Road Trip to Shea: Pit-stop at Wrigley to witness walk-off hit batsman

Friday’s night it’ll be “Lets Go Mets,” but the addicting chant of “Fu – ku – do – me” dominated our repertoire Thursday afternoon at Wrigley, as the Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves in the bottom of the 11th inning on a walkoff hit batsman.

Before Thursday, I had never seen a walkoff hit batsman in person. Now I have.

Our first trip to the friendly confines of Wrigley was a blast. It’s an absolutely beautiful ballpark with a terrific atmosphere, friendly and funny ushers and great fans. Hardly a single soul left the building before the ninth, and an amazingly large majority stayed until the final errant pitch.

There were so many cool points about the trip, but it’s 2 a.m. and I need to get some sleep, so I’m going to skip the prose and just hammer out some bullet points:

• Again, the ballpark just pours out the aura, from the ivy on the brick home-run fence to the old scoreboard to the Harry face on the press box window. I spent most of BP just looking at scenery.
• I’ve never heard, or sang, such an enjoyable chorus of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
• Perhaps it’s my immature side, but it’s a heckuva lot of fun to chant “Fu – ku – do – me” (clap, clap, clap clap clap) over and over. It just doesn’t get old.
• My kids weren’t happy about this point, but there were about five beer vendors who dropped by for every one soda/Gatorade vendor. I like those odds!
• After traveling some 700 miles from South Dakota to see the Cubbies play, we wound up sitting next to a guy visiting Chicago from North Dakota. How cool (and odd) is that?
• I haven’t had the opportunity to pee in those bathtub urinal things since the Tampa Bay Bucs knocked down the Old Sombrero. It sure brought back some memories.

I’ve got a ton more, but I need some shuteye. We’re shacked up in western PA and still have 380 miles to go before we hit NY.