyo.  When you put those two things together, you get a game like ours.

The Cubs are going through a rough year. First, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez have had injury plagued seasons, where both are not hitting up to their standards.  Carlos Zambrano has struggled so much that he is now in the bullpen, which didn't provide much help on this day.  The Cubs one strong point had been their starting pitching with Carlos Silva, Ryan Dempster having very solid years.  Ted Lilly, the Cubs starter on this day, had been pitching well on the season with an ERA in the low 3's .  However the Cubs lack of offense left him with a 3-6 record entering the game with the Reds.

The game started off well for the Cubs.  The Reds best player, Joey Votto, got ejected in the first inning for arguing a strike three call (he threw his helmet down in front of the umpire, a no-no in MLB).  Lilly held the Reds scoreless for the first two innings.  Then in the bottom of the second, a Marlon Byrd single and a Tyler Colvin home run put the Cubbies up 2-0.  A full house of 41,079 thought this was going to be a very festive July 4th for the hometown team.

However, Colvin's home run was the next to last joyous moment for Cubs' fans on this day. Drew Stubbs would wallop the first of his three home runs on the day in the top of the third.  In the top of the fourth, an Orlando Cabrera single, a perfect bunt single by Paul Janish, and a crushed triple by Ramon Hernandez put the Reds up to stay 3-2.   Lilly got through the fifth, but Mike Leake held the Cubs scoreless for the third inning in a row. 

In the top of the sixth, the Reds would strike again using the long ball.  Cabrera again singled, but Janish would not be playing small ball this time.  He smoked a two run homer over the left field wall to put the Reds up 5-2.  Colvin would respond with his second homer of the day to narrow the gap to 5-3.  But that would be the last run the Cubs would score on the day.

After giving up runs in three of the past four innings, Tieff and I along with several Cubs fans around us wondered why Ted Lilly came out to start the seventh.  But manager Lou Pinella looked like a genius as Lilly got the first two out.  Then Lilly unraveled like a ball of yarn in front of the Cubs' faithful.  Brandon Phillips launched a missile over the left field fence.  Orlando Cabrera then followed with a double and Janish chased him home with a single.  Johnny Gomes followed with a two run bomb and before you knew it, it was 9-3 Reds.  And the second guessing in the stands began as Lilly gave up nine earned runs in 6 2/3 innings to bring his ERA up to 3.76.

But if anyone questioned why Pinella left Lilly in, Jeff Stevens immediately answered their questions by playing human batting practice machine, with a few walks thrown in. First, Corky Miller tattooed a Stevens offering to dead center for a solo homer. 

Then Stevens, probably affected from knowing the ball he served up to Miller was still traveling, walked the next two batters, Jay Bruce and Miguel Cairo.  Drew Stubbs then uncorked his second homer of the day and it was now 13-3.   Stevens then walked the pitcher Leake and gave up a single to Phillips.  Lou went out and got his human gasoline can out of the game.  Stevens line - 0 IP, 4 ER, 3 H, 3 BB.  A good number of Reds fans made the trip from Cincinnati and they were reveling in the beating the Big Red Machine was giving the Cubbies.  Bobby Howry spared Stevens further damage by getting Cabrera to fly out to end the inning much to the grateful delight of the home run weary fans.

The wonderful thing about Wrigley, is that despite the beatdown the Cubs were getting, you were at a magnificent shrine of a ballpark on a beautiful though warm day.  You had an old time band walking around the ballpark playing.  There was a wonderful rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the seventh inning by two local well known husband and wife opera singers.  There were the skybox seats in the apartment buildings, the old fashioned scoreboard and of course that green green ivy and brick.   Just a perfect July Fourth.

Stubbs put an exclamation point on the day for the Reds by hitting his third HR on the day in the ninth inning.  By then, many of the Cubs fans had headed for the exits already, leaving mostly Reds fans to rejoice on the home run parade.  The Reds belted seven round trippers, which almost accounted for half their hits.  We made the trip back to the Red Line stop along with seemingly thousands of other fans.  Tieff and I got back to our hotel room, showered, changed and headed back out for dinner.

We ended up eating outside at McCormack and Schmick's enjoying good seafood, good scenery and recapping the game we saw.   Then I got my one celebrity sighting as Rush Lead Singer/Bassist Geddy Lee walked right by our table.   We also got to see an Indian wedding procession in the park across the street from us.  Despite all that, it was relatively quiet where we were considering we were on the corner of Chestnut and Rush.

