- May 3, 2024
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Over the years, I’ve spent my time at The Jack (Jackie Robinson Ballpark, in Daytona Beach).
Watching the Single-A Cubs affiliate has become a summer ritual.
As with any minor league team, it’s always fun to watch the prospects — the 19-year-old phenom that everyone talks about but rarely gets to see play.
At 19 years old (or even early 20s), players still have high hopes of fulfilling their dreams and playing in the Big Leagues.
But last weekend, I got the best of both worlds. I got to see players who once were a staple in the Daytona Cubs lineup play at the stadium that has become iconic in American sports.
I was, at last, in Wrigleyville.
I’ll do my best to paint the picture, the scene, the atmosphere. But please, take my word for it: This is something you must experience in person at some point in your life — even if you don’t really like baseball.
My family and I got off the train the afternoon of Aug. 24, to watch the second-to-last-place Cubs play the last-place Colorado Rockies.
We got there a bit early to enjoy the Wrigleyville bars. While my dad and I drank a few cold ones at the Irish Oak (fitting for an O’Brien), my brother (Sean), and my mom went to Lucky’s, a sandwich shop just down the road. Sean wasn’t leaving Chicago until he got one.
With our stomachs full of food and beer, we finally headed into the stadium. Actually, I take that back. Sean, mom and I already went into the stadium earlier to make sure we collected our free trucker hats. (It was Cubs Trucker Hat promotion day, and, like Sean with his sandwich, I was getting that hat.)
At first, there were empty seats everywhere. But as the game wore on, it began to fill up.
The Cubs trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, thanks in part to a homerun by ex-Cubs player Tyler Colvin, whom I watched in Daytona a few seasons prior.
But everything came together during that magical eighth inning as the Cubs rallied for three runs to win the game, 5-3.
Sure, it was their 48th win of what probably seems like a very long summer. But I finally got to see in person what everyone has always told me.
It doesn’t matter in Wrigleyville. Chicagoans love their baseball team, whether it is winning or losing.
