Wrigley Field

THE TRIP STORY

More than a box score

Stadium #3 is officially in the books, and our first same-day baseball road trip gave us one heck of a day.
We left St. Louis early Sunday morning, picked up Stephanie, made the obligatory Wally’s stop, and headed north into enemy territory.
One of the strangest things about Wrigley is that you really don’t see it coming. There’s no giant stadium rising in the distance. You’re walking through a Chicago neighborhood and suddenly…there it is.
We grabbed the obligatory picture under the iconic Wrigley marquee, and almost immediately the gates opened.
My first impression inside was how different it felt from Busch and Yankee Stadium. Those parks feel big and open. Wrigley feels tight, compact and old-school. Walking through the brick lower concourse almost had a Main Street feel to it. You know immediately that you’re somewhere with history.
And Wrigley really is a ballpark where you can see more than a century of changes layered on top of each other.
Unfortunately, one of those changes had a pretty big effect on our first view of the field.
We were in Section 220, Row 23, and the suites absolutely killed the sightline. We could see the field, but not much above it. Fly balls disappeared, the famous manual scoreboard wasn’t visible without walking down the section, and sometimes we had to watch the players to figure out what happened.
The upper deck dates back to the 1920s, but the enclosed mezzanine suites underneath it came much later. They basically took an old ballpark and figured out how to squeeze modern luxury suites into it.
They have TVs and a smaller scoreboard to compensate, but next time I’d definitely choose lower rows or head upstairs.
Because once I explored the upper terrace and saw the full field, ivy, bleachers, rooftops, manual scoreboard and Chicago skyline, THAT was the Wrigley Field I had expected.
And explore I did.
I walked as much of the stadium as my ticket would allow, although I learned you can’t access the outfield bleacher area without a bleacher ticket. I found the World Series wall, Hall of Fame wall and preserved chalk wall, made my way around the upper terrace, and even spotted the rooftop deck where a friend was watching the game.
I couldn’t actually find him.
But I found the rooftop. That counts, right?
There’s another piece of Wrigley history you can almost miss if you don’t know about it: the bullpens. For decades, pitchers warmed up right there in foul territory alongside the field. During the renovations, the bullpens were moved underneath the outfield bleachers for the 2017 season, opening those old bullpen areas for additional seating.
That’s what I found fascinating about Wrigley. It isn’t a preserved museum that hasn’t changed since 1914. It has been modified over and over again to keep an incredibly old ballpark functioning in modern Major League Baseball.
Some of those changes work better than others—especially when you’re sitting behind one of them.
I also learned that apparently Wrigley has rules about when you can stop and take pictures while exploring.
I may have been yelled at once. 😂
Then there was the food.
I had to try a Chicago dog. I ate the first bite exactly as Chicago intended, and it was good. Not life-changing, but good.
Then I decided it needed a little Cardinals red.
Yes. I put ketchup on a Chicago dog.
At Wrigley Field.
I regret nothing.
I did, however, regret not warning Sarah about the sport pepper. She found out the hard way and ended up commandeering Oscar’s Sprite to put out the fire.
Oscar apparently made the better food decision because one of his lasting memories of Wrigley is the “amazing mac & cheese helmets.”
His other memory?
“How crazy we won 11–4,” followed by his declaration that Wrigley is “just an amazing stadium.”
Audrey’s review was considerably shorter: the old-school feel and the loud music.
And she’s right. The organ, the music, the standings flags and especially the seventh-inning stretch were everything you’d expect at Wrigley. For all the things I can nitpick about our seats, you really can feel the history in that place.
Another thing we noticed immediately was RED. Lots of it.
At Yankee Stadium, Cardinals fans looked like scattered red dots in a sea of pinstripes. At Wrigley, it felt like Cardinals fans might have made up 20–30% of the crowd.
And this was our first Chasing 30 road game where the Cardinals WON, so that was a completely different experience.
And win they did.
After Saturday’s offensive explosion, we joked on the way up that we hoped the Cardinals had saved a few hits for Sunday.
Apparently they did.
Cardinals 11. Cubs 4. At Wrigley Field.
And a series win over the Cubs.
There were several moments when the Cardinals fans in the building made themselves known. But I also have to give the Cubs crowd credit. Even down big late in the game, when Chicago hit a home run, that place erupted like they had just taken the lead.
Most of the Cubs fans around us were fun. We did have one woman sitting next to Audrey who wasn’t particularly enjoying the Cardinals’ success—and made sure everyone knew it. 😂
We’ve talked with the kids about being gracious winners and losers, especially when we’re visitors in somebody else’s house. Rivalries are a lot more fun when everyone can enjoy them.
One of my favorite surprises actually came after the game.
Clark Street was completely shut down and packed with people. Restaurants, bars, vendors and crowds stretched for blocks and gave the whole neighborhood almost a street-festival atmosphere.
That was when something about Wrigley really clicked:
Wrigley doesn’t sit next to the neighborhood. It feels like it’s part of the neighborhood.
Then came the experiment we hadn’t tried before: driving four hours to a game and four hours home in the same day.
We learned some things. 😂
It CAN be done. We’ll absolutely do it again. But four hours is probably our limit.
Kansas City? Sure.
Cincinnati?
After this trip, absolutely not.
The ride home included heavy rain from around Pontiac toward Springfield, thunderstorms we kept trying to dodge, and a pretty impressive lightning show.
Somewhere along the way we discovered a completely random Freedom Fuel in Lexington selling gas for $3.80 while everyone else seemed to be over $4.10. Everyone got dropped at Casey’s for food, snacks and bathrooms while I drove half a mile down the road because there was no chance I was passing up 30-cent-cheaper gas.
Travel-agent itinerary meets Dad economics.
By the end, everyone was exhausted, ready for showers and very ready to see our own beds.
And apparently the long drive home didn’t discourage us too much.
Because before we even finished Stadium #3, plans were already starting to come together for the next Chasing 30 adventure.
Let’s just say the end of the regular season may involve another trip north, another dose of Cardinals baseball…and a Chasing 30 first we haven’t done yet.
I’m not giving away all the details just yet.
Three stadiums down. Twenty-seven to go.
Busch was home.
Yankee was the first destination.
Wrigley gave us history, rivalry, our first road win and our first same-day stadium road trip.
And we’re quickly learning that Chasing 30 isn’t just going to be about checking stadiums off a list.
It’s going to be about everything that happens getting there, everything that happens inside the gates, and all the stories we collect on the road back home.
On to the next one…or two. 😉

Game highlights

Now THIS was the Cardinals game we wanted on Chasing 30. St. Louis jumped ahead immediately on Alec Burleson's two-run homer in the first and never trailed. After the Cubs pulled within 3–2, the Cardinals erupted for six runs in the fourth, capped by Jordan Walker's two-run homer. Burleson and Walker each finished with three hits and four RBIs, and Walker added a two-run double in the eighth. Hunter Dobbins struck out seven over five innings, and the Cardinals finished with 13 hits in an 11–4 win at Wrigley Field. Even better, the victory gave St. Louis the series over Chicago and the season series, 7–6.