Take Me Out to the Ball Game...But Keep Me Away From the Crowd

I had a couple of friends visit me this weekend. The main motivation for this particular weekend? The Cubs were in town playing The Dodgers...so we went to two games.
First, we attended the Friday night game. We sat in left field (the cheapest seats at field level) and settled in for a lovely evening at the ballpark. It wasn't long, however, before it became evident that Dodgers fans mean business...nasty, surly, drunken business. Me and my friends are rather soft spoken in public and we don't like to attract much attention to ourselves, but the same can't be said for a select few Cubs fans that were in the crowd. These individuals were not only the subject of much jeering, but also the embarrassing example of how not to act as a respectful fan of the game. The home crowd recognized this, but instead of playing nice the Dodgers fans decided to fight everyone...yes, EVERYONE. By the 5th inning the stadium security had a strong presence in left field. There were lots of "KICK THEM OUT, KICK THEM OUT," cheers and a lot of "CUBS SUCK, BOOOO!" cheers, but nothing that I would classify as "clever." Instead they taunts could most accurately be described as loud.
Like I said, though, me and my friends are soft spoken so we weren't the subject of any retaliation. There was a time when a large Cubs fan (notice I didn't say "huge Cubs fan" because that might be misconstrued to mean that he just really liked the Cubs, when in fact he was a large individual) decided it would be a good idea to stand up right behind us and start yelling at everybody...yes, EVERYBODY. He was calling all Cubs fans to join him and "show their support." It would have been a sweet call to arms if the man was actually a young girl, but nobody wanted anything to do with this guy. The women behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Well, are you not a Cubs fan?" "Yes, I am," I responded, "but that guy is a gigantic idiot." (Note: "gigantic" here is describing both his stature and the size of his idiocy). She laughed, and then that guy got punched in the face (Note: I couldn't really see if he got punched there were too many big people shoving other really big people for me to get a good look). So, that was Friday night.
Oh, and The Cubs were shut out so it was an absolutely dismal game to boot.
Sunday was a different story. For starters we were sitting in right field. Big deal right? Why not just sit in left field again right? They're the same stupid seats just on the other side of the field right? WRONG! The right field seats are located in a section known as "The All You Can Eat Pavilion," which is aptly named for the amount of food that is included with the ticket price...all one can eat. A patron in this section simply walks up to the counter and orders (for instance), "3 hot dogs, a nacho, and a bottle of water,"...for starters. Then may return a little later for, "2 nachos, a bag of peanuts, and a couple of soft drinks," all without laying an extra dollar on the counter. Of course beer was not included, but given Fridays experience, I was a bit grateful.
Aside from the copious amount of junk food that was consumed, there were more low key Cubs fans that were enjoying the game, there were fewer obnoxious Dodgers fans trying to fight them, and the Cubs pulled out a victory. All in all a successful day, even with the drunk dude right in front of us from North Carolina that knew nothing about baseball and only talked about stupid drunk dude stuff the whole game. Yes, even he was tolerable.

Til Next Time

P.S. There were a lot of beach balls that were being tossed around. A highlight of Sunday's game was when a rather confident Cubs fan was bonked in the head with one and proceeded to grab and deflate it. His response to the many boos that came his way was a simple, "Watch the game!" It was awesome.

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This Post For Those With Limited Attention Spans:
Dodgers fans can be surly.
Cubs fans can be idiots.
All you can eat is awesome...especially with nachos.
Cubs win...on Sunday.