Requiem for my Cubs tickets
Our family in Wrigley Field’s 242, summer of 2000. Mom and Dad with caps, sons Dave (L) and Doug behind them with caps. (Mark Ibach photo.)
After 33 years I have dropped my Chicago Cubs season tickets.
Success became too much to handle.
Our first year as season ticket holders was in 1985 when Wrigley Field was more middle class friendly. Compared to today, I recall more families and more wayward old guys. By chance, in 1985 we landed in the shade of the dark green grandstands behind home plate. Newspaper columnist Mike Royko sat in front of us and adult movie star Seka was down the row. She’s a baseball fan and was good friends with Cubs pitching coach Billy Connors. But those seats were too cold, even in June. The late Chicago singer-songwriter Mike Jordan called them great hangover seats.
In January, 1986 the Cubs allowed us to select new seats out in the right field terrace where the sun always shined. We actually went to the ballpark and chose where we wanted to sit. Row 2, first seat on the aisle of section 242.
I saw the world pass me by from those seats.
My parents sat there as did my brother. So did my ex-wife, girl friends, more recently Young Matt and a minister from Naperville. We watched Sammy Sosa carry the American flag on Sept. 27, 2001, the first game after 9/11, on Oct. 22, 2016 we watched the Cubs clinch their first trip to the World Series since 1945. The late Simon the Usher watched the game more than the seats and Cubs pitcher Edwin Jackson tore my heart out.
The view from below old 242 (D. Hoekstra photo)
A couple of 242 friends have died and others had children. These are the circles of any good family.
My good friend Angelo Varias was with me for most of my 242 years. He counseled me, he sometimes arrived early to get foul balls for his kids and we congratulated each other from our seats before the collapse on the other side of the ballpark in the 2003 National League Championship Series.
All that happened when the Cubs were underdogs.
I’ve always looked at myself as a bit of an underdog. I don’t have a college degree, I’m shy and I get a little ragged when things aren’t right.
Although my father was born and raised in Logan Square, he began his career in the Union Stockyards on the south side and took me to my first major league game at the Old Comiskey Park. He teased me about my allegiance to the Cubs. I like the fact that Nelson Algren and Studs Terkel were White Sox fans. I loved the spiritual ethos of the late White Sox owner Bill Veeck, Jr. And how can you not like a baseball owner like Veeck who marched with his peg leg in the funeral procession of Dr. Martin Luther King?
But 1969 happened and that changed everything. The Cubs late season collapse placed them center stage on an epic baseball tragedy. An entire generation watched the grim ending play out on day games after school on WGN-TV. I grew up in the bleachers in the 1970s. I sat with shirtless old men with saggy breasts smoking cigars and beautiful women in halter tops. For July double headers we brought in our plastic jug filled with spiked lemonade. I was hooked and never turned back.
I’ll still go to Cubs games in 2019, but there’s no need for me to spend $2,500 for a 59 game plan. We were grandfathered into the old weekend and night game plan and the Cubs kept adding night games. My decision to pull out did not come easy. I’d rank it fourth in my life traumas:
1. The death of my parents.
2. Leaving the Chicago Sun-Times.
3. My divorce (but we’re still friends!)
4. Leaving the Chicago Cubs.
5. Trying to become a WGN-AM host.
I consulted with friends before making my move. Angelo pointed out how there are markers in this journey. My markers are adding up. Our beloved 242 section has been remodeled and renamed. A new bar and restaurant is being built near our seats. Our tickets went up 9 per cent because of the additional night games. Major league games are getting longer. I’m even burned out on bobblehead promotions.
I see more markers down the road: more price increases, a personal seat license and of course the Cubs own pay-per-view television station. The Cubs have always mirrored life to me. And just like real life, the middle class is being priced out. Perhaps the Cubs want it this way—a cloaked dress code.
It was a great parade that passed me by.
Middle class Wrigleyville.
A recent Forbes magazine story defined the middle class as “The class to which most Americans think they belong, this group lost its status as the U.S. economic majority in 2015.” In a Studs Terkel-like survey of Americans, the Forbes staff piece supported the fact the middle class is fading away. Louisville, Ky. Schoolteacher Matthew Kaufmann, 39, said, “People in the margins are being pushed off the page…We have to be alchemists, turning nothing into something, forcing a system built to fight us into something that somehow works. It’s not a democracy, it’s oligarchy.”
