July 8, 2013
Waking up in the Windy City was my first time in a true metropolitan city. After eating breakfast with a friend that moved to Chiacgo, we went to what at the time was called U.S. Cellular Field to see the stadium during the day. When originally planning this trip, the White Sox weren’t supposed to be at home, but rain forced a May game to be moved to today, which just so happened to be the Crosstown Rivalry against the Chicago Cubs. Because of this, tickets soared to tremendous heights, so we decided to wait until the last minute to buy tickets.
We spent the afternoon in downtown Chicago, and we drove our car to the stadium instead of taking the train to the South-side of Chicago, still without tickets. Since this game was so last minute, we thought it’d be best just to find tickets at the ballpark. A light drizzle filled the air while we walked around looking for tickets, and somehow Adrian found someone who sold him a ticket right behind home. Unfortunately, there was only one ticket, so my mom and I were left to look out for ourselves as Adrian went on in. It took a little longer for us, but we eventually found two upper deck tickets and thankfully made it into U.S. Cellular Field.
From the minute I walked in, I wasn’t a fan. Instead of a normal entrance to the ballpark like most other places, all that awaited at the gate were huge concrete walls. That’s because U.S. Cellular Field was one of two stadiums that forced fans to stay on only the level that their ticket read, not allowing fans to roam around and see everything like we like to do. My mom and I had upper deck tickets, so we were stuck up there. The skies remained gray, the stands were more than half empty, which shocked us for a Crosstown Cup, and most fans that did make it were Cubs fans.
One thing I researched ahead of time that we had to try was the corn in a cup. We looked all over the upper deck and couldn’t find any. Towards the middle of the game, we managed to make it down to the lower level with Adrian’s ticket. Instantly, the lights shined brighter down here, and this felt more like a baseball stadium. When my mom and I asked for the corn, we learned they ran out in the 6th inning. Seriously? We were extremely disappointed, but we couldn’t do anything about it. The Cubs crushed the White Sox, and once the stadium completely emptied out in the 9th inning, Adrian and I went down to the second row. From here the ballpark looked a lot nicer.
This game almost didn’t happen, and we were very fortunate that it was scheduled exactly while we came to Chicago. However, it wasn’t one of our best ballpark experiences.
