Book Trailer For Madam President

Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Last of the Old Ball Parks...Wrigley

Yes they will renovate Wrigley and that old ball field will change. Sure it will be bigger and more modern and better able to handle the crowds. But something will be lost. It is inevitable. As anyone knows who lives in Chicago and goes to see the Cubs for 12 bucks. That's right. Twelve bucks and they aren't even SROs. But the real thing of it is you go the friendly confines the way you go see an old friend and sit in the back yard and relax.

There is nothing better than a cold beer and a hotdog and sitting in Wrigley on a summer evening. It is like being at the beach or in a hammock except there happens to be a ballgame going on. And everyone is on the secret. Sure you want the Cubs to win but you are part of history. You are in an old Ball Park and watching an old ball team and weather they win or lose you are having one hell of a time in the middle of a city just a few blocks from the lake and you are gone.

Because that is what the national past time is all about. You break bread with all those ball players and fans who went before you. And you do it sitting back and watching that old scoreboard that the guys still have to change the numbers in and you cant believe that some guy in 1932 stared at the same sign and left his cares and troubles behind the way you did.

My son and I always go at least once a season. It is a ritual and I look around and see all the other dads with their sons and I know there were thousands no longer here who did the very same thing. Old men now who come to the field for just a glimmer of what went before. And now that glimmer will fade just a little more. But in the meantime I'm headed for the Cubs next week.

One more time to sit back and here the ump shout into the smoke and noise of the crowd...
The Pitcher...Sometimes a dream is all you have

Books by William Hazelgrove