Greetings everyone - this is our penultimate blog post covering our time in Chicago and Indiana.
We had a Saturday night game on August 26 in Milwaukee and plans for the White Sox and A's game on Sunday afternoon (August 27) in Chicago starting at 1:10. Thankfully, the drive from Milwaukee to Chicago isn't that long, but we did run into some rough Chicago traffic on I-90 on the way to the Southside. Even with the traffic, we still arrived an hour before the game so we could walk around and view the monuments outside the stadium. Our seats were on the first base side in the upper deck per picture on the left on a beautiful, sunny 71 degree day. However, we lost our sun by the second inning so in the 5th inning we moved over to the third base side to keep soaking up the sun.
The coolest thing we saw at Guaranteed Rate Field (I prefer to still call it Comiskey) was all six of the Chicago Bulls NBA championship trophies from the 1990's on display. Since the White Sox stink this year, this display had the longest line.
As for the baseball game, the White Sox won 6-1 over the hapless A's who had three errors and looked like a Little League team at times. I was happy to chant "Down goes Anderson!" each of the three times Tim Anderson from the White Sox struck out - if you don't get this reference, google the lopsided fight between Anderson and our beloved Jose Ramirez on August 5.
This was not our first time at Comiskey - we came here once in 2019 to see the then Indians play the White Sox (and enjoy Chicago). One thing I don't get is why the ballpark is oriented the way it is - the picture on the left is from the top of the exit ramp from the stadium with the Chicago skyline in view but you can't see any of this great view from the seats in the stadium.
We love Chicago and we've been here a number of times and seen many of the sights. So, we decided to take a break from sight seeing and relax at our hotel during our off-day on Monday, August 28. However, we did make a stop at Montrose Beach on Lake Michigan as we went up Lakeshore Drive, and we took in a movie (Oppenheimer - one of us thought it was terrific).
On Tuesday, August 29 we took in our final stadium of 30 MLB parks - Wrigley Field. We'd been to Wrigley once before in 1994 with our elementary school age kids. Much has changed in the past 30 years - the area around Wrigley is now well developed and the prices of everything from tickets to parking to food have sky rocketed. One nice thing they've done is add Gallagher Way - an area where you can mingle before the game and look at statues of Cubs greats - including Ernie Banks (pictured on the right).
Inside the park, it's mostly the same as we remembered with the addition of modern video boards and cupholders, but keeping the hand-maintained out of town scoreboard in center field. We forked out for seats in the 300 section so there would be no risk of sitting behind a pole (those are still there).
It was a breezy night with a steady 17 mph wind blowing in from the outfield. There were probably 3 or 4 fly balls that might have been homers on another night, but which were flyouts on this evening - including a spectacular catch by the Cubs' Ian Happ against the ivy in the left field corner. The Brewers are in first place in the NL Central and the Cubs are trying to catch them and secure at least a wild-card spot. So, a meaningful ballgame in late August.
This looked to be a pitcher's duel with 14 game winner Justin Steele pitching for the Cubbies and former Cy Young winner Cobrin Burnes pitching for the Brewers. And that's what it turned out to be - a 1-0 win for the Cubs (who scored their only run in the bottom of the 1st and made it stand up). Steele threw 111 pitches in 6 innings and Burnes threw 108 in 7 innings - so a modern day duel of great starters. The crowed of over 33,000 was into it and the stadium was rocking all the way through the 9th inning.
Loyal readers may recall that our first game back on April 4 in Miami was a 1-0 pitcher's duel as well. So, it seemed fitting to have a similar game in our 30th ballpark.
While we had finished with all 30 ballparks, we still had one more national park to make it an even 20 park visits in our trip - Indiana Dunes National Park. On Wednesday, August 30 we drove from Chicago to Indiana Dunes which should only take an hour or less but with Chicago traffic took us 2 hours. Indiana Dunes, located at the south end of Lake Michigan is one of the newest national parks having been established in 2019. However, this area has a long history. The park is composed of marshland, sand dunes and beaches on Lake Michigan - mixed in with heavy industry (steel) and a coal and gas fired power plant. This park is reminiscent of Cuyahoga Valley National Park where formerly industrialized areas are being reclaimed and protected.
Our first stop was West Beach where we had a mile hike through the dunes and down to the beach. In the picture on the right, if you look closely at the horizon of the lake on the left side, you can see the Chicago skyline in the distance. The temperature was in the high 60's but there was a stiff breeze off the lake from the north - one reason for all the waves in the pictures.
After stopping by the visitor center, we also took in Mt. Baldy which is the largest dune in the park and also located right next to the power plant - an interesting juxtaposition. We came here primarily to check the box for visiting the park, but we learned a lot of about the park and area, and we're glad to see what remains of the dunes are protected.
After leaving the park, we drove to South Bend, Indiana to spend the night. While there, we had dinner with my old boss Tim Walsh and his wife Molly (and inexplicably forgot to get a picture). Tim and I worked together for 16 years at Duke, and he was my boss for 10 of those years. It was great to see them and catch up.
On Thursday, August 31, we head to Cleveland for a bonus game before we head back to Durham.
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