His shit-eating grin really says it all.  This man did not get up that morning and think, “I’m going to support my team by wearing a Jim Edmonds jersey.”  He definitely was thinking something more along the lines of, “I’m going to try to piss people off and tape it because I’m a douche like that.”

That being said, this is another public service announcement reminder to think twice before you bring your kids to angryy, drunken, racist, crass Wrigley Field.  Adults only apparently.

h/t: WV23

So what does it cost to witness 102 years of baseball futility?  More than any other team.

That’s right Cubs fans, your team hasn’t won a World Series since 1908, but to see the 2010 edition will set you back $52.56 per seat at beautiful Wrigley Field, according to Team Market Report’s annual Fan Cost Index. (And no, the price of admission doesn’t guarantee a win.)

TMR, a Wilmette company, each year releases a price index that measures everything from parking to concessions to ticket costs and this year the North Siders top the list.

The average ticket in MLB costs $26.79, up just slightly from a year ago.

The report shows that the Cubbies had the second highest price increase — up 10.1 percent for 2010.

An family of four can expect to spend a bundle. Figure in hot dogs ($4.25 each), beer ($6.25 each), sodas ($3.75 each), parking ($25.00) and a couple of baseball caps ($20 each), and taking the tribe out Wrigley Field will set you back a cool $329.74.  Don’t leave home without that credit card.

So basically the Cubs have won exactly zero Championships since 1908, but they feel they can charge the most?  I was discussing this with one of the many people who emailed me about this story, and we concluded that it was ludicrous how much a Cubs game costs.  While an argument can be made that what I described at the beginning of this article about how it is the BEST way to spend a summer day may be enough to justify the prices they charge, in terms of a day watching professional sports it is outrageous.  A Bears game may cost more, but that’s worth it in an entirely different way.  A Bulls game is significantly less, so there’s no real comparison there.

The one thing that Mr. Ricketts and our dearly-departed friends at the Tribune have done is attempt to build a winner by spending more than almost any other team on payroll.  I give them credit for that and while I will continue to bitch and moan about ticket prices, I will keep going to the ballpark so long as they continue to spend money and show a commitment to success on the field. (Who am I kidding, I’ll keep going to the park pretty much no matter what, amirite?)

If you want to watch the actual interview with Quigley, you can go here.  It’s hilarious as well.

h/t: Smells Like Mascot

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was amused Wednesday by a T-shirt that sported a cartoon drawing of him cutting the Wrigley Field lawn.

“Ozzie mows Wrigley Field” was inscribed on the front, with the Wrigley scoreboard in the background.

Guillen bought a T-shirt and wore it in the clubhouse. “I might cut lawns but I don’t stand in the rain selling T-shirts,” Guillen said, laughing.

It’s been at least a week since he said or did something incredibly stupid and insensitive but uniquely hilarious.  I would say this definitely qualifies.

h/t: Player to be Named Later

The pretzel itself is a new thing offered by Levys Restaurants at Wrigley.  It is dubbed “the Northside Twist”.  The pretzel itself was huge and very soft.  It was a bit on the salty side but in general it wasn’t bad.  The problem came with the dipping sauces.  There were 3 sauces and each sucked for a different reason.  The first sauce was a sweet sauce that was thick and way too sweet.  The second sauce was a spicy mustard.  Now I feel like mustard is a traditional dipping sauce for pretzels, but this sauce was extremely spicy and didn’t even taste that good.  The last sauce was the only one that was bearable, but it had its own issues.  It was a cheese sauce but it was not like the nacho cheese sauce, which would have been fine.  It was a different kind of cheese with a very thick consistency, almost to the point of being hard.  The cheese itself was so-so tasting, but almost impossible to dip the soft pretzel in because of the consistency.

So overall I give the “North Side Twist” a B-.  This grade can be easily remedied with the introduction of a different sauce selection, but until then, I don’t recommend it.

Wszolek said the Cubs had received no complaints from fans and that only bloggers and media were upset.

Do we really have to go over this again?  Okay let me explain something to you Mr. Wszkdo-whatever; Bloggers are fans.  And to be honest, I read a lot of Cubs blogs and I hadn’t heard anything about it in the blogosphere until I read the Tribune article yesterday.  Blaming bloggers is becoming the new “blaming Jews for the bad economy in Germany circa 1933-1945″ (obviously that parallel runs into all kinds of problems, but still).  Are people so out of touch with reality that they think bloggers are a whole universe of people separate from the rest of the population?  It’s not like we all gather in our mothers’ basements and hatch plans to mess up Matt Wszolek’s masterful (see: retarded and annoying) new ad campaign.  Most of those Cubs crowds are full of Cubs bloggers.  If the bloggers are upset about something, that generally reflects the mood of the fan base.  Even if it doesn’t, it at least reflects the mood of certain Cubs fans that happen to have blogs.

