Even though I did not attend a sporting event last night, the minor league game from Tuesday night ended with the Peoria Chiefs defeating the Kane County Cougars 9-8 in 12 innings. The final 3.5 innings were played in Peoria in front of a crowd of 4,232. Although it was the first suspended baseball game I have attended, it was not the first suspended sporting event.
On December 12, 2004, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I were at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium watching Real Madrid host Real Sociedad. …

Day 2: The second day of our tour of Chicago started with breakfast/brunch at a good Chicago staple: Ann Sather. A stop at Ann Sather’s was a request from our friends since they remembered and craved the enormous cinnamon rolls. Of course, I was not going to disappoint them. We all indulged in two cinnamon rolls…each.
We hopped on the El to head downtown and do some touring. We took the brown line- which is the best tourist option. It is not as fast as the redline subway, but it has …

Last night was a night of firsts at Wrigley Field.
First, the Peoria Chiefs hosted the Kane County Cougars, which was considered the first minor league baseball game ever played at Wrigley Field.
Second, it was Ryne Sandberg’s (manager of the Peoria Chiefs) first time in uniform at Wrigley Field since September 21, 1997 – a game I also attended.
Third, the game drew 32,103 fans – shattering the previous record for a Midwest League game. The previous record was 14,492 at Kane County last year. Just 10 days …

After traffic in Chicago’s northern suburbs and around Milwaukee’s airport, I finally parked at Miller Park at 6:45 pm – 20 minutes before the first pitch and 2 hours after I left the office. As I approached the Miller Park box office, no ticket scalpers were offering tickets for sale, but mainly asking if anyone had extras. The lines for Will Call were long, but I saw a tickets.com tickets kiosk. I slid my credit card into the machine and out came my ticket. I had not used a ticket …

Normally, I never buy tickets ahead of time, especially for a Milwaukee Brewers game. However, tonight I am attending the Cubs at Brewers game at Miller Park. This morning, I logged onto www.brewers.com to see what tickets were available. Some $60 singles and Standing Room Only (SRO) for $22 was all that was available. When I went to see how many SRO seats were available, my seat number was in the 1300’s. I thought, maybe I can buy a cheaper ticket from a scalper at …

After a busy Saturday around Wrigley Field, Sunday was much calmer. The Cubs came from behind twice, once from 5-0 down, to beat the Florida Marlins 9-6.
In the random records category:1) Dan Uggla tied Joe Gordon (yes, that’s Gordon) for the most home runs hit by a second baseman in his first three seasons.2) The 4-game series against the Marlins drew a record 165,540 fans which broke the attendance record for a 4-game series at Wrigley Field.

In the longest baseball game I have attended this season, the Florida Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 in 12 innings. For the third time this season, I witnessed the home plate umpire leaving the game. The first time the umpire left, I wrote that I had not seen an umpire leave a game since Game 1 of the 2003 NLCS. I am not sure why umpires are not getting along with Wrigley Field this year.
Lou Piniella and first base coach Matt Sinatro were ejected from the …

It is not until two British tourists show up at your door that you are forced think about what to do in a city with so many possibilities. If you are a lifelong Chicagoan, then the pressure is even worse.
Our British friends, Mick and Caroline, planned a three-day visit in Chicago during their larger U.S. vacation. In the planning phase of this visit, we made sure that their visit coincided with at least one Cubs game, but that wasn’t until the last night of their trip. So, to make the …

On Thursday night, our friends from London, England were in town, so of course, we needed to “experience” Wrigleyville. Before the game, we decided to eat at the new Harry Caray’s Tavern located at 3551 N. Sheffield Avenue. However, the place was already packed at 5:15 pm. We chose to move on and walk to Clark St. The restaurants on Clark St. were empty. We attributed the emptiness to not being located next to the Addison El stop.
We ate dinner at The Central – www.thecentralchicago.com. The Central had a lot …

Over two months ago, I wondered why I never thought of watching live horse racing. Today, I finally decided to drive to Arlington Park to watch the races during my lunch (two) hour(s).
The drive to the track was 15 minutes from the office. Since only 8 races were on the program today, I could watch 4-5 races and still be back at the office in a reasonable amount of time (plus with my laptop and Arlington Park’s wireless network I could work during the 30 minute downtime between each race).
Admission …