CUBS 1ST NITE GAME OR WHY I BECAME FAN!

      August 8, 1988. It was to be the first night "lighted" baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was a big deal! Wrigley ws the last major league baseball park not to have lights. All their games until then were played in the afternoon. The diehards didn't want it. What about tradition? What about the quaint neighborhood that surrounded the park? Television and big money won out. Times were changing!

      John McCarten, my sales manager at 1st Realty, 801 Grand West Des Moines, at the time invited me to go with him, his two sons, and brother-in-law and his son, to go to the game. However, he could get tickets to the second night as the first night had been sold out due to the historical  ocassion. The second night was OK with me. I was happy to have been invited. 

     We went to Chicago the night before and stayed at a Holiday Inn just off Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile! What a treat! And, here came the "kicker." The first night's game was rained out and our night, the 9th of August, became the first night!

      For you sports enthusiasts, I couldn't tell you who all played at the time or who they played. I think it was the New York Mets and the Cubs won 6-4. The next day, Sunday, we sat through a three hour delay for that game. It was cool to see Harry Carey, the legendary, broadcaster for the Cubs.

     One important thing happened for me with this trip. I fell in love with Wrigley Field. It is what a major league baseball is supposed to be like.  Years later I took my two grandsons, Grant and Christian, to a Cubs game. Hope to write about that experience one day!