This is a true story. I`ll swear to it on my Wilbur Wood baseball card.
Like most young kids growing up in Chicago, I was a baseball fan. Loved the White Sox. Loved the Cubs, too-when they lost. I couldn`t wait for the baseball season to start. I used to count down the days in my assignment notebook. I needed to use it for something, since I never wrote down my assignments.
As opening day approached, my friends tried to concoct ways to stay home from school so they could watch the games. That never was a problem for me. I literally came down with baseball fever. For three straight years, I was blessed by getting deathly ill just in time for opening day. I`m not talking sniffles. We`re talking major-league sick.
The first year of the string started with a delightful case of mononucleosis. What a shame. I was forced to stay home and watch at least two weeks worth of baseball. Mom served me orange juice, and I sat back and followed Jack Brickhouse`s advice: ”Just let Leo Durocher and Red
Schoendienst do the worrying for you.” I did, although at age 11 I didn`t have many worries.
After a case of strep throat the following year, I began to worry about my health for the upcoming season. It was good. Darn.
Then a miracle happened. It couldn`t be labeled anything else because on the day before the Sox`s season opener, I woke up with spots all over my body. Measles!
I built a fortress on the couch and readied myself to absorb yet another slice of baseball heaven.
Heaven has changed for me since then-for one thing, I`ve run out of childhood maladies to use for excuses on opening day-but the basics remain the same. For sports fans, the Chicago area, especially in the summer, is a paradise-for everyone from the guy who wants to indulge his passion for 16-inch softball (a variation of the game that originated here), and the golfer who can play on some of the finest courses in the country to the rugby player in Lincoln Park and the polo player in Oak Brook and to those who would prefer just to watch the pros do their thing.
And you can put this one in the books: For the next two summers, Chicago will be the No. 1 sports town in the country.
This year`s events are headlined by the PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes, which is the second of three major tournaments to be held in as many years in the Chicago area. Last year Medinah Country Club was home to the U.S. Senior Open. Next summer Medinah will host the U.S. Open.
This summer also will mark the rebirth of the Arlington Park race track, which now will be forever known as the Arlington-International Race Course Ltd. The track`s crown jewel once again will be the running of the Arlington Million.
Then, of course, there`s baseball. This will mark the first full season of lights at Wrigley Field. In 1990 the ballpark will be showcased to the country when the All-Star game comes back to Chicago. On the other side of town, the old Comiskey Park will be playing out the string while the new Comiskey Park gets underway across the street.
Indeed, these are heady times for Chicago sports. But then with two baseball teams, this city always has been special.
Chicago and New York are the only true two-team towns. Los Angeles doesn`t count, because the Angels play in Anaheim, a 10-minute flight or a three-hour drive on the hellish freeways from downtown L.A. Nor does the Bay Area qualify, because the Giants and the A`s play in different cities.
A quick 20-minute trip on Lake Shore Drive is all that separates Wrigley Field from Comiskey Park. Hopefully that will never change. Major-league franchises, like the lakefront, are to be cherished, even if they don`t look so good every now and then.
With both an American and a National League team around, there`s nary a day (weather permitting) without baseball in Chicago. In St. Louis, on the other hand, fans never get a chance to see American League stars such as Don Mattingly or Jose Canseco. What do the citizens do when the Cardinals are on the road? Go to the library? Tour the brewery? Look at the Arch?
For baseball junkies, Aug. 8-10 is nirvana. In that three-day stretch, the Cubs will play the final two games of their series with Montreal and the first of a four-game set with Philadelphia at Wrigley Field. All afternoon games. At Comiskey Park, the Sox will host three straight night games with the American League champion Oakland Athletics. It`s one of those wonderful, rare instances in our town when two games involving four different teams are played on the same day. Take the ”L,” stop for some ribs and overdose on baseball from noon to midnight. Could it get any better?
And forget about wins and losses. Considering that the United States since 1917 has won more world wars than our baseball teams have won World Series, it`s obviously not all that important.
Besides, winning is overrated. The Bears win all the time now, and with the exception of the Super Bowl season of 1985, all everyone does is moan and complain. Do the New York Mets seem happy?
Baseball in Chicago isn`t about winning and losing. Rather, it`s the total experience of being at the game. In its own way, each ballpark is a palace, even if the teams that play in them aren`t kings.
Wrigley Field, built in 1914, is a remarkable place. It`s almost inconceivable that a stadium built before World War I can still be standing strong against the test of time. The park is comfortable, and with the exception of a few posts, the sightlines are great. There isn`t a better sight than the vines on the outfield walls blowing in the breeze on a warm summer afternoon.
Comiskey Park was home to my baseball dreams as a youth. What Sox fan can forget Dick Allen coming off the bench to hit a pinch, game-winning homer to beat the Yankees?
Regrettably, Comiskey Park, which was built in 1910, has seen better days. With all the posts, it sometimes seems as if there`s no more than 10 good seats in the place. Still, the park is brimming with tradition. It`s one of baseball`s last links to its very early days, which makes a trip to Comiskey a must before it`s torn down.
So if baseball is your game, you`ll have 162 chances to indulge yourself this spring and summer. But there`s a lot going on around town besides baseball.
Four years after fire reduced one of the Chicago area`s premier thoroughbred horse-racing facility to ashes, a new Arlington Park is going up in suburban Arlington Heights.
On June 28 owner Dick Duchoissois will unveil the new $110-million facility, which should rank as one of the country`s most lavish tracks. Supposedly, there won`t be any bad seats in the place. Bettors also will be able to look over the balcony and see their horses in the paddocks.
The inaugural meeting, which runs through Oct. 15, will feature a stakes schedule worth nearly $5.3 million. The highlight will be the four-day International Event of Racing, topped by the Arlington Million on Sept. 3. The best horses from around the world will run for the big prize. It`s Duchoissois` desire that Arlington become known as ”the international racing center of the world.”
Sportsman`s Park in Cicero also begins its season June 28 with the finest harness racing west of New Jersey. The track`s highlight will be a 10-race American-National Series, the big race being a 3-year-old`s pace worth $400,000 on Oct. 14.
Racing also will take place in Hawthorne Park in Cicero and Balmoral Park in Crete. Their meets run through June 27.
The golf world will focus on Chicago Aug. 10-13, when the PGA Championship, the fourth major annual tournament in professional golf`s Grand Slam, comes to the treacherous Kemper Lakes course in Hawthorne Woods. The public course should be quite a test, considering it has just slightly less water than Lake Michigan.
The 17th hole is a favorite, although those who have played it may not use that word to describe it. It`s a par 3 with an island green. There`s no margin for error: You`re either on or you`re teeing it up again. A hole only Gilligan could love.
A few weeks earlier, Butler National in Oak Brook will once again host the Beatrice Western Open June 29-July 2. For the first time, the purse will be $1 million. The winner takes home $180,000.
The pros hate Butler because it`s one of the toughest courses on the tour. But it`s great for fans who like to see the players work to earn their birdies.
The course has two of the most famous holes in golf. The 14th, a par 4, requires carrying a water hazard on both the drive and on the second shot. The 18th, a brutal 440-yard par 4, is a great finisher with water on three sides. For sports fans, the summer of 1989 won`t disappoint. Other cities don`t compare.
Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, Arlington-International Race Course, Sportsman`s Park, Kemper Lakes, Butler National. Heavenly spots in what should be a heavenly summer in Chicago.
