Around halftime of Sunday’s Bears game, the march began. Sports fans clutching World Series tickets, strolling–nearly floating on the chill autumn air–from Soldier Field toward cars and trains and traffic and lines, hyped to spend a few more hours outside in the rain.
Who knew heaven had soggy seats?
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime weekend,” said Paul Winkle, 37, standing in a downpour outside Soldier Field, straining to hear a radio broadcast of the Bears game he just left. “How can you not love this?”
For those lucky enough to hold tickets to both games–and to witness a Bears win and a dramatic White Sox victory–a dreary Sunday in Chicago felt like a sunny spring day.
Nowell Ludwig, 42, of Lemont strutted through Soldier Field with his World Series Game 2 ticket draped from his neck.
The sight drew stares and even pleas from desperate Sox fans who could only dream of experiencing the sports doubleheader.
With ample machismo, Ludwig boasted: “It takes a real man to be at both games.”
Just ask Jenn Bruno, not a man, but certainly a fan.
“This is the best day of my life,” Bruno said. “The World Series and the Bears? I don’t know if this will ever happen again in one day.”
She and her boyfriend, Matt Buol, watched the Bears stymie the Baltimore Ravens until halftime, then made their way to the South Side.
At U.S. Cellular Field, Buol was able to use his Bears cap and jersey to hide the fact that he is, in reality, a Cubs fan.
“I’m not going to argue with anyone here,” said the incognito Buol. “But we all love the Bears.”
Still, the weight of the two games had to be taken into consideration.
The Bears eventual win brought their record to 3-3 and kept them atop the NFC North Division.
But the words “world” and “series” haven’t been used next to each other in Chicago for anything but punchlines in quite some time.
Even some Bears players were high-tailing it from the locker room to the ballpark.
Rookie kicker Robbie Gould was tagging along with defensive end Michael Haynes.
“Mike said he had a couple of tickets and asked if anybody wanted to go,” Gould said. “And I’m just the kind of guy who will bend over backwards to help out a teammate in a tough situation like that.”
Asked if the tickets were any good, Haynes laughed: “They’re good. Let’s leave it at that.”
So the Bears certainly could forgive fans who watched Sunday’s game half-heartedly.
Like Mike O’Malley, 48, decked out in all Sox gear, with the exception of a warm Bears cap.
Nursing a beer in a Soldier Field lounge, he admitted his mind was elsewhere.
“I’m a confused fan right now,” O’Malley said as he tried to keep his rooting interests straight.
Ted Reese, of Michigan City, Ind., was in the same boat. The 63-year-old’s eyes kept wandering away from the football action. He fidgeted.
“My mind,” Reese confessed, “is on the Sox.”
It was clearly the same for those who left their Bears early. Midway through the game, the chant of “Let’s Go, Sox!” echoed through a tunnel leading out of Soldier Field.
“Well, I did my part,” said Chris Belbin, 48, of Kildare, as he headed to the baseball game. “Now it’s Sox time.”
And there was no way the weather could get in the way of that.
While the cold bummed out the ballpark’s ice cream vendors, a pair of Floridian Sox fans noted the weather was a matter of perspective.
Paul Davis, 51, and his sister Diana Davis, 48, natives of Munster, Ind., flew into Chicago on Friday, leaving Hurricane Wilma, and their families, behind.
Paul Davis said he was calling his wife and three kids in Tampa every few hours.
“They’re home boarding up the house while we’re watching the White Sox,” quipped his sister.
“I’m not thinking about it right now,” said Paul Davis, nervously smoking a cigarette in the rain. “I’m more worried about the White Sox.”
“I figured since the White Sox won last night there’d be locusts all over Chicago,” he said. “You can look it up, it’s in the Bible.”
Even locusts wouldn’t have kept Matt Sacks, 14, from the day’s two glorious games.
He started Sunday at a Bears tailgate party, watched part of the game at Soldier Field, then was on hand in the seventh inning when Paul Konerko hit a grand-slam homer to give the Sox the lead.
“I’m tired, I’m a little cold, but just the excitement carries you through,” said Sacks, his eyes a bit glassy. “It’s been a great day.”
Leaving the park, Tom Mershon, 36, of Orland Park was carrying two bags of memorabilia and the biggest grin, still picturing Scott Podsednik’s walk-off homer.
“This was the most incredible game I’ve ever seen,” Mershon said. “I really thought it was going extra innings, but Scotty P surprised me. I still can’t believe this.”
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