The day began with driving to my corporate summer picnic out in Aurora, IL – a 60 mile drive from Wrigley Field. In order to make the drive more worthwhile, we planned to spend the day in Aurora by visiting my wife’s aunt and uncle who live there and attending the Kane County Cougars game Saturday night against the Lansing Lugnuts.
The day had all the makings of a fun family day as we were attending events that were kid friendly (minus the kid part for us). First up was Blackberry …

On a recent road trip back from a wedding in Minnesota, two weary travelers found themselves exhausted in the middle of nowhere.
Being that it was the All-Star Break, there was a drought in events to keep our attention on the way home. Undeterred, Andrew found a small gem in a small town with the Northwoods League All-Star Game in Madison, WI.
If you want all the hairy details about the Northwoods League, then you need to read Andrew’s Blog. If you want the CliffsNotes version, then just keep reading here.
It took …

It’s the All-Star break for Major League Baseball. Generally that means, unless you are attending the All-Star festivities in New York City, cities’ sports events’ calendars are sparse (unless the WNBA happens to be playing).
Since we were driving back from Minneapolis to Chicago on Monday, I looked for events taking place in Wisconsin cities that were on route. Those cities included Eau Claire, Madison and Rockford, IL (we could detour to Milwaukee if necessary). Madison, WI was hosting the Northwoods League All-Star Game on Monday night starting at 7 pm …

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article about if you were attending a baby shower that you should try to find a sporting event on route. These rules also apply for a wedding. This weekend Nicole and I are in Minneapolis, MN for one of our best friend’s weddings. In fact, I am in the wedding party. But that would not deter me from finding an event to attend.
We had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday night and the wedding Sunday evening – …

Andrew pulled off a first in sports travel and attendance.
We are in Minnesota for a wedding and given the fact that he is a groomsman, his schedule is fully booked by the bride. This is quite unfortunate since we can see the Target Center from our hotel.  This was made worse by the fact that we were only two blocks away from the stadium during the pre-nuptial dinner.
Not to be deterred, Andrew had a plan. He could sneak out of the dinner and make it to the WBNA game (Minnesota …

As you may know, I have a few posts on the heated debate in our household about whether Jose Canseco is a Hero or Zero. I try not to entertain Jose by publicizing his antics, but lately, he has been such a hot mess that he is hard to ignore.
It started when I was reading my favorite celebrity trash blog, Perez Hilton, and guess who is airing his dirty laundry in US Weekly?
You got it…Andrew’s childhood hero(zero), Jose Canseco. Given his number tell-all books, I didn’t think it was possible …

In my last baseball game before MLB’s All-Star break, the Cubs beat the Reds 5-1. Carlos Zambrano pitched a gem of a game – giving up only one hit (a HR to Adam Dunn) in 8 innings.
I attended 41 regular season games (43 if you count Spring Training) in the first half of the season this year. Just short of my record 42 regular season games attended before the All-Star Game in 2004.
I bought a standing room only ticket to last night’s Cubs game. Most people refuse to purchase …

Sometimes not much excitement happens at a baseball game. Last night was one of those nights. With our season tickets already in hand, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I crossed the street to attend the Cubs game. The Cubs beat the Reds 7-3. Ryan Dempster became the first Cubs pitcher since Rick Reuschel in 1977 to win his first 10 decisions at home. An interesting side note, but nothing to get too excited about. The Cubs ended up 81-81 and 20 games behind division …

Cheering for the Giants at a recent Giants-Dodgers game was painful. It was also boring.
Fans at AT&T must be so enamored by their baseball park that they forgot about the team that plays there. Where is the love for their Giants? There were no inappropriate heckles…no fighting in the stands…no trash taking in the streets- all the attributes of a fierce sports rivalry.

By Sunday, I had enough of “keeping the peace” with my in-laws and decided to show my true West Coast colors. I did what any respecting fan would …

For the second time in three days, we attended the Giants game at AT&T Park. Yesterday, we had planned to purchase the Chevron ticket deal we had purchased for Friday’s game. However, in order to avoid the ticket handling fee from tickets.com and since we were buying 6 tickets, we planned to buy the tickets at the Giants’ box office.
Ticket Buying Tip #8:When attending a game with more than 4 people it generally makes sense to buy tickets ahead of time or at the box office. Normally …