The Winter Classic Experience

So after a crazy Cubs game a few years ago where Cubs fans threw quarters at one of my cousins (a little girl), I vowed never to step into Wrigley Field unless the White Sox were playing.

That is, until I came into free Winter Classic tickets on New Year's Eve.

Our seats were on the third base line, eleven rows back, and damn, it was a spectacle.

I've always loved the idea of outdoor hockey ever since last year's snow game in Buffalo gave America yet another justification to purchase HD televisions. The thing looked great in New York. And as much as it killed me that our Winter Classic was going to be hosted at Wrigley Field, the thought that kept hitting me over and over as I sat in my seats in awe of the environment was "It had to be here."

No question about it. Sure, the Cell is a better baseball stadium. And yeah, Soldier Field has a bigger capacity. But at Wrigley, the whole thing felt so... Chicago. I think I just liked the idea of everybody -- Sox, Bears, Cubs, whatever -- trekking up to the north side to cheer on a mutual team. In a city with such divided baseball lines, you'll likely never see such city-wide unity in Wrigley ever again.

The top moment from today was the singing of the national anthem. After an always fun rendition of "O Canada," the stadium launched into one of the loudest, most frenzied "Star Spangled Banner" performances I've ever heard. While Hawks fans are known for their rowdiness during the normally reserved song, the whole crowd really took it up another notch today. I could barley hear the singer. And though I'm sure many would consider it disrespectful, the whole thing felt undeniably patriotic.

By now, I hope you know how the game went. If not, the Redwings took it 6-4 after the Blackhawks were leading 3-1 in the 2nd period. So that sucked.

But as much as I would have loved to see the Blackhawks win, I think a loss today was almost for the better.

Seriously, if the Hawks took the game today, you'd get all these fluff story lines and angles about how the Hawks had their coming out party/put the Redwings on notice/were the new team to beat/fill in your own blank here. In all reality, the Redwings are the defending champs, and until the Blackhawks outlast them in the playoffs, no regular season game is going to change anything. Sure, a win would have been amazing, but let's let the rest of the season play out and then find out if it means anything.

So, let's just take away one lesson from today's game, and it's not something we needed a box score to figure out: hockey is excellent outdoors.

Random thoughts:
- Whole lotta "De-troit sucks" chants, but that's to be expected.

- The weather wasn't all that bad. Little bit windy and in the 20s. Though I was wearing pretty much the same attire I had on from the Bears-Pack MNF game two weeks ago, so almost anything was going to feel warmer than that freezing bunch of awful.

- Absolutely nothing was off topic for the Blackhawks fans when it came to shit talking. Stirred whenever a Detroit fan would respond with "Stan-ley Cup," to the "De-troit sucks" chants, Chicagoans stooped to things like "You have no jobs!", "Bad economy!", and -- and I feel awful having to repeat this -- "0-16!!!!" ... yes, even the Lions were brought to the table. Just heartless. Never before had I seen a pairing of numbers depress a fanbase so much before (besides, well, oh god, you know... sigh: 18-1).

- Two major middle finger moments from the Cubs/Wrigley Field...

1) Introducing Chicago sports legends before the game -- Blawkhawks like Bobby Hull, Savard, Mikita, and Esposito along with former Cubs Ferguson Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, and Billy Williams. But no Bulls? No Bears? No Sox?!

I like to think we protested it a little. I, along with a small portion of the stadium, booed the hell out of Ryne Sandberg until some old guy in my section got his panties in a bunch and argued you could only boo athletes if you truly believe you're better than them at their sport. Gotta love the Cubs logic.

But seriously, the game needed Ozzie. Though knowing him, he'd spout of some quote about how it'd be way too cold for him to be outside and that'd be that

2) Ryne Sandberg and some other no-championship winning buffoons singing a 7th inning stretch in the middle of (I believe) the third period. I just felt sick to be there.

- The game featured two makeshift jumbotrons in right and left field. Would Wrigley be ten times better if they simply added jumbotrons and accepted modern advancements like electricity? To quote BDD, "hell and yes."

- Pretty much every Redwings fan I saw/dealt with was pretty nice. They had the New York Yankee smugness about them -- you know, where they're so secure with their team's success and achievements that they don't even need to stoop to the level of the NHL's have-nots. Fair enough, you are the Stanley Cup champs.

- They had these signs attached to our seats that we were supposed to hold up during the pre-game festivities. There were two colors on each side. The first was for "Stunt 1." While I'm not sure what it said -- I think something like "Winter Classic"... go figure -- "Stunt 2" spelled Redwings / Blackhawks throughout the lower deck. When the Hawks fans sitting in the left side of the lower deck saw the jumbotron and realized they were unwillingly taking part in creating the Redwings portion of the logo, they immediately tore up their signs and threw them. This caused the whole stadium to follow suit.

- My buddy Tim (also a Sox fan) mistakenly went to the bathroom. Our exchange after he came back to the seats...

Tim: It was awful, I forgot about the troughs.
Me: Yeah, they're pretty sick.
Tim: I was thinking about peeing in the sink, actually.
Me: Why?!
Tim: ...because what's the difference?

- A rowdy female Blackhawks fan in my section was just badgering this respectful female Redwings fan a few rows in front of her. Just dropping "bitch" after "bitch" after "bitch." Once the Redwings gal came to terms with the insults and started to ease up and tune her out, the Blackhawks chick dropped a loud c-bomb which sent the whole section into a hushed "damnnnnn." I even saw several shocked people shape their hands in the letter 'C' in front of their own faces like they were trying to reenact it or something.

- After the game, multiple jokes were made about how Wrigley "cursed" the Blackhawks. Uh, yeah.

- Though meaningless, the late Hawks goal with about 9 seconds left to make the game 6-4 was pretty nice. Always good to end in high spirits.