That’s the squeeze I felt in recent years around Wrigley Field. I pray for the survival of the Nisei Lounge and Wrigleyville North, the last two working class bars in the area. Someday you will not be able to tell the difference between Wrigleyville and Lincoln Yards to the south. Cubs owner Tom Ricketts also owns the United Soccer League expansion team that will playing the proposed 20,000 Lincoln Yards stadium. Live Nation will be booking the Lincoln Yards entertainment district as they do with Wrigley Field.
I believe the Ricketts group would fancy-develop Graceland Cemetery if they could.
In a recent essay on Lincoln Yards, the Tribune’s Blair Kamin asked, “What kind of city are we building? Who is it for? Does it have room for the small and the granular as well as the muscular and the monumental?” The Cubs need to ask those same questions about their fan base.
Not middle class Wrigleyville.
The day I made my decision to pull the plug, word spread on how the Ricketts family want to run their own alderman against Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) who has battled for his neighborhood but succumbed to accommodate their big deal requests. This billionaire family owns all the property, so let’s own an alderman too.
It is never going to stop.
I won’t get wound up like this at Kane County Cougar games.
And I haven’t even gotten into politics. I’ll leave most of that for somewhere else, although an early marker for me was the planned October 2015 Scott Walker dinner at Wrigley Field. Todd Ricketts co-chaired Walker’s fund raising for his Republican presidential bid, but the soon to be former Wisconsin governor suspended his campaign a couple weeks before the event. Todd is the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman. I understand that Major League Baseball is filled with Republicans, but keeping company with Scott Walker and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is a minority Cubs owner with her family? There’s too many arrows in that quiver.
I’ve weathered the Ricketts’ architectural changes at the ballpark of my youth: two huge video scoreboards filled with advertising, four new outfield signs, more concerts than promised, more late night loud music than promised and more night games than promised. I rolled with the price increases on food and beer although I stopped drinking at games.
World Series, 2016 with Bill Griffin, Wrigley Field vendor since 1952. (George Loukas photo.)
So, I’ll go to 12 to 15 Cubs games in 2019, ironically the 50th anniversary of a team that won over a generation. I’ll still connect with my dear vendor friends Doug the Teacher, AbeFest, Dave the Painter, Bob the Hippie and Rich Harris. My good pal Mike Morawski still holds court in our new Section 233.
I’ll spend the rest of this summer going to a few White Sox games and catching up on minor league baseball.
On warm summer nights I’ll ride my old bicycle through Westchester Woods and maybe grow a small garden. I might need a second job. Volunteer for the Democrats. Who knows? The splendor of middle class humility is how it includes everyone and everything.
Sadly, I’m with you. Over 20 years in 242, first row 6 seats 3 & 4. Then, row 3 seats 115 & 116. I’ve being going to Wrigley since 1970. It used to be my happy place. Sadly, it’s not any more.
Thanks for reading and writing Donna. They’ve squeezed us out.
I share season tickets with a college friend. After their fundraiser for the Republicans I said enough is enough and said no to renewal. I’ll pay as I go or start going to Brewer games which are much more affordable.
Hi Christina, Thanks for checking in. This sounds like a good plan. Have a great 2020, Dave
After 15 years or so, we saw the writing on the wall and pulled the plug. A couple of years before they won. I knew it tore the heart out of my late wife. The team we had grown up with had used and then abused us. I felt like a battered spouse, always hoping the hurt would stop. And it did. Been back for one game. Never watched the Series and, surprisigly, didn’t care.
Sorry it had to end this way.
Great piece, and the right call on your part.
Come down to Charlotte where the AAA Knights (feeder to the White Sox) play. Family entertainment, reasonable prices, and a great view of a mini-Chicago skyline.
Thanks Walter, I rolled through there a couple summers ago en route to Myrtle Beach. Beautiful stadium. I will be back!
Hey Dave, really liked the article. I’m pretty sure you have a few good friends (Ron, Dan, and a few more) who will love seeing you on the South Side. I assume you will be keeping an eye on the minor league to get a good look at the future World Series Championship team in the making. Keep loving baseball my friend, it’s still a great game. Kev
Thanks for checking in Kevin, I was at the Kopech debut. I’ll always love baseball.
And the community of baseball.
I have been 242 row 4 103 and 104 for many many years. You had me at Simon the usher and brought a tear to my eye. What an awesome MAN!
Yes Bill! Thanks for writing! I remember seeing Simon at a Chicago Sky game at the Allstate Arena. Don’t know what that says about him or me. But what a gentle soul he was. I’ll still be floating in and out of 242 or what is now called 233. Just not as much as I used to. Be safe.
