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In 2001 Major League Baseball announced that they would switch up interleague play for 2003. The AL East would play a series against the teams from the NL Central for the first time. I made a deal with Adam, a Cubs fan and Yankees hater: Whenever the Yankees play at Wrigley Field, I'll be there. Friday, June 6, 2003, was the date of the first game and Beth and I flew to Chi-town the prior night. We arrived after dinner but the night was early. We enjoyed the mild spring with cheap beers and an acoustic guitar on Adam and Carmen's roof deck. Above and below, Josh, Adam, and I appreciate the sunrise over Lake Michigan. |
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The two-hour rain delay before the game wasn't so bad. We watched TV and listened to music until the tarp was rolled off the field. By the time we walked to the park, Soriano was leading off the first Yankees game at Wrigley since the 1938 World Series. (The Yanks played the Cubs in two previous series: 1932 and 1938, both 4-0 World Series sweeps.) We settled into our right-field seats with a few Old Styles and tried to adjust to the game in front of us. "I can't believe Derek Jeter is at the plate," Adam said, unaccustomed to seeing Yankees in his neighborhood. |
| The game featured the 39-year-old David Wells pitted against the youngster Carlos Zambrano for the Cubs. Wells was given an early 2-0 lead on a first-inning Giambi blast which made the stadium erupt. In fact, nearly half the crowd seemed to root for the Bombers, including the Long Island girls in our row and the dude above in the Mattingly jersey (23). Below right, however, a Cubs fan has a message relating to any potential Cub haters. (Cheatin', Slammin' Sammy Sosa was caught days earlier with a corked bat after 505 home runs.) |
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I'm not much of a Cubs hater (except for that weekend). Since the Yanks and Cubs last met, the Cubs made it to the World Series once, in 1945, and lost (of course). The Yanks have since made it 29 times, winning 19. How can you hate that? It was 5-0 after three innings, and Wells cruised. He didn't walk a batter (big surprise) and even belted a double that one-hopped the left-field fence. Seeing him chug into second base was perhaps the highlight of the day. The Cubbies made it a game with homers by Alex Gonzalez and Corey Patterson but ultimately fell short. Mariano Rivera fanned the Korean rookie Hee Seop Choi to end it. |
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| Coincidentally, Max and Mary were throwing a party on this night to celebrate Mary's graduation from the veterinarian program at the U of Wisconsin-Madison. Adam and I had visited her there in 1998, and she was finally moving on in 2003, having successfully passed yet another milestone on her way to be an animal surgeon. Beth and I were fortunate enough to play guests to her wonderfully thought-out party. Sushi, liquor, good people, and loud music is a good combination. Oh, and I can't forget the insane piles of delicious homemade cookies, courtesy the recent vet school graduate. |
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Above left, I stand (slightly out of place) between
Max's Russian, 6-foot-7-inch-tall boss, Vladimir, and two of Max's
neighbors whose names escape me. Though I only shared a few words
with Vladimir, it was enough for me to recognize that Max was in a
good place at Motorola. Above right, Carmen and Beth share some smiles
with (me) Julie.
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The party was a huge, Italian success. Max bragged that he even scrubbed his bathroom for the event. It didn't go unnoticed, Cascone. I saw Mary's brother Adam for the first time since that Wisconsin trip in '98 and met his lovely girlfriend Marla. Beth played with the levels on Max's turntable. I traded random New York baseball names with Andrew, a member of the Our House bar crew from Allston. Danny Heep. Mike "Pags" Pagliarulo. Dale Berra. Butch Wynegar. Rich Gedman. The end of the night featured the pictures above. Eight of us from the party met up back in Max's neighborhood for some brunch the following afternoon. The French toast (Freedom toast?) was terrific, and we barely felt brainwashed in the Krishna temple/dining establishment. Below right, Josh and I look like idiots as we listen to Saturday's Yankees-Cubs game on the radio. At this point Hee Sop Choi was down on the ground, seriously hurt after colliding with Kerry Wood. Amazingly, he held on to the ball despite losing his consciousness. |
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| While Roger Clemens went for his 300th win (for the third time), Adam and Carmen and Beth and I explored the awesome park near Adam and Carmen's apartment. Lake Michigan was a few minutes away, and a sandy (but fishy) beach was only a few minutes farther from there. Adam and I rented a pair of two-person kayaks with a 92% guarantee that no one would fall into the Lake. I guess we didn't tell the guy who rented us the kayaks that we'd be throwing a Frisbee from one kayak to the next. Or racing each other to retrieve the disc. Adam and Carmen said the lake was very cold and very wet. Sorry, guys. |
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I found my true calling on this trip to Chicago. I was born to be a professional Disc Golf player. Always an avid Frisbee player, I had never played on a real disc golf course before. (I had played with trees and lampposts as targets, but never with a real disc golf target like the one shown at left.) We researched a nice Disc Golf course in Willow Grove Park in Buffalo Grove, a Chicago suburb not far from the airport. We played with our 175-gram discs and in the pouring, driving Illinois rain. The 9-target course stretched for 2,573 feet with a par of 36. After hitting an eagle on the last target--a 420-foot par-5--I finished the course with a score of 27, a perfect -9 on the 9-target course. Now if I can only find a way to play this game professionally. First, I need to find more Disc Golf courses to practice on in the northeast. |
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