Thumper,
We’ll offer you better weather than you gave us. All there games are for 60s, but one in 70s.
And when I watch the games in the playoffs, I have my radio tuned to my home team announcers and TV on mute. During commercials I flip remote to PBS and put on sound.
The radio is invariably one pitch ahead of TV.
Saw a story on one of the morning news shows about the bars and restaurants near Wrigley Field and how they are gouging customers who want to watch tonight’s game nearby. Hundred dollar cover charges, $500 to guarantee a table so that you don’t have to stand for 9 innings. Wow.
I saw that too- some charging several hundred dollars just to get in the door. Nuts. DS#2 happens to be in Chicago on business, and his GF lives there. She lives a few miles from Wrigley field but I hope they save their pennies and watch it somewhere where it doesn’t cost anything to get in the door. Like maybe her apartment.
Instead of the curse of the goat in Chicago, now they have the curse of the gouged.
Merica!
I saw a list of prices for Wrigley drinking establishments and the prices vary from no cover to the $500 one. It looks like (in most cases) the ones charging more include a buffet. And then of course the media will focus on the most expensive ones.
It does sound crazy if you’re not a sports fan. However that area around Wrigley is a unique experience for Cubs fans. You’re definitely paying for an experience…and it may help keep the crowds down…a little bit. It may also help with covering the cost for extra security.
Seriously, if everyone who wants to be there went, it would be scary. I have college age children and they have many fiends traveling 2-plus hours from UIUC to be in Wrigleyville during and after the game. Me…I’m planning on enjoying everything from my couch with my clean bathroom and stocked kitchen within walking distance.
Go Cubs!
I gotta say, I think we hear the same story (outrageously expensive SRO tickets/cover charges/table charges) with every World Series/Super Bowl/ Stanley Cup, etc. Chicago just hasn’t had the opportunity for the WS for many years 
For the faithful fans, this may be an investment in a lifetime memory!
I was in Chicago last weekend, and the extreme joy and elation of the fans was just so much fun to see and hear.
@lakewashington:
Comiskey was/is the perfect answer to those who pine for the days when the players weren’t unionized and didn’t have the right of free agency, how the game was so much better back then, it shows how stupid and greedy the owners were back then, how much power they had. Other owners used to routinely whine about Colonel Rupert (the owner of the NY Yankees) paying what he did and getting the best players, but the thing was, most of that whining was the owners who saw players like cattle to be fed and housed at the cheapest cost. The story in “Eight Men Out” was pretty much about that, how Comiskey created a self fulfilling prophesy (I personally consider it one of the more egregious things with the hall of fame, that Shoeless Joe, who obviously didn’t throw the game, is kept out and Comiskey is celebrated as 'one of the great owners", when Comiskey’s cheapness directly threatened the integrity of the game (one of the things people gloss over is just how much impact the “Black Sox” has on the game, that much like the steroid era in a sense saved baseball after the World Series cancelled year, Babe Ruth basically helped save the game from fans turning away).
These days I love the game, but don’t love either the owners or players much, neither one particularly remembers the fans or cares, despite all the outpouring of love,between the high cost of tickets, the ridiculous cost of parking and concessions (usually to help pay for all the luxury boxes and suites stadiums are really built for), tv is pretty much the only way I watch the game these days, as wonderful as going to a game can be, getting to be not worth it (on the other hand, minor league games are a lot of fun, don’t cost an arm and a leg, lot more relaxed and fun)
My family is Red Sox by heritage, but with Cleveland my son’s new home away from home… go Indians! I’m following the games by watching the live chat on Cleveland.com, which sounds lame but is actually hilarious.
I am enjoying the game and seeing the emotions of the players and fans in the stands. Go Cubs
I don’t think $500 is too much for a seat for 5 or 6 hours. Think of the wait staff if they didn’t charge and the customers stay all day and have a $100 charge for lunch and dinner and drinks when normally that table would have turned over 5 or 6 times. If you want the experience, pay the price. It’s probably easier for the bars to charge one price and have the buffet than to take orders, try to serve, control the crowds.
The tickets for restaurants in Times Square were that much last NYE and that event happens every year. These bar and restaurant owners have 3 nights to make 108 years of profits.
@twoinanddon agree!
We don’t have minor league and live 5 hours away from where the Rangers play but I do love going to our D1 baseball games. But the season is too short.
Cubs fans, I feel for you. Cleveland is doing the same thing to your Cubbies as they did to the Jays. Andrew Miller is earning every penny of his contract, and he’s available again today, with Kluber starting. It’s sad that even if the Cubs come back to win this, they can’t win it at home.
The cubs are showing their weakness in a sense, they rely on the home run ball a lot, and with RISP they have trouble (remind me a lot of the Mets this year, where it was either feast or famine). Not having Schwarber is hurting them (I wonder if Joe Maddon wishes he could have had Schwarber as the last batter, with 2 and 3rd and 2 out), outside Zobrist the team’s hitting is dismal (which obviously is indicative of Cleveland’s pitching as well). If the cubs lose today then the series is probably over, I just don’t see the cubs overcoming this, even if they lose today and then win tomorrow, winning 2 in cleveland even with Schwarber in the lineup would be next to impossible, not the way Chicago is hitting for the most part.
In all the imaginary gloom, I want to say that I am so very happy for Willson Contreras. He last visited his family in Venezuela in January and has been trying for months to get visas for them to come to the US. Finally they were granted and arrived in Chicago Thursday (they surprised him). He got to have dinner with them and they were at the game last night.
Now, come on, Cubs!
First of all, most bbl games are about 3 hrs, not 5-6. And most sitting there during the game will order food and drinks. They could easily impose a minimum . But charge $500?? Thats obscene.
The games have been lasting 4 hours (the sports shows have been talking about how long they are, no rushing the pitches by the umps), and you better believe those people are in their (bar) seats 3-4 hours before the first pitch. I’ d not be surprised if they were there at noon for a 7pm start, and no one is going to go at noon and have to leave at 4 or 5, so it is one customer for the entire day. Even to get into the stadiums takes hours before the start of the games with all the extra security. These are the bars right at the stadium, so there is probably a perimeter they have to get into with some security. As they say in real estate, Location Location Location. You are paying extra to be near the action.
People who don’t want to pay $500 don’t have to but can only decide if they want to pay for the experience. Just like with rock concerts or other sports events, there are plenty of people willing to pay $500 or triple that just to watch on a tv, sit with their friends, their favorite bartender. It’s the market.
My brother worked in an Irish bar. They had two days a year when they made double and triple their normal tips, Parade Day and St. Patrick’s Day. They could charge anything they wanted on those days.
^^^^^^ I would pay it and have the time of my life.
I seldom go to concerts, etc. I am a homebody, but if I do go, I pay for the best experiences.
Sorry- not buying that people watching a 7pm game are getting to their bar table/seats (especially if paid for in advance) at 3 pm, let alone noon. Sounds like the baseball players version of tailgating- without the car but with double the alcohol. And I’d bet the reason these games may be running long is the quantity of advertising. Last nights game was fast – low scoring. First game had a lot of strikeouts int he first few innings… I’d be interested in seeing the actual play time vs the air time.
And sure - bars can rip off their patrons on special days like St pattys day. Thats wrong, IMO. Like gas gouging during a shortage. ITs not just supply and demand. Its smarmy. Just because some suckers will pay for it doesn’t make it right.
Guess PT Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every day.