FROZEN COMFINES
Players, fans alike weather miserable conditions at Wrigley for opener of Crosstown Classic
There’s something about a City Series game that brings out the best in everyone.
A good-natured rivalry, the availability of $14 beers and Chicagoans’ love of a spirited argument always seem to put fans in the right mood.
“You’ll see maybe one fight in the outfield and the bleachers once in a while,” White Sox starter Lucas Giolito said before Tuesday’s series opener at Wrigley Field. “But this series over the past few years, like the second inning — ‘Oh, we got one already.’ ”
The Cubs marketing department missed out on an opportunity to have former Bears center Olin Kreutz throw out the ceremonial first punch, but otherwise it pulled out all the stops.
The trophy that goes to the winner of the annual crosstown series was on display on a table in the rain next to the Cubs dugout for one and all to see. It was part of the pageantry that comes with the Cubs-Sox series, though no one was in the stands and the only one paying any attention to it was the Cubs mascot.
It was too cold to care, though not quite bad enough to cancel the game.
The White Sox came out with a 3-1 win, and there were no visible shenanigans in the stands for players to watch.
In fact, Cubs and Sox fans were seen teaming up in the bleachers to make a giant beer cup snake. Chicago’s slogan — “The City That Works” — never seemed so apropos.
Neither rain nor wind nor gloom of spring could keep these teams from their appointed ballgame, even if anyone with common sense would’ve postponed it and played a doubleheader Wednesday, a rare Chicago day with no precipitation in the forecast.
The game-time temperature was 45 degrees with a north wind of 23 mph and a slight mist, conditions better suited for duck hunting than the City Series. While Wrigley Field usually is packed for the start of the crosstown games, less than half of the seats were filled when starter Scott Effross took the mound, the first of several Cubs pitchers on what turned into a bullpen day.
At least the Cubs and
Sox players are used to this by now, and no one was complaining, at least out loud.
“Just remind them they’re playing in the big leagues,” Sox manager
Tony La Russa said. “Arizona is waiting for them if they don’t like it. Being a little sarcastic, but the fact is they appreciate you go through this in April, now May. And later on, they’ll be looking for cooler weather. As long as both sides have to deal with it, you go at it.”
That doesn’t make it right to force fans to either sit through nights like this or eat their pricey tickets. But buying a ticket to a game in a ballpark near the lakefront before Memorial Day is always a risk, so caveat emptor.
Wrigley is a beautiful place in the summer, but nothing’s drearier than Wrigley in the spring before the ivy blooms.
Back in 2007 I asked Cubs players if they thought Wrigley would last another 50 years without major changes. Catcher Michael Barrett — best remembered for punching Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski and igniting a brawl in a 2006 City Series game on the South Side — had a unique idea on how to preserve Wrigley into the 2050s.
“Ideally, especially for this time of year, you’d like to see a dome put on the outside of it,” Barrett said. “Don’t change anything about Wrigley Field. Just reinforce it and have a dome covering it.”
The Ricketts Dome? Well, it would make going to a Cubs game in April and early May relatively tolerable, but now that the Ricketts family owns most of the rooftop clubs, that probably would be a non-starter even if it got through the city council.
Everyone in the Cubs and Sox clubhouses appeared ready to deal with the raw conditions, even if some of the fans opted to stay at home or in the Wrigleyville bars. Cubs second baseman Nick Madrigal and his former Sox teammate Gavin Sheets spoke beforehand about mutual trash-talking, and Madrigal said Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal texted him Tuesday morning about something that wasn’t revealed.
“It’s all fun and games,” Madrigal said. “I have built a lot of friendships over there. I don’t think this game means more than any other game. I’m sure I’ll be joking around with some of the guys on the bases ... but we’re just focused on trying to win games at the end of the day.”
Wins have been hard to come by for both teams this season, which was expected for the rebuilding Cubs. The Sox are another story, one that needs a rewrite at this point.
But misery loves company, so both teams’ fans can take solace in the misery of their rivals. Still, Giolito wasn’t sure why fans in Chicago can’t root for the other side if their team isn’t doing well.
“It seems like people want to be happy, right?” he said. “One team is playing well and the other team is not playing well, (so) try and stay positive and root for this team, I guess. I didn’t grow up here. I grew up in California, and I didn’t even really grow up a fan of a team. So that kind of mindset … that’s kind of foreign to me.”
It’s a mindset most Cubs and Sox fans were born with, and it’s too late to change now. Being happy means the other guys are unhappy.
So they sat together at Wrigley on Tuesday like human popsicles, watching a game while trying to feel their toes, because that’s just how we roll.