Chicago Cubs: There’s nothing like a day in the Wrigley Field bleachers

Chicago Cubs: Calling his shot – sending the fans home happy

We’re hyped. As diehard baseball fans, we’re staring at not one, but two games in the eye. So we’re going head-to-head on The Show. Now, both of us are incredibly competitive. It’s down to the wire. Ninth inning – he’s playing as the Cubs at Wrigley. I don’t even remember who I was using – it didn’t much matter at the end. Here’s why.

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He digs in with Kyle Schwarber. Looks over at me sitting next to him and goes, “Walk-off. Dead center.” I roll my eyes because this is the type of thing he says all the time – it’s just how he is. I brush it off and deliver the pitch.

Crack.

An absolute missile. To dead center. Game over.

He’s running circles around his apartment, screaming and jumping up and down. To this day, every time we’re a few beers deep, I get reminded about this humbling defeat. Thankfully, his girlfriend Gretchen showed up a few minutes later and spared me any further embarrassment.

We walked the couple miles to the Friendly Confines for the opener. Trevor ‘Big Country’ Cahill was on the bump for Chicago (a nickname Zach and I lovingly gave him before the game). Dude was dealing. He turned in five shutout frames, looking like the team’s trio of aces in Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Jake Arrieta.

Chicago Cubs: A dominant doubleheader and so much more

The Cubs cruised – and Zach, Gretchen and I were riding the wave of beer and vodka lemonades. We headed across the street to Murphy’s in between games to continue our escapades – and felt like calling my then-fiance would be a fantastic idea. Keep in mind that we’re mere weeks from our wedding at this point. She was at work that day – a fact she still laments. But we called her nonetheless, proposing we should order Luke Bryan tickets.

Bryan was set to play at Wrigley a week before our wedding and in the true spirit of the day, my wife actually agreed to this. I’m still not sure how – but she said yes and we ordered the tickets right then and there.

A few weeks later, on Aug. 27, the four of us enjoyed the show – and, to this day, hang out all the time. So… drinking beer and vodka lemonades and making impulse buys should always be the plan of action, right?

The night game brought more of the same – another Cubs win, even more beer and drinks – and good times. I can’t say the photos we took were good. But the memories, to this day, outshine going to postseason games and even being on the field itself. I’ve sat everywhere in Wrigley – but nothing will ever top that Tuesday afternoon four years ago where we spent the day in the bleachers screaming ,”You go, we go,” at the top of our lungs.