Last night the Ultimate Sports Wife and I had planned to go to the Cubs game. However, at 3 pm, Nicole called me stating her friend’s husband and two of their three kids were coming to the game. “Do you have parking available?” she had asked. I called the woman back and told her the spot was available. In exchange, she said they had an extra ticket for the Cubs game. We told her we had already planned to go using our two tickets. Then we decided one of us could invite a friend and the other would use their extra ticket.

Charles Merritt, who attended the April 6th game with me, was able to go meaning I was sitting in our upper deck seats and Nicole was going to split time sitting with us and our friends. However, when I received the extra ticket it was in section 114 of Wrigley Field and straight up from the Cubs on-deck circle. “I’ll see you after the game,” said Nicole – obviously deciding that she would not be sitting with Charles and me.

For probably the only time this season, I saw Chipper Jones play. Before yesterday’s game, Jones was batting .420 for the season – trying to become the first player since Ted Williams in 1941 to bat over .400. If he does end up hitting over .400 I will be able to say I saw Chipper hit safely at least once this season. That is similar to saying I saw Barry Bonds hit multiple home runs during the 2001 season. I may not have seen the record setting home run, but I did see a record setting home run.

Alfonso Soriano broke his finger when Jeff Bennett hit him in the 2nd inning and will be out of the lineup for 6 weeks. This was not the first major Cubs injury I have witnessed. On April 19, 2006, I was in the stands when Rafael Furcal crashed into Derrek Lee at Dodger Stadium. Lee broke two fingers and was also out for 6 weeks. On July 11, 2003 when the Cubs hosted the Atlanta Braves, I witnessed Mark Prior running into Marcus Giles. Both players missed the 2003 All-Star game because of the collision.

Note: When googling “prior 2003 injury”, the following blog post came up. Cubs f/x speculates that Prior’s injury plagued career could have started with that 2003 run-in at Wrigley Field.