Wrigley Field, Chicago -- Aug. 3, 2008

Almost done, folks, and this one will be short.

A year ago I proclaimed Wrigley Field preferable to Fenway Park and now, having been to both again within the last six weeks, I say so again.

Both are relics. But Fenway has included modern trappings that I find out of place. It has the big video scoreboard and advertising all over the place. Wrigley has none of that. It looks the way it might have looked in the 1930s, except for those bleacher seats atop the neighborhood roofs, and you can't blame the Cubs for that.

I also find Cubs fans clever in a pathetic, self-effacing way. Much of the Red Sox paraphernalia you see rips on the Yankees, or commemorates the two recent World Series wins as if they were 20. But I saw these examples of Cubs gear:

* Centurypeat!

* A jersey with Rowengartner, No. 1 on it (see previous post).

* A shirt honoring the Cubs' three World Series winners -- 1885, 1907 and 1908.

Not gonna say much about the park. What's to say? I've seen it, you've seen it. But any time I come here it brings back memories of afternoons spent away from campus in the mid-1970s, and those were good times. It was good to come back.

Thanks for reading. Maybe next year I'll learn how to do this better.

Outside Wrigley Field

Three items of interest:

* I should have taken a picture of this. It was surreal. Flyers on lamp posts alongside the stadium were advertising an upcoming concert by one Thomas Ian Nicholas. I thought to myself, "Isn't that ... ?" and then I checked when I got home. It is. Thomas Ian Nicholas is the kid who played Henry Rowengartner, the 12-year-old who pitches the Cubs to the World Series in the 1993 movie Rookie of the Year. Now he is a musician who has some Illinois dates this month. http://www.thomasiannicholas.com/ Is this an omen or what?

* I did take a picture of this. A character named Billy Cub stands outside the Cubbie Bear, an establishment across the street from Wrigley Field, and will pose for a picture with you with the famous sign in the background. He also has a bucket so he can hit you up for tips (note his left hand). I thought he worked for the bar, but apparently Billy Cub is a figure of some controversy in Wrigleyville. The Cubs are one of four teams without an actual mascot, and Billy Cub is pushing for the distinction. There's an online petition allowing you to endorse him for the spot. http://www.petitiononline.com/billycub/petition.html I signed his petition and gave him a buck. Who could refuse? The Chicago Reader also had this story about Billy Cub: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wayw/070727/

* They have a new Ernie Banks statue, and the old Harry Caray statue. Speaking of which, did you see Skip Caray died? I can't believe he was 68.

More on the bus

The travel on this trip has been rough. I figure these were the distances each day:

Wednesday, Chicago-Milwaukee, 100 miles

Thursday, Milwaukee-Minneapolis, 300 miles

Friday, Minneapolis-Kansas City, 430 miles

Saturday, Kansas City-St. Louis, 220 miles

Sunday, St. Louis-Chicago, 290 miles

Got to see The Natural on the St. Louis-Chicago run, hadn't seen it before. Couldn't catch some of the dialogue with the din on the bus. They also showed The Sandlot on the Kansas City-St. Louis run which, though terrible, isn't as terrible as The Sandlot II. They had video features on Buck O'Neil and Ewing Kaufman on the way to Kansas City.

Jay Buckley, who runs these tours, has an audiotape for each city with some little-known facts. Try this: If you park at a meter in Chicago, put a peanut M&M wrapper on the dashboard and you won't be ticketed if the meter expires. It means you're a cop.

'Do rag for Dogs

This is the humiliating way they dress them at the kennel where I leave them.

This is Bugs, BTW.

Busch Stadium, St. Louis -- Aug. 2, 2008

I'll have to revise my stadium rankings after this. Either this is No. 2 behind Detroit, or No. 3 behind that and Pittsburgh. It's really nice.

I've talked to people on and not on this trip who don't like it. It caters to its high-end customers, that's for sure. The premium seats in the lower bowl all have cushions. Two levels of luxury suites are directly above the lower stands and span from third base to first, which doesn't allow the stadium to have the open lower concourse that most of the other new ones have. The concourse is mostly open on the top deck, though. I don't think I've seen that before.

All the concourses are busy. There aren't any just for walking. Everywhere you walk you come upon areas for food, merchandise sales or recreation. There's a family pavilion in right field and an open area behind the scoreboard in center. Didn't seem to be as much activity in the outfield areas as there was in, say, Washington, though.

I've never seen a fan base so dedicated to wearing its team's colors. Everywhere is red -- Cardinals jerseys and shirts. The seats are red, too, so if you're stuck with a lousy one in right field like I was, you can't pick out empty seats to which you could migrate. It could be a seat, or it could be a person.

They have a statue of Stan Musial at one of the entryways, and five or six smaller ones nearby. Couldn't tell who they were. The problem with putting these statues outside, as most teams are doing, is that if you're a one-time visitor and you come in a different way, you miss them. I saw them from the top.

Best selection of food I've ever seen, particularly in an area called the Redbird Club on the third deck. You can get almost anything. I couldn't resist the peanut butter cupcake ($5), or the crispy pizza ($7). In scrambling for a place to sit and eat, I dropped the pizza on my shoes. And, as you already know I'm writing four days after the fact, I must report that I can still see dried sauce on my shoelaces today.

Fear not. They made me a new one free.

The players were part of a display in center field. I don't know who they are, but yes, I should have buttoned my shirt. Shows you how hot it was.

The scoreboard is from the last game at Busch Stadium II, just as it was when the Cardinals played their last game there.

Visiting the arch

St. Louis was the only place on the trip where we had time to see the city other than the ballpark. So I spent my afternoon at the Gateway Arch.

It looks impossibly tall when you're alongside it. The wait for a trip to the top was two hours, and I was warned that the egg-like capsules that take you to the summit are not for the claustrophobic. But I wasn't going to pass it up. The fee was $14 and included a movie about the Lewis and Clark expedition. For $22 you could get the arch and a riverboat ride, but I was told that because of currents the boats weren't running.

I passed the two hours at the movie and browsing the museum under the arch devoted to the country's westward expansion. Didn't even know it existed. I found it interesting. They had a timeline with the developments every year from 1800-1900, stretching four full walls. Then they had artifacts from Lewis and Clark. And they had a lot more I couldn't get to.

The film was well done. Lewis took his dog on the trip, so an actor dog was portraying him, sitting on the bow of a rowboat. Didn't see the actor dog toward the end of the film, so I don't know if they were implying that the actual dog didn't make it.

You ride five to each egg heading to the top of the arch. I was alone and got moved to the front, getting the same break I always get on Space Mountain. The ride is four minutes. At the top is a corridor about eight feet wide, with maybe 50 persons there. There were about eight narrow, rectangular windows on each side, one set overlooking St. Louis, the other overlooking the Mississippi. Great view. I could see into the ballpark, where Cardinals Photo Day was happening -- I'd chosen to pass it up for the arch.

Coincidence: I rode down with the same people with whom I'd ridden up.

Pardon the Interruption

I became ill Saturday night, and remained so for the rest of the trip. Then American Airlines lost my suitcase, which contained my cables for uploading photos, for two days.

I'm home now. But even though this has lost all semblance of a blog, I'm going to finish it out of stubbornness.

So where were we? Oh yeah ... en route to St. Louis.