It was a cool overcast morning in Southside Chicago when my friends Susan, Kristen and I hopped on a #55 bus and headed west to the Garfield Station on the Red Line “L” Train. From there, we boarded a north bound train, above ground at this point, passing U.S. Cellular Field (AKA the new Comiskey Park), proudly displaying it banner that the Chicago White Sox were World Champions in 2005…a seeming taunt to the other team in Chicago who have not won a world championship in 102 years. 
As we approached downtown, our train went underground for a while, eventually emerging on elevated tracks in Chicago’s North Side. We stayed on the train until coming to Addison Street, our destination. As we pulled into the station, I saw it on the left, right there by the station…94 year-old Wrigley Field, the second oldest baseball stadium in America and home to the Chicago Cubs.
At this point, you must understand that I am still a kid at heart. As a little boy, I lived and died for baseball and football. I was a baseball fan before the Giants moved to San Francisco, my hometown. I collected baseball cards by the hundreds, went to San Francisco Seals games, and watched the only weekly TV broadcast of a major league baseball game, hosted by Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. Major league ball players were almost gods to me at my young and tender age. So stadiums like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park in Boston, were the home of the gods which I had no chance of seeing, being a west coast boy. The major leagues were far away in a distant, almost fantasy land.
But, here I was, standing that fantasy world, at the real Wrigley Field. Of course I am a little more realistic today about baseball…I still love the game, but don’t really follow the major leagues anymore. They lost me after their second strike in the 90’s. But, on this day, a was a kid again, fulfilling a childhood dream to see this park and walk among its memories, and that is exactly what I did.
For $25, on days when the Cubs are not playing, you can take a guided tour of this grand old stadium. The tour lasts and hour and a half, although mine lasted nearly two hours.
But before taking the tour, my companions and I needed lunch, so we headed for Harry Carey’s Tavern across from the stadium. For those unfamiliar with that name, Harry was the long-time broadcaster of Cubs game on radio and TV who is a huge icon in Chicago. In fact, there is a statue of him in front of Wrigley. His most enduring expression was “Holy Cow,” so of course I had a Holy Cow burger for lunch.
At the appointed time, I enter the stadium for my tour. It was all I could have hoped for and more. We started out in the right field bleachers and heard stories of the famous Bleacher Bums of Wrigley and about the manually-operated scoreboard…five guys that work in there, changing scores by hand, without benefit of heat or air conditioning…or a bathroom (there is a garden hose with a funnel on it).
From there, we headed for the visitor’s locker room, a place filled with the ghosts of great baseball and football players (the Chicago Bears played at Wrigley until 1970). So, I was in a room that once held the likes of Babe Ruth Lou Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Vince Lombardi and countless others. This surprisingly small room was the epicenter of my childhood fantasies of the baseball gods who played here.
From there, we climbed up to the press box, and saw the view from high above the stadium. We were next to the guest box where a celebrity is selected to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the seventh inning stretch. Of course, prior to his death, this was the sole job of Harry Carey.
From there we sat in the luxury seats, then on down to the holy of holies, the Chicago Cubs dressing room. All the time, our guide was giving us more stories about the park and its history. Finally, we made our way into the Cub’s dugout and onto the field itself where many of the great memories of baseball history took place. It was here that Babe Ruth pointed to center field, indicating he was going to hit a home run there…and did. It was the stadium where a man with a Billy goat was refused entranced and pronounced his now famous curse upon the Cubs. And it is here where ivy grows against the outfield wall and fans throw back home run balls hit by the visiting team.
It was a special day for me, a kid one more time, to see this place and be a part of it, even if only for two hours. At the end of my Chicago visit, my friend Susan asked me what was the highlight of my trip, and I chose this day.
PS: Exactly one week later I flew home to Tucson and when I landed, the first thing I saw upon exiting the plane were the concourse bars’ TV screens showing game from Wrigley Field between the Cubs and Arizona. As I watched a batter at home plate, I was filled with the memory of standing there myself and sitting on the low brick fence just behind him. What a day!
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