Bossy Pants looked about to have a fit, so we took up our station for the game. It gave us a chance to check out the crowd. The seats behind home plate were the best in the house. Heather pointed out John Cusack, and I spotted Bill Murray. That was when it hit me: I had to be the luckiest guy on the planet. I was actually on the field to watch a World Series game.
It also gave Heather and me a chance to talk. She surprised me with how much she knew about baseball and particularly the Cubs. The only way it would have been better was if Tami were seated next to me. We’d grown up together, and she’d tolerated my love of the Cubs. Tami even conceded that when we made the pros, she would play on their team. This was coming from a Cincinnati Reds fan. How she’d ever picked them, I had no idea. Where we grew up, you were either a Cubs or a Cardinals fan.
At the top of the hour, they began the pregame festivities where they introduced all the players and coaches. Then we had the national anthem. I watched Jon Lester warm up. From where I sat, I could see I had a long way to go before I’d be able to hit his stuff. It wasn’t just his power, he also had pinpoint accuracy and incredible movement on his pitches. You didn’t see that from pitchers my age.
When the game finally started, I sat in awe, watching Lester mow down the side as they all swung and missed. The crowd stood up and cheered him. They all recognized what was on the line for this game. In the bottom of the inning, the Cubbies didn’t manage to do anything.
The first interesting play occurred with one out in the second. There was nobody on, and the batter had one strike on him when he hit a pop-up down the first base line. The Cubs’ catcher and first baseman sprinted to the edge of the field to see if they could track it down. There was a camera set up in the Indians’ dugout to catch the action at home. The ball looked like it might hit it. The Cubs’ catcher was busy trying to feel for the dugout entrance and still track the ball. In high school ball, it wasn’t quite the same adventure because the dugout was on the same level as the field of play. At Wrigley, there were several steps down into the dugout, so you could potentially kill yourself.
The catcher reached over the camera to make the catch. I expect he worried that he would end up going headfirst into the dugout, which caused him to barely clip the ball with his glove. The ball popped up, and the first baseman made a valiant stab at it. Luckily, the ball bounced up, and the first baseman snagged it before it hit the ground.
The next batter hit a no-doubter to left field to give the Indians a 1–0 lead. I had to laugh when the fan that caught the ball threw it back. Tradition held that if an opponent hit a home run at Wrigley Field, it wasn’t worth keeping. Even so, I might have had second thoughts because it was a World Series game.
The next batter up hit one down the first base line, and the right fielder sprinted to the wall as the ball curved to land in the stands. I remembered Moose preaching that you let those go unless it was a World Series game. Sure enough, the right fielder climbed the wall to try to catch the ball. In fact, he made it a much harder play because the ball stayed in the field of play. It sure looked spectacular as he used the wall to vault up to get it, only to have to twist to make the catch. Even the batter had a goofy grin on his face as he appreciated the effort to get him out.
At the top of the fourth, it was still 1–0 when the count became full. Everyone had gotten on their feet to root for another strikeout when the batter popped up down the first base line. The catcher and first baseman didn’t have to contend with the dugout on this one. I about had a heart attack when, just as the catcher gathered it in, the first baseman ran him over. You practice that play again and again, but with the crowd noise, they couldn’t hear each other call for the ball. Both players were focused upwards, so they didn’t see one another. They were lucky no one got hurt as the inning ended.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Cubs’ third baseman was up first. He was in contention for the league’s MVP award for his play all year. In big moments, big plays are made. The sound of the bat was all I needed to know that he’d hit a monster shot. Seeing it in person made me realize how fast it got out of the park to tie the game.