Then it was on to Lake Shore Drive and the fireworks on Lake Michigan.  Tons of people, including us, illegally crossed the very busy Lake Shore Drive, hopped the barrier and took a spot to watch the festivities. It was a good show, which I did videotape with my camera (coming to my Youtube channel in the distant future).  Finally, we capped the night with some great Ghiardelli chocolate ice cream which I first got to experience the last time I was in Chicago as well.  Tieff and I each got a bag of chocolates for our wives and after one last walk around the area, we limped back to our hotel rooms.

Our plans for July 5th was a doubleheader.  First the Milwaukee-San Fran game at Miller Park, then the night cap, the White Sox hosting the Angels at U.S. Cellular.  Accomplishing it would be another story.

Two One of a Kinds Pass Away for the Yankees

It's been a rough past several days for New York Yankees fans.  Long time public address announcer Bob Sheppard passed away on Sunday at age 99.  Having been to so many Yankee games (and even NY Giants games where he was the public address announcer from 1956 to 2006), with the exception of Vin Scully, there was no more distinct voice in professional sports than Bob Sheppard.

Then today, the long time owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner passed away suddenly due to a heart attack at the age of 80.  Steinbrenner, to say the least, was a complicated man.  He was known for his volatile temper, his will to win, and his willingness to change managers seemingly as often as people change their bedsheets.  But he was also known for supporting many former NY Yankee players and stories have come out about his countless acts of charity, often many of which he did anonymously.

But what I will always remember most about Steinbrenner is what I said on my Facebook status today;

Say what you want about George Steinbrenner, but I will take the way he owned a baseball team ANY DAY over the likes of Peter Angelos, Robert Nutting (Pirates) and David Glass (Royals). George wanted to win no matter what and did whatever he could to win - hiring the right talent evaluators, putting as much money into the franchise as he got out of it. That's ownership.

Steinbrenner seemingly put as much money into the team that he profited out of it.   And it's not just the free agents his team has bought.  Look at the Yankees talented minor league system, which has been very good since the mid 90's.  That's due to investing in Latin America, Japan and the US minor league scouting system.  He took a team that was worth only 8.3 million in 1973 in a ballpark, which a friend of mine described that back then in the late 60's and early 70's as being "run down and filled with drug dealers" into an elite organization with a renovated monument to baseball (I loved the renovated Old Yankee Stadium) with seven World Championships during his tenure.

And he ended up getting his new Yankee Stadium, which I consider a giant palace/museum.  But he was able to do that because he knew the correct philosophy to successful ownership - you have to spend money to make money.   And he wanted to win..oh so wanted to win.  And that's why he was so successful.

An era ended today.

Day 3 - Lions, Tigers and Sloth Bears, Oh My!

Toledo, Ohio was only supposed to be a stopping point on the way to Detroit last Saturday night.   We had tickets for the Tigers - Mariners game which started at 7:00 pm.   Since Toledo was only a couple of hours away, we took our time that morning.   We actually were in Maumee, Ohio which is a suburb of Toledo, staying at a Fairfield Inn that was under renovation. So much so, that the entrance to the pool didn't have a door handle.  

First on the agenda was breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Maumee.  It was my first time at a Cracker Barrel and to be very honest, I felt like I was transported back in time and on to the set of Hee Haw.  It's a very southern restaurant chain with a country motif, including I guess what you call a general store entrance.  There were also a ton, and I mean a ton of rocking chairs on the porch of the restaurant up for sale.  All that was missing was Roy Clark and Buck Owens playing and saying "Pickin and a Grinnin".  You need to know your Hee Haw for that line.  Now breakfast was actually quite good, and also to be honest, I really liked beng there. It was a nice change of pace.

After now getting one of the Hee Haw songs stuck in my brain, we decided to head toward a shopping mall on a very hot Saturday to get my kids some presents.  As we followed my navigation system's route, we realized that we were heading directly towards the Toledo Zoo.  So we decided to chuck the shopping mall idea and hang out at the Toledo Zoo.  As I noted on my Facebook status,"What do two guys on a baseball trip do to pass the time before the Tigers game?  Go to the Toledo Zoo!"