Beautiful valentine.
Thanks Kath!
I went to a Winter League game in Puerto Rico tonight. Fans brought instruments and jammed. I danced with a mascot named JJ. The home team Cangrejeros hit a grand slam to win the game and there was no “whomp there it is” song to celebrate. Only the cheers of the fans and the aforementioned band to celebrate. Hell. You could even hear the players celebrate. I’ve caught between 50 and 100 games at Wrigley every year since I moved back to Chicago in 2012 and I had more fun tonight than the entire 2018 season. Sure. I’ve met tons of great people in my Cubs travels. But the Cubs? They ain’t the same. They are probably shaking us out on purpose. But that would be a huge mistake. The fans are what makes the Cubs the Cubs. All the players say so. Without us. They got nothing. It’s no surprise a billionaire would fail to value what cannot be monetized. Or try to monetize what cannot be valued. You are not alone in noticing the differences. And it’s not about the video boards. It’s about their attempt to commodify every piece of what came to us Cubs fans so naturally. It all is ringing false. And my prediction is. They will fail and make the Cubs just like any other baseball team. Not fail at making money. I’m certain they will always figure out a way to do that. But fail at being stewards of what made Cubs fandom unique. It’s been us. The fans. And they are driving the people that made it all away. I will see you at Wrigley. Go us!
Hi Danny, man this is very well put. Thank you. You hit the nail on the head–baseball is so much about community and Cubs, Inc. are framing their community in their own eyes. Travel safe. I went to Puerto Rico for that Cubs-Expos series.
We’ve been co-opted
For the first 30 years as a Cubs fan in 1945, I always equated my youth with the Cubs, because there were so few changes at Wrigley. But then came the Tribune, who PROMISED us a new tradition, however forgot to tell us that it came at the expense of the old traditions. Getting rid of Andy Frain,selling tickets in Febuary and turned Wrigley into a scalpers Paradise. I boycotted them in 1992 because they raised the price of a cheapseat from $4. to 6 bucks, and I warned the everyday fan, who gave the ballpark the moniker-The Friendly Confines was at stake. I came back, but like me the regulars started to fade into history. But the Greedy Rickets, that change so much in so little time made Wrigley to look more like Times Square, than a Landmarked ballpark. Harry Caray used to say “you can’t beat fun at the Ole Ballpark” and to that I added “providing you can afford it”. $100 bleacher seats(Cards series), $9.beers and $10 buck hotdogs, Jumbo Trons of advertising and allow those in the right field grandstands to see replays of the game, that people could not see from the expenses seats because there was skyboxes in the way… It’s not the same ballpark…anymore!
Thanks Jerry Bleacher Preacher! I have file cabinets of scorecards going back to 1967. Soon the Cubs will figure out how to better monetize scorecards and the physical ones will go away. Actually this season the White Sox got rid of them, but here’s a tip for avid readers: customer service will give you a free one if you ask. Take care out there.
Dave, We have a lot of the same “Chicago” DNA in our blood. Ironically, for the 25 best years of my life I was living as a Chicagoan in exile in San Francisco. (then Chicago was not gay friendly) However, because I smoked a joint after playing in a 12″ softball game… and turning on my tv… the direction in my life changed. The play “Bleacher Bums” appeared on the screen, it was on the S.F. PBS station, however it was the original Chicago production. Their tag line, not a 3 act play but a 9 inning comedy. I found my self rooting as if I were sitting in the Friendly Confines” cheap seats. The very next day, one of my pastimes was reading the S.F Examiner’s want ads for jobs I did not want… and spoted an ad for actors for the S.F. production of Bleacher Bums. I called up the producer, and met with him(Lee Sankowhich”} and talked him into hiring me as their publicist. It was to be a 6 week run that ran for over a year, and the Bill Veeck in me came OUT! I made Butterfingers the official candy bar( I remembered Roy Smalley #39)) and they had to move from a 99 seat theater to the Little Fox 350 seats and continued to sell out almost every night. and from that eventually the Bleacher Preacher was created! I earned the moniker as the Bay Area’s Resident Cubs fan and wound up moving back to Chicago! and as Paul Harvey would of said “and now you know the rest of the story”. What people don’t now, I became a one man army in the gay rights movement and my images of Harvey Milk and the early S.F. gay rights movement have appeared in many books about those times. If you are ever in my neighborhood… come up and lets talk about the good old days! 312 664 3231
Well played and written, sir
Thank you Paul!
