I was the first person to my car in the U.S. Cellular Field parking lot and the race was on. Could I get to Toyota Park, buy a ticket and get into the stadium within 20 minutes? Since both U.S. Cellular Field and Toyota Park are relatively close to Chicago’s Interstate-55 it was definitely possible.
Parking and Obtaining TicketsI was at the Toyota Park parking lot at 6:55 pm (luckily for me there was no Saturday evening Chicago traffic) and used my media parking pass to park quickly. Since Jamie Trecker, …

On Saturday I had planned on a doubleheader day. First up was the Crosstown Classic at U.S. Cellular Field. Second was the SuperLiga match between the Chicago Fire and Tigres UANL (a Mexican club team) at Toyota Park.
However, since the first pitch of the Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox game was scheduled for 3:10 pm and kickoff for the soccer match was at 7 pm, I could not afford much of a delay in the baseball game. Thus, I had to drive since Interstate-55 basically connected both stadiums.
Parking & …

Even though the Crosstown Classic at U.S. Cellular Field was taking place Friday afternoon, I chose to attend the Dew Tour’s Nike 6.0 BMX Open in Grant Park. The Dew Tour was established in 2005 and is considered the world’s premier action sports tour – whereas ESPN’s X Games is a single event. Also, with the Taste of Chicago taking place right across the street, I figured this was a good day to take in both events.
Obtaining TicketsI bought a $15 ticket when I arrived at the event. Little did …

Once again, I attended a weekday afternoon Chicago White Sox game. This time the Dodgers were in town and the White Sox were wearing uniforms from the 1959 season to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the World Series team that lost the 1959 World Series to the Dodgers.
Obtaining TicketsI bought a ticket seven rows from the field for $15. The ticket was a season ticket (meaning the face value printed was cheaper than the seat would have cost at the box office) with a face value of $46 ($52 if …

After the U.S. Open it was time to drive to Queens for the New York Mets game versus the St. Louis Cardinals. Last season, I wrote that I went to Nationals Park to attend a game at every existing Major League Baseball ballpark. Once again, MLB opened up two more parks this season – Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. With the Mets playing on Monday night, my decision to day trip to New York City for the doubleheader – Monday regulation play at the U.S. Open and a game …

On Thursday afternoon, when play for the U.S. Open was suspended for most of the day, I started to think about attending U.S. Open regulation play on a Monday. However, it was not until Sunday night, when play was scheduled for 9 am ET Monday morning that I decided to put my Monday day trip to New York City into motion.
Travel PlansI had a free ticket on Southwest Airlines and flights were available to Long Island arriving at 9:05 am and returning Tuesday morning at 7:45 am.
Rather than take the …

On Saturday after the Cubs game, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I drove to New Buffalo, MI to spend Saturday night. It just so happened that on Sunday afternoon, the Women’s Professional Billiards Association’s Great Lakes Classic event was taking place in Michigan City, IN – a short 10 mile drive from the place we were staying.
Obtaining TicketsThe event took place at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. The only issue with attending the event on Sunday was that it cost $55 per ticket – a fairly pricey proposition …

For the second day in a row, Kerry Wood blew a one-run lead and this time received the loss as the Cubs defeated the Indians 6-5 in 13 innings – the 9th longest game I have ever attended in terms of number of outs recorded (76).
Pre Game DiningBefore the game the Ultimate Sports Wife and I ate at Salt & Pepper Diner located at 3537 N. Clark St. just south of Wrigley Field on Clark St. Salt & Pepper Diner recently raised the prices on all of their drinks …

Once again there was rain at Wrigley Field. And with the Ultimate Sports Wife and I needing to attend a Northwestern Graduation Party later on Friday afternoon, we had no time for a rain delay. The ideal day would have been for the game to start on time, attend the game and drive to Evanston for the party.
However, that plan was not meant to be as the game was delayed for 86 minutes – pushing the start time back to 2:45 pm. Of course, the Ultimate …

Game 2 of the Crosstown Classic had much more drama than the first game on Wednesday – especially for Cubs fans. First, Carlos Zambrano was back pitching after his May 27th meltdown versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. Second, with the Cubs trailing 5-1 heading into the bottom of the 8th all signs pointed to a two-game sweep for the White Sox.
However, the Cubs rallied against Scott Linebrink and scored 4 runs in the 8th inning after Derrek Lee hit a three-run home run and Geovany Soto followed that with a solo …