The Toledo Zoo is a large zoo right outside of the city. It's actually quite well done.  The zoo is split into two parts.  Each part of the zoo is on separate sides of the highway, joined together by an enclosed walking bridge, or as we call at Hofstra, a Unispan.  The cost of the zoo is quite reasonable, $11.00 for adults.  

There are a lot of exhibits at the zoo - snow leopard, lions, cheetah (though it was closed), a an African safari exhibit with wildebeest, giraffes, antelope and zebra, a nice aquarium and insect exhibit,  Our favorite was the gorilla exhibit, where the one dominant male gorilla, put on a show during feeding time.  He clapped his hands for the oranges and kept wanting more.  And oh yeah, there was those couple of times he scared off the other gorillas there when they went near an orange that he wanted.  Very entertaining.

We ended up spending three hours at the Toledo Zoo and our mission was accomplished.  Two guys with seemingly nothing to do before going to a ball game in Detroit ended up having a really good time at a zoo that my two boys would love.  And oh yeah, I got each of them a toy Volkswagen Beetle that had either leopard spots or zebra stripes.  Nice.

We headed out to Detroit and made it there pretty quickly.  As we made our way toward the city from the highway, we could tell we were in a city that was a veritable postcard for the industrial revolution. From a distance there were lots of smokestacks which dominated each side of the highway.  

As we got into the city itself, we could tell how much of a toll the downturn of the automobile industry had taken on the city of Detroit.  On each side of the highway, a significant number of  houses and buildings had their windows boarded up or had no windows at all.  The buildings were abandoned, just like the industry that had put Detroit on the map.  It was sadly everything you  had seen from news reports over the years, but you had wished it was just media hype.  

We parked in a parking garage right next to the Fox Theater and decided to hit the Hockeytown Cafe for an early dinner.  The Hockeytown Cafe is literally across the street from Comerica Park and it's really a major tourist attraction.  It has several levels and has a ton, and I mean a ton of sports memorabilia.  Of course, I had to take a picture of the Trammell and Whitaker jerseys, inseparable as the double play combination was in their heyday for the Tigers.

We had a pretty good early dinner, standard sports cafe food.  The pulled pork sandwich on white toast was a nice touch and we had a front row seat for the large flat screen TV showing the Mets - Nationals game in which Steven Strasberg was pitching.  We fortunately got in there early because when we left there was a lot of people waiting for a table. 

Then it was onto Comerica Park.  It only took a few minutes for me to fall for this truly magnificently done ball park. There are so many touches, little and small, too numerous to even write in this blog, but I will try to capture many of the details I can.  


First, the entrance with the giant tiger and the tigers on top of the entrance is downright impressive. Quite possibly the coolest entrance to a MLB ballpark I have seen (and I have now seen 16 Major League ballparks, including the now extinct Shea Stadium and Old Yankee Stadium).  Second, the ability to completely walk around the entire park on the same level is what I consider one of those small neat touches. Third, before you go into the ballpark, walk along the side street between Comerica and Ford Field, the domed football field right next to Comerica.   It's pretty neat to see a line of Tigers banners on one side of the street and Lions banners on the other side.  You also see that every so often on the side of the Comerica building is a tiger head with a baseball in its mouth.  Another neat touch.

Fourth, the Tiger carousel in the food court was just a great idea.  Something for the kids while you go online for food is just a nice thought and very well done.  Right by there also is a Tiger painted Statute of Liberty.  I am sure Yankee fans will find that sacrilege, but I thought it was pretty neat.  Now I can't say anything about the food at the Tigers game because we ate at Hockeytown USA.   But you won't go hungry.


However, the touch I loved the most was the historical decade centerpieces that are in the first level walkway as you go around the park.   Each of them has a review of the Tigers from the 20's, 30, 40's etc.   It's a baseball historian's wet dream (for want of a better term).  And I really liked the fact that they put in something historical from that decade, like an old fashioned radio.

Here's a tip, get to the ballpark early for enough for batting practice, even if it's just the road team's batting practice.  Then go sit in the outfield seats, whether it's left field or right field.   The first thing you realize is that the park is ENORMOUS and it takes a good poke to hit a home run at Comerica.  No wonder Juan Gonzalez had a conniption when he played there when it first opened.  And you can see in left field  because they put up a new fence for the bullpen and you can see the difference between the new fence and the existing wall where the first row of seats are.