What a poignant article. I feel the same way that you do. I never had season tickets but I used to go to opening day every year for about 16 straight years and then some scattered games here and there throughout the year including playoff games. Even when the tickets I had were free, I still needed $100 to eat and drink before the game and in the stadium. I can’t imagine how much a family of four needs to go to a game even without beer. It’s a shame. I feel your pain politically and emotionally. Now that being said, I would still like to catch a game with you sometime. The Golden Apple loves you and all the publicity you give us. Yours truly, the night manager.
Excellent Greek Cub Fan!
Thanks for reading. Sure, I’ll still be around and I still like weekday day games. I love the Golden Apple!
One of your best. Major League Baseball, this truly American past time, which brought people together from all walks of life and generations had been one of the few remaining expressions of a common national culture. It has now become another front in the class war.
Janice, you nailed it. Thanks. Baseball to me is about community. I can still find that by going to minor league games in Clinton. Ia., Fort Wayne, Ind. and even the discount ticket nights on the south side. What kind of community does current Cubs ownership want? I think we’re seeing the answer played out.
Great piece, with a beautiful last line. (Joe Biden ought to run on a platform of “the splendor of middle class humility”!) Bicycling and gardening will add years to a deservedly long life.
I’ve gone to many games for many years and sit all over the ballpark. You and I have talked in 242 over the years. We passed outside Wrigley last season and I said hi and told you I’ve always enjoyed your work. I understand your thoughts on this. I also appreciate your words on community. Hope to see you in 2019. The game needs the true fan like you.
Thanks Fred for the kind words.
I’ll be around the park in 2019, bouncing around in different seats. See you then, Dave
Gotta really agree with Dave and Danny . The prices keep going up for everything baseball. We have been going to more Cubs games in Cincinnati, Cleveland and even Detroit. We always run into fans that say the same thing. They have been forced out of Wrigleyville by the high prices.
Who in the heck can afford $ 419.00 a night at the new Ricketts hotel. Talk about sticker shock. Not a lot of working class fans I know of. Let’s go Cubs !!
This brought a tear to my eye as it yanked memory after memory out of my history. Thank you so much for saying what we all know to be true (and the added commentary from others has added even more depth).
If you owned the Cubs (and had to cover the cost of buying and running the team) what would you do to restore the culture while not regressing to underperformance? Is the issue really with the economics of MLB or just this team?
Thank you.
I feel as if this is a foreshadowing of my future. Very well said Dave.
I spent the best years of my life in 242, row 10, seats 101-104. We met and nodded hello. I’m now in 36 (don’t remember the new name and will likely never use it) we were directly behind the visitor’s bullpen, the draw to relocate. Awesome experience with the bullpens of our rivals.
Of course that draw was removed for safety reasons. The players with insurance up the wahzoo needed to seek safety but the four rows of added fans now in front of us can fend for themselves in the danger.
It’s not the same. The “fan experience” is not improved with every ballpark “improvement” and the mall feel of the neighborhood just makes me sad (and damn angry at times).
242 was THE BEST that ever was at Wrigley. The best.
Thanks Joy,
As I was carefully considering my decision they offered me my two seats from 242 for $899. Had like 10 days to act on it. The revenue streams are everywhere for these folks. The Cubs will be fine in 2019!
I’m nearly there. Every change—moving the bullpens, adding premium clubs, eliminating Guinness, raising prices, monetizing batting practice, etc.—favor a corporate clientele that won’t be cheering, much less watching.
Nor does anyone in authority care. It’s all about the product people see on TV. They could care less about the longtime fans that have supported the team for decades.
Thanks Steve for reading and checking in!
Thanks for checking in and reading Steve. Take care.
My mom has had tickets across the aisle from you for my whole life and sitting next to you was always part of the experience of going to a cubs game for me. Thanks for letting me handle your scorecard when you had to leave your seat, thanks for giving me crap for being a Sox fan when my mom is a Cubs fan, and thanks for being a cool dude to talk baseball with.
Awh Ricky! Thanks man. I know you! I’ll still be around, just not as much as I used to be. I think there’s gonna be big changes in that section but I’ll see you for sure. Have a great 2019 and thanks for checking in.
Dave,
This is a wonderfully written piece with much cud to chew. It is hard to separate the politics from all of this. So much disingenuousness.
Cycling and gardening. Yep.
Thanks for reading and checking in Gary, change, of course is constant. I just wished the changes up there weren’t so fancy —- although they did a goof job with the urinal troughs. Have a great 2019.
