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Cobra Brigade The Blogs By Fans Network


May
15
2008

Cobra Brigade Road Show...Buck's Odyssey, Pt. 2

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****Since we are leaving soon, we are going to Turn Back the Clock a little bit on some of our best posts. Here is Buck's first trip to Wrigley Field from last July.

I have been on somewhat of a miniature ball park odyssey this summer. Thus far, I've travelled to Busch III, Roger Dean Stadium, RFK Stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and am planning on going to Safeco Field in mid-September. However, none of these ball parks excited me more than my visit to Wrigley Field over the weekend to watch my St. Louis Cardinals take on the Chicago Cubs. Why would I want to watch a game at Wrigley so badly? Obviously not to watch the Cubs, but more so to take in the historic aspect of the experience. Despite my hatred of the Cubs, I still respect and love the sport of baseball and the illustrious history that it creates on a daily basis. Being able to watch my Cardinals take on the Cubs in a game at Wrigley was just icing on the top.

This wasn't my first foray into the nostalgic world of baseball as I was able to watch a game at Fenway Park last year and had an absolute blast. I didn't really care who won that game as the Red Sox played the Twins, but just being able to sit in the park and know all of the historic events that had taken place there was exhilirating. That's the same feeling I wanted to get while sitting in Wrigley. Follow after the jump for the rest of the story.


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Before the past weekend, I had only seen Wrigley from the outside and my first impression was that the place was an absolute dump. I expected it to be much like Fenway in the structural/looks department, old and dated. I was pleasantly surprised that, at least to me, it seemed in much better condition than Fenway. The concourse was decent enough and provided some nice nachos with jalapenos. We had access to The Stadium Club and were given a free bobble head of the Empire guy. The Stadium Club also served cold Bud Light, so all was well.  

 

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On the way to our magnificent seats (thanks again Jack, Billie, and Skyler), I was  in awe. The field was pristene, the atmosphere was electric, and I was once again like a little kid in a candy store. I wanted to touch everything and promptly took out my camera and snapped around 25 pictures in a 3 minute span. Our seats in the 6th row, behind the left side batters box, were absolutely great. I had never sat this close during a MLB game. It was amazing. After this experience, my seats at Cardinals games will no longer meet my standards. Pre-game festivities included the ground crew clearing the tarp and Matt Dillon's brother, Kevin aka Drama throwing out the first pitch. We had better seats than that schmuck! Ha. Onto the game.

 
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The game started out in a rain delay as a slight drizzle persisted. We had a mixture of Cubs fans, Cards fans, and indifferent people, who shouldn't come to games around us. The Canadian Grizzly Bear was sitting directly in front of us and was a good guy. He was accompanied by three ladies who were throwing a charity event later that evening. He had very large hands that somehow kept finding their way into my beer as it sat in the cup holder. Then we had the Anxious Tortured Soul Cardinals Fan sitting to our left. This man lived and died with every pitch. He was about to have a coronary with every ball that was thrown. I was not about to let a finger in the beer, an anxious guy, or rain spoil my day.

 
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Everything was going fine until the third inning when Anthony Reyes walked two batters and hit another, leading to the Daryle Ward grand slam. I'm not sure if I'd seen a bigger smile than Ward's as he was lumbering about the bases. Good for him, we deserved it with all those walks, but act like you've been there before. Not long after that a Cards fan got booted from the game to the delight of the Cubs fans. I'm not sure what he did, but I'm sure he deserved to get the boot. Around that point my bladder began to fill and I made my first trip to the bathroom. It was quite adventurous. I didn't know beforehand that Wrigley utilized the 4-H style troughs for urinals. We were all just like cattle being led through stalls into a fence. I mistakenly picked a trough if the middle isle. I performed the standar operating procedure of looking straight forward and to my dismay I found myself staring into the soul of another man. I mean come on! Why couldn't they have made the wall just a little higher so people wouldn't have to stare at each other's faces when taking a leak? That's just weird.

 
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Back on the field, Juan Encarnacion and Brendan Ryan followed up Ward's Grand Slam with solo home runs in the 4th and 5th innings, respectively. Juan's shot was a monster and Ryan golfed it into the left field bleachers. In the 6th inning, after only 70 pitches, Marshall was replaced by Marmol for some inexplicable reason. Marmol experienced bouts of wildness and loaded up the bases. He then threw a wild pitch to Chris Duncan and Albert Pujols raced to home. Pujols was called out, but was safe in my eyes and many others. After seeing a replay, Pujols was definitely safe. That would have made it 5-3 with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Could have changed the game, but it is what it is. That play made me partially lose my voice on Sunday and I'm still a little scratchy today.

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Pujols hit a solo homer in the 8th inning and then the heavens dumped their refuse on us. This was when the bullpen catcher missing the ball debacle took place. The first time I saw a ball come to the backstop I had no clue where it had come from. I'm not used to the bullpen being on the field so I was confused at first. Then it happened 3 more times and I figured it all out. Jack, Skyler, Klompus, and I had battled the rain all day without any rain gear, but the downpour in the 8th was too much, as we retreated back to the Stadium Club. We decided to call it a night and headed back to Klompus' house. The game was finished a little later and the Cubs came out on top 5-3. My Empire bobble head took the brunt of my frustrations on the way home as I kept shaking him so violently that his head kept popping off. I would have really loved to see the Cardinals win the game, but it was great to finally experience Wrigley in person.

To see more of our photos, go to Flikr and check out the Cobra Brigade Roadshow set.

1 Comments
Buck Rampage said

Forgot to mention one thing. While I was in the bathroom, some druken Cardinals fan comes out of a bathroom stall and starts talking shit. He's going on and on and a Cubs fan yells something like "read the paper and check the standings". I gave that guy props in my head. The Cards fan responds by yelling 8 World Championships! I usually don't like this comeback because it is very Yankee'ish, but I enjoyed this one considering that the Cards have won 10 championships. The guy talking trash was a douche and embarrassed me as a Cards fan.

Luckily, he is not representative of the majority of Cards fans.

August 20, 2007 2:21 PM | Reply to this comment

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