In May, 1990 Dave went to St. Louis for a wedding. Because he'd always wanted to see Wrigley Field, he decided to fly home through Chicago and stop off long enough to catch a Cubs game. He invited DC to join him. When we discovered that the White Sox would also be in town and that they would be playing DC's beloved Yankees, he decided to come - until he found out how much it costs to fly from Vermont to Chicago for one day. But he hit upon the idea of taking the train and we met up at Union Station in downtown Chicago on the afternoon of May 29.

Deciding that a little culture was in order, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, a great art museum whose collection includes 'American Gothic' and Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' which is the painting on the cover of a fine blues album, 'Open All Night' by a group called (oddly enough) The Nighthawks. The Art Institute has a great Impressionist collection too.

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

The original Comiskey Park

The new Comiskey Park rises next to the original.

Welcome to Wrigley Field!

Wrigley Field

After that it was time to head for the ballgame. This was the last year of the original Comiskey Park, which turned out to be a great old place. It was definitely showing signs of age (Comiskey opened in 1910) but it had a definite, quirky charm. There was the picnic area under the stands where people could stand at field level behind a chain link fence right behind the left fielder, the exploding scoreboard first installed by Bill Veeck and a little statue of cherubs (like you see in some gardens) nestled underneath the stands.

This was the first time the Yankees and White Sox had met since Carlton Fisk's run-in with Deion Sanders over Sanders' lack of hustle. No sparks flew this night - probably because it was much too cold. Comiskey Park actually ran out of coffee that night.

The fans were few but friendly - we were sitting next to a blue collar guy who had nothing but contempt for "yuppie Cubs fans" - he produced a card from his wallet which said "Better a sister in a whore house than a brother in Wrigley Field". The White Sox beat the Yankees, much to DC's chagrin.

The next morning we had breakfast with our friend, Jeff who was in Chicago on business. Afterwards, we rode the El out to Wrigley Field.

What a great place to see a baseball game! Despite the cold, we had a blast. The ivy covered walls, the hand operated scoreboard, fans on the rooftops across the street - it was everything we'd ever heard it was. The Cubs lost but Harry Carey sang 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame', the fans threw a Giant home run back on the field and all was right with the world. (For more detail on Wrigley Field, see 1998 - The Two Guys & a Mapholder Classic Ballparks Tour)

DC said, "You know, we should do this again sometime." A tradition is born.