Dave, on another topic, what’s the status of the Whitney documentary. Won’t bore you with my Springfield bonafides, but I am near Madison now and would love see your film. Just hard to believe Lou and Lloyd both passed away.
Thanks Gary,
We would love to bring it to Madison. We are still looking for funding and plan to get everyone paid back once we sell it into streaming distribution. It has been a seven-year DIY. Lou and Lloyd are both in it. No plans for theatrical release (music rights.) We debuted last summer at the Country Music Hall of Fame, it was selected for the St. Louis International Film Festival and we showed it at Chicago Filmmakers. We hope to show it at the Siskel Center in the spring. We have entered it in a few more festivals.
The film is titled “The Center of Nowhere (The Spirit and Sounds of Springfield, Mo.)” and there is a Facebook page for the film. As you hunt around the page you will find a trailer. Please spread the word. The more people talk about it, the better it is for all of us.
Oh, and be sure to tell (Springfield native) Brad Pitt about it if you run into him.
Go Cubs! Lou was a Cubs fan in Cardinals territory. Stay in touch, Dave
Great article Dave. We’ve also had seats since 1985 and have seen some major changes. The biggest is the cost of the tickets. It’s a second mortgage every year to pay the invoice.
Any time you want to go to a game, just ask. I’d love to get you tickets. Maybe we could share a beer and talk about the days when you were at the Barrington Courier-Review.
Ted!
Wow I bet I left the Barrington office to attend some day games.
The Cubs season thing was a great run. I look back on it fondly and I got the W.S. I wanted. The vibe there has become too stuffy for my tastes; I’ll still go to 10, 12 games but check out the Clinton (Ia.) LumberKings and their tiny WPA ballpark for affordable family fun and sense of community. Thanks for reading.
Great article until he brought politics and his gaping ignorance of it into play.
Scott Walker and Betsy DeVos have done wonderful things- far better than their predecessors.
For the record, I grew up a staunch Democrat and am now a staunch Libertarian.
Hey Rich,
Thanks for reading. My father in that photo fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He didn’t have bone spurs.
He is spinning in his grave over the political climate of the past two years.
My father taught us how to be accepting of other people and not how to divide people. He read books, he loved music, he took us to baseball games. His open, well-rounded nature would better serve our current leaders.
Great things? This Wisconsin native (and Cubs fan) would like to put the lie to that notion.
Walker was (thank goodness we voted him out) a right-wing patsy who catered to the rich, and cares not a whit for working class folks. He also gutted public education in Wisconsin and tried to help to destroy affordable health care. Could you explain to me what “great things” he did? He was already crooked back when he got thrown out of Marquette U. for trying to rig a atudent election. He was a puppet for the Republican party.
And DeVos? A filthy rich woman who bought her way to being Education Secretary and is hellbent on destroying public education? Someone working to roll back protections and recourse for victims of sexual assault on campuses while protecting the assaulters? Someone who wants to arm teaches in lieu of sneaivle measures to prevent gun violence in our schools? The woman’s a blithering idiot, and a clear sign that education is no longer a priority of our nation.
Wanna explain how any of that is “great”?
So you were a Democrat, and now you’re a Libertarain. In other words, you lost your mind, perhaps your soul as well, and now you’re a Republican in sheep’s clothing: Unwilling to take responsibility for your selfish thoughts and actions.
Hey Shaun,
Thanks for reading and writing.
Things have gotten worse in Rickettsville since I wrote this post. There is no arguing that racism is at the root of this family tree. It’s up to the kids to trim the old tree— but I am still convinced they are trying to present the neighborhood in their own images$$$.
I think another Chicago business used to say: “We cater to the masses, not the classes.” I guess we can flip that for the current Cubs: “We cater to the classes, not the masses.”
Thanks Mark,
Very well put, thanks for reading.
I’m from downstate and for years, it was a treat for me and my daughter to take a bus trip to Wrigley. We enjoyed Wrigley sometimes more than we enjoyed the game. We didn’t enjoy either so much this past season.
Something has been lost and I haven’t been able to figure it out…until your column. Sure, it was a thrill to have our picture taken with the World Series Trophy. But you can’t lean over the fence anymore with a baseball in one hand and a pen in the other, trying to get an autograph from your favorite player.
From where we sat, you could only see a portion of the Jumbotron and I missed the Torco sign that used to loom over right field.
Waiting for the bus was a nightmare, as the busses are no longer allowed to park on the streets surrounding Wrigley.
My daughter told me, and it’s true, if the changes didn’t take place, the Ricketts could have moved the Cubs to Rosemont. And how much we would have hated that!
