Cubs Memories

A look back at the best regular season game I ever attended.

Derricksmovich/via Flickr.com

As we near the beginning of a new era of Cubs baseball, I decided to take a look back. A look at my fondest memory as a Cubs fan. It’s always easy to throw the Post-season into the conversation so I decided to focus on the regular season.

Set aside 2016 and one of the best weekends that I can remember in the history of my Cubs love affair was the final weekend of the 2003 season.

Some friends and I had made the 4.5 hour trip from southern Indiana to Chicago to watch our Cubbies take on the Pirates in a Friday afternoon game.

Disappointment has never been a rarity in my Cubs lifetime and on this Friday it would be no different. My friends and I sat in rain soaked Wrigley Field waiting on the rain to pass so we could watch our Cubbies inch closer to a Division title.

After a little more than 4 hours of rainfall we heard an announcement.

“Today’s game has been postponed, tickets can be redeemed for a game next season.”

The disappointment set in as I realized I had spent my hard earned money on a hotel and tickets and was leaving Chicago with nothing. After a couple hours by my friends of talking me down off the ledge of our hotel (figuratively), we finally got the whole story.

Due to contract stipulations with the residents of Wrigley-ville the Cubs would have to play a double-header on Saturday. Because they had already reached their limit of night games allowed, they would have to start Game 2 before 5:00. Therefore, this would be an old fashioned double-header where fans with tickets for Saturday’s game would get a 2 for 1 opportunity.

My friends pointed out that standing room only tickets would still be available at 6:00 am on Saturday and we could possibly get in. It sounded like a great plan to me. We showed up around 4 am on Saturday and ended up being within 10 people of being first in line.

With tickets in hand we found ourselves at Game 1 of the double-header with a half empty stadium. Many people who had traveled to the game had not planned on being there for 2 games and weren’t able to make it for the early start. Finally our luck had turned. We found great seats and watched as the Cubs defeated the Pirates to inch closer to a Central title.

Libby Marr/ via Flickr.com

With game 2 starting, the Cubs would need a Houston Astros loss and another win versus the Pirates. The stadium had filled up by now and I was forced to the standing room only area. After an inning trying to watch from the back-back rows I decided to get creative. My friend and I began to seat hop. We pretty managed to sit in different seats for each inning.

The Cubs would jump out to an early lead on Sammy Sosa’s first-inning home run, a monstrous blast to center field, giving Matt Clement a quick lead. After the scoreboard at Wrigley Field posted the final of the Houston game the crowd was electric. After waiting 4,478 days to see a Division title we were moments away from witnessing history. Matt Clement cruised into the eighth inning in their division-clinching 7–2 win over the Pirates. I will just let this video show you the rest.

After bouncing around from seat to seat I managed to land behind home plate as I witnessed history.

Taken by Me with a throw away camera (yes this was before everyone had smart phones)

There have been many memorable games over the years at Wrigley Field.

What is your greatest memory of a regular season Cubs game?

Craig House is a loyal Cubs fan that grew up idolizing Ryne Sandberg. In fact he still hasn’t forgiven his parents for making his middle name Ryan instead of Ryne.