Events

You may have noticed the slowdown in TDP entries over the last month or so. By way of explanation, today I'm finishing everything with my mom's house, and tomorrow I'm formally winding up her estate. She would have enjoyed that the Cubs have the best record in baseball as of this morning (44-25), and tomorrow Parker turns 2. I hope to return to daily entries in a week or so.

My cousin and I have a 9-game package at Wrigley Field, game 7 of which was Tuesday night against the Braves. The Cubs won—despite dropping three runs in the first, never a good sign—on a warm but not sticky evening at one of my favorite places in the universe. Here's Fukudome stealing second: I have to say, though, that not every seat at Wrigley is good. Example: Section 525, any row, seats 1-2, look like this: Character. It's about character.

Ah, ribs. Possibly my favorite food. Living in Chicago, there are options. And every year, I get to sample as many of those options as my stomach lets me at the annual Ribfest up at Lincoln and Damen. The festival is going on this weekend, so yesterday I dragged Parker there. It's a 5 km hike, and it was hot, and despite my assurances that really tasty treats waited for him at the end of the walk, he seemed to think we were heading for Bataan. When we finally got to the festival, Parker seemed to catch...

Here's my current progress through the 30-park geas: City Team Park First visit Last visit Next visit Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field 1977 Jul ? 2009 Sep 14 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 1980 Jul ? 2001 May 12 [3] New York Mets Shea StadiumCiti Field [4] 1988 Sep ? [1] 1997 Apr 19 [3] 2011 Season Houston Astros Enron FieldMinute Maid Park [2] 2001 May 9 [3] 2009 Apr 7 [1] Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park 2006 Jul 29 [3] 2008 Aug 11 Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium 2008 May 28 2008 May 28 San Francisco...

On my geas to visit all of the Major League Baseball parks in the U.S. and Canada, I have some rules, one being to eat local food. Well, my dad just sent an article from tomorrow's New York Times that suggests I should always eat at the park: Hot dogs and peanuts still rule the food court, but I spotted signs of progress almost everywhere on my road trip. There were concessionaires that served humanely raised meat from the fashionable purveyor Niman Ranch. Phillies fans drank beer from biodegradable...

It had to happen some time. Tonight, though not officially part of my 29-park geas, I attended a, well, that is, I went to, um, you see, I was invited to go to a White Sox game. So, yeah. If you're not from Chicago, you may have trouble understanding why this felt so odd for me. I grew up on the North Side. I'm a Cubs fan. In 37 years I've never taken the El below Cermak Road. And yet, tonight, I went to the Cell. The upside: I can now actually go to all 30 parks that Major League Baseball accepts as...

Via Time Out Chicago, Northwestern Univ. senior lecturer Pamela Bannos has created an art project chronicling Lincoln Park's development—and how the city "forgot" an entire cemetery which still exists under its fields.

I finally found the box containing my mother's journals and appointment calendars from 1971 to 1976, 1980 to 1982, and 1990 to 2004. I already had 2005 and 2006, so this fills in a lot. (She stopped writing in late 2006 because she could no longer hold a pen.) Somewhere there's one more box, I hope, but this is by no means certain. The contents are mostly mundane. One interesting nugget: I finally found the date I first took an airplane flight. On 19 April 1974, at age 3½, I flew from Chicago to Los...

What a day in Chicago. Since this time yesterday: Our guy Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party nomination for President; The Cubs have extended their winning streak making it the longest winning streak since 2001 and their best season start since 1977 (oh, yeah, and that other team is also in first place); and Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid has made the final four in Athens. These are just some of the reasons why this city rocks.

Since my dad lives outside San Francisco, I took him to the second park on my 30-baseball-park geas[1]. He hasn't been to a professional baseball game in years, despite working walking distance from AT&T Park. Something about preferring football. I have no idea why. So, yesterday, I dragged him kicking and screaming to see the Padres play the Giants. San Diego won 5-1, which is the sort of thing that happens when the visiting team goes through the entire lineup in the first inning. Pat Misch pitched the...