Just so it doesn’t get lost in all this: bloggers aren’t the only ones that think its annoying.  I have been to 2 games this year.  I went with 3 other people to each game (totaling 6 people) that are not bloggers.  Guess what? They thought the jingle was annoying too.  Maybe Wszolek thinks they are bloggers-by-association for hanging out with me.  Anyone who aids a Jew–oops I mean blogger, I said blogger, right?–will be considered to be in league with them.

I’m also curious what kind of research was done to determine that fans aren’t annoyed with the jingle.  Considering I’ve lived in Chicago and been hearing that stupid jingle since I was about 5, I’d say I was annoyed with it by 1995.

I really have a blogger inferiority complex, don’t I?

It’s a new year for everyone.  From the Cubs down to the lowly Mariners every team is undefeated right now.  I can’t wait to smell the green grass of Wrigley and hear the first crack of a wooden bat smashing a ball over the bleachers.

And to the White Sox fans that have their opener pushed back: Don’t worry, you just have one more day to wait.

BASEBALL!!!!

“You come into a ballpark like this and you see great things,” the Cubs ace told The Associated Press on Saturday before his team’s 10-1 exhibition loss at the sparkling ballpark in the Bronx.

“You wish that Chicago’d build a new stadium for the Cubs,” he said.

Well I don’t know about you, but I would sure like to see them improve Wrigley Field.  Of course no one wants to get rid of it altogether (which Z may have been implying), but it’s not like Wrigley is above criticism.  It is a deteriorating park that is not up to the standards of modern baseball.  While there is quite a bit of charm to the real grass, the ivy, the scoreboard, and other features, those don’t need to be completely sacrificed in order to bring the field into the 20th century, let alone the 21st century.

Some Cubs fans are mad about Z’s comments though, according to the Tribune, which is running this story about how Zambrano is backtracking on his comment:

Carlos Zambrano said Sunday he was misquoted when he told an Associated Press reporter he wished Chicago would build a new stadium for the Cubs.

“I didn’t say that,” he said.

So what did Zambrano say?

“I said anybody wants to have a new ballpark,” Zambrano said. “As a player, you feel like you’re trying to be more comfortable. As a player, you want to have the greatest ballpark in the National League, or the big leagues. As a fan, we should stay there. I don’t have a problem with Wrigley Field. That’s what I said.”

…Does Zambrano care that many Cubs fans were mad at him for his comment?

“Why?” he said. “They don’t have to be mad. I didn’t say they have to build a new stadium. If the Cubs do it, we will be much better and more comfortable, as a player.

Ok Carlos, so you’re saying you didn’t really mean the Cubs should build a new stadium, but they should build a new stadium?  No one ever thought Z was logical anyways.  But my question is, what Cubs fans were mad?  Wrigley Field’s clubhouse facilities are a dump compared to most ballparks around the league.

A message to Cubs fans that are Wrigley Field Nazis (if you even exist and weren’t dreamed up by the Tribune): Wrigley Field is a wonderful place.  It’s old-school charm makes it one of the greatest ballparks in all of baseball, if not the greatest.  That being said, it was built at the beginning of the 20th century and needs improvement.  Concrete is falling from the roofs, the clubhouse facilities for the players are decades old, and overall the structure needs to be redone in a lot of ways.  So don’t get “mad” if someone calls Wrigley out for those flaws, because they obviously exist.  Thanks.

h/t: Benji (Although I know you just sent this to try to piss me off because you’re a Sox fan and hate the Cubs.  Oh and thanks for not sending me the link too, because I had to go find it myself.  Sox fans are just the best.)

Anyways, Dempster agrees with me, and whether you think there should be more night games or not, you have to like Dempster’s respect and love for the game:

But Ryan Dempster, who often rides his bike to the ballpark, believes the day tradition is something that separates the franchise from the rest.

“The tradition is cool, something unique to Wrigley Field,” he said. “I think if you start going more than [30], you kind of take away from what we have here. If we get up in the 50s or 60, then you’re just a normal team.

Most other Cubs players don’t agree with Dempster, and for good reason.  It is a lot tougher to get up early and have to skip batting practice.  But regardless of those issues, this is something that not only sets the Cubs apart from other teams, but makes them better.  Day baseball is the only kind of baseball there should be.

That being said, I will still be going to as many night games as I can this summer.  Whatever, I’m a hypocrite.