Last week, for work, my boss and I had to travel to Chicago. We left here early Tuesday morning and flew out of Charleston at 6:30am. We arrived in Chicago at 6:30am (sometimes time zones can be funny). We weren't scheduled to be in Chicago for the meeting until Wednesday but since we were there we spent the day with our customers in their meeting. That night we were going to accompany two customers to a Chicago Cubs baseball game against the Atlanta Braves. Now, if you don't know, I've been a Cubs fan for about 20 years (prior to that I was a Yankee fan only; but after Thurman Munson died I picked up the Cubs).
My boss has a friend who lives in Chicago and has some connections so he was able to hook us up with some incredible tickets; 2nd row behind the visitor dugout (on the first base line in Wrigley; i guess visitors are normally on the opposite side). We entered the park and had to walk down some stairs to get to our section. While we had expected the seats to be good - we really had know idea how great they really were until we reached them. I could read the text on tattoos on the Braves as they entered and left the field. We couldn't have been in better seats.
Needless to say, I wanted to take a photo - but I had accidentally left the camera in WV. I could have bought a disposable during the day but I didn't really think it would be worth the money (I didn't know how great these seats would be). After the first inning I would have paid a small fortune for a camera. I ran around the park asking every vendor if they had any for sale - everyone was sold out. I was bummed - but managed to persevere with my great seat. After the fourth inning I noticed this attractive blonde in front of me had a camera phone. Building up my courage I asked her if she would take a photo and email it to me. She looked at me as if I had the plague and claimed ignorance on how to use the camera and email the photos (all the while she was taking photos of the players). I graciously accepted my vile status of strange guy asking weird questions and went back to watching the game.
Our seats (did I say they were amazing yet?) were basically a ticket to a free baseball from the players. Well, they were if you were a kid, a hot woman, or someone who could catch the damn ball. It turns out I was none of those three. Every kid in our section got a ball. The aforementioned hot blonde got 2 (her hotter brunette friend got a couple as well) and I had one tossed right to me. Since I'm neither a kid or a hot woman I am clearly a moron who can't catch. Oh, I tried - I put my glove up, the ball faded to my right a little (over my boss) and I leaned to catch it. I leaned forward over the first row to make sure I caught it and it wouldn't hit the 79 year old lady in the aisle seat. I guess I should use a glove more often (or just bare hand it in the future) because the ball "supposedly" hit the pinky of my glove, fell down and hit the old lady on the head, and rolled into the aisle where it was immediately hawked up by a kid who had already been given a ball. He dove, grabbed the ball, and ran.
Supposedly, my boss was going to catch the ball (to give to his 4 year old daughter) but I was having none of that. I'm greedy. I'm a Cubs fan who was at Wrigley for the first time in his life, with PERFECT seats, and a ball headed right to my boss! Hell no he wasn't getting it. I was! Well, I would have if I could have caught. Damn me and my foul glove. No camera and no ball. I did buy a ball from the gift shop ($10) but, really, that is a poor replacement for the ball that should have been.
To top off the great night though, the Cubs won 10-1. Go Cubbies!