Emma's News Archive
Sports
Baseball/'08 Season: On Father's Day Ella surprised Mike with tickets to a Cubs v Sox game - all three of us went to the Chicago Crosstown Classic at Wrigley Field in June and saw the Cubs win (well, one of us was actually sleeping!). Then in August Mike headed to the Southside with another Mike for a Sox game.
Baseball/'07 Season: The season began for the Cubs in Cincinnati on April 2; their home opener was a week later against the Astros. We were too busy with the Cricket World Cup to watch any of the early games, but the Cubs were pretty dire anyway: at the end of the first month they were 10 and 14. Here we go again, I thought, but then not only did we see them beat the Houston Astros in June (after witnessing firsthand seven straight losses!!), but as of July 23 they are 51 and 46 and second in their division. Playoffs anyone?
Congrats to San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds who, controversially, broke the MLB record for career home runs during Tuesday night's game against the Washington Nationals, with home run number 756.
Baseball/'06 Season: Despite starting well by tying their short opening series in Cincinnati and then sweeping the St Louis Cardinals in the home opener at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs finished the season in last place and fired their manager, Dusty Baker. In April Mike had a bleachers seat for the first Cubs' game against the Florida Marlins, then he and I went to the third game in the series. And while on holiday in California in May, we saw the San Diego Padres play the Colorado Rockies at downtown PetCo Park.
Baseball/'05 Season: The big news was the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series. It was a different story on the North Side, where the Chicago Cubs suffered from injuries and finished below 500. Mike and I saw them lose five times at Wrigley - to the Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves - before finally seeing them beat the Giants ... in San Francisco!
Baseball/'04 Season: It's all over for the Chicago Cubs for another year. They had a great chance of winning the Wild Card race.....until they lost seven of their final nine games. "In Dusty we trusty", not!! The St Louis Cardinals easily won the NL Central Division and the Wild Card went to the Houston Astros. The last game Mike and I saw was a 12-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds when Sammy Sosa missed a grand slam by three feet; the only highlights were a home run by pitcher Glendon Rusch and Ron Santo singing the seventh-inning stretch in celebration of reaching the three-million mark in home attendance for the first time in franchise history. It was a far cry from the previous game we'd been to at Wrigley when the Cubs scored 13 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, including a grand slam from Sosa, Derrek Lee's 30th homer and their first back-to-back-to-back home runs in over a year. The three games we went to at the beginning of the season were unmemorable, save for a ceremonial pitch thrown by former Cub and Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins, who was also the guest conductor for the stretch. On Memorial Day Mike and I saw the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on a hot evening in Phoenix, where we were thankful for the ballpark's air conditioning!
My favourite ballplayers: Alex Gonzalez (L) may have been traded to the Montreal Expos but he still warrants a place on this page; Corey Patterson (R) is impossibly cute and played well all season. Here's me out on the town with a Chicago Cub!!
Baseball/'03 Season: Having clinched the National League Central Division the previous day, the final Chicago Cubs game of the 2003 regular season, which we attended, was all about the ceremony to retire Ron Santo's No 10 jersey. Cubs radio broadcaster Pat Hughes was the emcee; former Cubs Ernie Banks and Billy Williams were in attendance; and actor Jim Belushi sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame. The Cubs overcame the Atlanta Braves to take the NL Division Series, but lost the NL Championship in dramatic fashion to eventual World Champions the Florida Marlins. As for the South Siders, the Chicago White Sox didn't fare so well, throwing away their division lead late in the season. Nevertheless, they stepped up to the plate for our first trip to Comiskey Park when they beat the New York Yankees.
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