But I feel like the soul of the place is gone; there wasn’t the same joy I once experienced. It isn’t that the prices of food and beer are ridiculous. It’s that everything is all a little bit too slick. Wrigley Field is still a neighborhood park, but it doesn’t feel like a part of a neighborhood.
At least I’ll still be able to listen Pat Hughes on the radio. I’ll be content with that. I doubt if I’ll be coming back soon.
Thanks for reading and checking in Monica, I’ll still root for the Cubs of course, just from a little more distance. Take care.
I appreciate this article and point of view. I have never been a Cubs season ticket holder myself, but I have people only get season tickets now as a point of “look at me” designation. A lot of people who get season tickets these days consider them “special” or in a “higher class” than they truly are. Many give off the persona that having season tickets is a lifelong dream and then they turn around and sell 80/81 games to make a profit and you realize they (or your friend) are using their time as season ticket holders to run a side business and not be a true fan. It’s no longer about the days you describe in your article or the friendships/relationships created like in the movie “Fever Pitch”. What percentage of season ticket holders these days even know each other??? I truly don’t think they know each other because everyone is too busy selling their tickets on StubHub and not going to games and creating that rapport with each other. I have a friend who finally became a season ticket holder 9 years ago and I watched it first hand turn him into a stuck up ego-maniacal jerk. And you know how many games he’s gone to in the last 3 years, less than 10! To each their own and if you want to treat being a season ticket holder as a business, then I guess all power to you. But let me ask you this Dave Hoekstra, while I understand everything you say in your article and pretty well agree with all of it, I’d like you to answer me this question….ARE WE SURE IT ISNT THIS GENERATION’S SEASON TICKET HOLDER THAT HAS RUINED BEING A SEASON TICKET HOLDER AND NOT THE CUBS???
Hi Steve, Yours is a point well taken.
Us in the now-defunct 242 knew each other well. We went to each other’s weddings, parties and funerals. That’s over. I’m not the only one exiting season ticket packages. I can’t afford the product current ownership serves up. I cannot afford spring training prices, their spring training hotel, etc. (I go to the Arizona Fall League now.) I grew up in the era of the cheap bleacher seats and I get the fact that’s ancient history. What affordable discounts do the Ricketts offer? Cheap tickets on cold April and May games. I’ll still be going to some Cubs games but I’ll also feel good about spending my baseball money elsewhere. Thanks again and good luck to you.
I forgot to comment on SImon. He was really a part of 242. He loved working there. When he passed, I asked my ticket rep if the Cubs had any information on a family contact or where I could send a card or donation. I did not get a response.
Do you remember Abe prior to SImon? She used to be at the bottom of steps before they closed the 242 exit. She had emphesyma. She used to tell stories about smoking with Mark Grace.
Thanks Donna, good observations here. Love the smoking story. I remember her.
I was thinking about all this and the response this has been getting. Some organizations might have sent a survey to long time season ticket holders/investors about pending changes, what they would like to see, what’s going to happen.
The Cubs did not do that.
See you soon, Dave
Dave,
Solid article/read! I agree with many assessments in your article. You are a man that knows baseball better than almost anyone I know. My family has great history in baseball, and your knowledge of the game puts most in the dust.
As I/we contemplate renewing seats every year (…as we did for 2019) know you are always welcome to use our section 242 seats if you ever feel the need to say hello to your old green/chair again.
Thank you for your baseball knowledge ….and kind hearted nature over the years!
Best
Jerry Boudreau
Jerry, thanks for reading and taking the time to write. It’s not like I’m “boycotting” the Cubs so yeah I may take you up on your offer. Just no need for me to to go to all those long night games, etc. I’ll see you at the ballpark. Thanks, Dave
thumbs up
I bought season tickets in the now section “232” in row 12 on Tuesday (first time STH) and I’m very much looking forward to it. For what it’s worth, there are some decent fans that still exist out there and I consider myself one of them. I’m partnering 50/50 with a family full of enormous Cubs fans as well. While I completely understand your opinion and agree with much of what you say about the Ricketts’ family and what they are doing to Wrigley, the love of Cubs baseball will never die for me or my partners. I don’t love all the change, but I’m embracing it and seeing where it goes. Here’s to many fun days under the sun at the old ballyard. We’ll see what happens. Mike
Hi Mike,
Best of luck to you. Maybe I’ll try to come find you, I’ll still be there now and then—Thanks, Dave
That would be great. I’ll be right in the middle of the row. First game 4/10!