The second thing you notice when you are at your seat is that the Tigers did an excellent job with the field, the scoreboard, the center field Chevrolet Fountain, the whole backdrop is really well done.  The one thing I highly suggest is that if you go to a Detroit game in early July for a 7pm start, and your seats are field level on the third base line, bring a pair of sunglasses (which I thankfully did).  The sun is right in your eyes for a good four innings.  

As for the game itself, well we were fortunate to be there when the Tigers ace, Justin Verlander was starting.  He was definitely by far the best starting pitcher we would see pitching on this trip.  He also was a hit with the ladies as a lot of female Tigers fans went to the third base line to take his picture as he strolled out to the bullpen.  The only other player I have seen that with in the past few weeks was the Phillies Jayson Werth, when I had RF tickets for a Phillies home game during a conference I was attending. Memo to the Phillies - Don't trade Werth.  The guy is a freakin rock star in Philly.  Try to pawn off Ibanez and spend the money resigning Werth.

Verlander didn't disappoint the fans (or the female admirers for that matter).  He was on top of his game.  The weak Mariners lineup struck out early and often.  Meanwhile, it took a few innings, but the Tigers lineup finally got to Mariner starter Jason Vargas in the fourth inning for two runs, then knocked him out with four runs in the fifth inning. That broke Vargas' span of fourteen straight starts of allowing three earned runs or less in a game.  


What I really think did Vargas in was the Tigers All Star player Miguel Cabrera.  After Cabrera hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the second against him, Vargas walked Cabrera two straight times, one intentionally.  Both were in the middle of the two innings where the Tigers scored all their runs.  Cabrera simply intimidated Vargas.  

And rightfully so considering Cabrera is hitting .346 with 22 HRs and 77 RBIs.   The previous day during breakfast, I was reading a Sports Weekly in the hotel lounge about Cabrera turning his life around and stopped drinking last season.  He actually is now more focused than ever and it shows. Here's the scary thing. Before this season,in his previous six full seasons, Cabrera only once hit less than 33 HRs, never had a full season less than 103 RBIs and in his six full seasons never hit under .292 (and hit above .300 in four of those six full seasons).   Cabrera is close to being the Albert Pujols of the AL.


You could have left the game after the fifth inning.  The Mariners were toast. The lineup featured a cleanup hitter hitting .240 and the five through nine batters were for the most part even worse.  We actually left for the long trip to Chicago after the sixth inning.  Verlander would go seven innings and strike out ten Mariners.   Anyone who attended the game could tell that Cliff Lee was going to be traded in a short amount of time.   The Mariners are going to need to require a lot of revamping in the offseason.  A lot of revamping.

Meanwhile, Tigers' fans should rejoice as the Tigers should be good for several years to come. Cabrera is a dominant force in the lineup and Magglio Ordonez makes a great Pippen to Cabrera's Jordan.  The Tigers have young star hitters in Austin Jackson and the pictured Brandon Boesch.  And Detroit has good young pitching in Verlander, Max Scherzer, and if he can straighten himself out, Rick Porcello.  


As I noted we had seen enough and we headed back to the parking garage to get our car for the long trip to Chicago.  But first, I had to take a picture of the large Tiger in the front entrance.  So cool.  I took a couple of pictures also of the Fox Theatre and of Hockeytown Cafe.   As we headed out of the parking garage, we saw a lot of young twenty somethings lined up for a club nearby the stadium, with a lot of the female clubgoers wearing things I would not want my daughter wearing (well if I had a daughter that is).  Then, we left Detroit as quickly as we came in.  Sadly there was nothing else to see but more abandoned buildings on the highway. 

We then traveled across the state of Michigan.  As we did, we ended up taking out a lot of kamikaze bugs on an interstate highway in Michigan.  When we stopped for gas later on, Tieff had to clean the windshield and the front of the car a few times from all the bugs that gave up their lives on my Honda Accord.  Finally, we got to our hotel room in Chicago around midnight.  Another day, another city, another stadium.   


And if you are wondering, "why the title to the article?"  Well, we saw lions at the Toledo Zoo.  And of course, we saw the Tigers play.  Sloth Bears?  Well that was also at the Zoo.  And if you are wondering what a sloth bear is, look at the picture to your left.  Again, the things you learn on a baseball trip.