Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Da Bears and Da Cubs

Tony got tickets to one of the Bears' pre-season games and we went last Saturday. It was vs. the 49'ers so I was a little conflicted, but not too much. The team just isn't the same since Montana left. It was our first time at Soldier Field (wow, a stadium not named after some corporation! whoo-hoo!) and our first Bears game. A few observations:

  • Soldier Field is a cool stadium, with these impressive Roman or Greek style (I can never remember which is which with the whole concave vs. convex thing) columns. It's not your typical stadium, even though they did recently completely a huge renovation that added a ton of new seats (including lots of box seats).
  • We didn't have the best seats in the house, but it was still a good viewing point. I doubt if there are any bad seats.
  • These people are fans. I've been to a Buc's pre-season game before and they are apathetic compared to these fans. Screaming, hooting, hollering, whoop-whoop-whooping. And for a pre-season game. It's pretty amazing. I can't even imagine what last year's Super Bowl (bad topic, I know) was like before things went south.
  • They have better concession food than the Cubs. Not as good as the stuff at Legends Field for the Yankees Spring Training, but pretty good. Especially the chili-cheese fries. Which reminds me...

I went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field back a month or two ago with Jill (thanks, Jill!) and her mom and her sister. It was a lot of fun (even with the so-so concessions...my personal take on baseball games is that it's an excuse to eat junk and sit and talk). Wrigley Field is neat, with all the ivy and everything, though not as impressive as I thought it would be. I'd always thought those ivy-covered walls were much taller for some reason.

Of course, the big battle here is: Cubs vs. White Sox. You're supposed to follow just one or the other, not both. Ilias is a White Sox fan, but most of the people around where we live seem to be Cubs people. I'm leaving it up to Tony. I'm not a very good "fanatic" anyway...I just like to go for the ambiance and the food.