What's Good: Keep The Ball, Please!

I've never liked Wrigley Field. Over the offseason, though, I forget why and try to figure out good reasons:

Wayne Messmer can't hold a candle to Nancy Faust. Wayne Messmer can't hold a candle to Gene Honda. There's no LED (black-and-white) scoreboard. No fireworks.

I suppose, in retrospect, that these are all reasons to dislike the Cubs' management, as they could rectify these situations (though it wouldn't change my opinion.) However, there is one thing that is identified with Wrigley Field that I truly cannot stand.

Another day on Waveland Avenue

Yesterday afternoon, I journeyed with a friend of mine to Waveland Avenue with a radio, so that I could listen to the Sox/Cubs game and possibly catch a home run.

The weather was sparkling; the fans were out en masse; the atmosphere was electric.

After the Cubs manufactured a run in their half of the first, Jermaine Dye launched a bomb over the left-center field wall into the front lawn of 3709 N. Kenmore St. 

We on the street scrambled for it, and a lucky (though well-prepared) fan caught up to it. As JD had hit it, the fans in the bleachers called for the man to throw it back.

Soon after, a ball sailed over the seats and onto the field. Even worse, it was the ball that my friend and I were playing catch with. Worse still? My friend had given him the ball to throw.

Why?

Now I've seen how the operation works: you keep old Little League balls and throw them back to satisfy the fans. But why throw a ball at all?

It's dangerous. If you don't have a strong enough arm, it could possibly hit a fan. It could also hit an outfielder or someone else near the field of play.

Then, there's the sentimental value. Fans have gone to games for years with a glove in hopes of catching a ball, be it foul or fair. I went to my first baseball game at age two, and in 18 years, I've never caught a ball.

I'm sure there are people older than me who can say the same.

Back to Waveland...

During the game, a young Cubs fan who was with his parents came up to my friend and I. He repeatedly asked us if we were Sox fans or Cubs fans (you could tell that he had a somewhat dimmer view of Sox fans.)

Late in the game, he came up and asked my friend if he was a Sox fan.

"No," Sam said.

The kid then asked why were playing catch with the ball we had. "A Sox player hit that ball," he said, matter-of-factly.

We explained that our ball wasn't the same ball, and he walked away, but what he said still bothered me. Especially since he was only five or six years old.

Seems to me that you bring up kids to believe that any other home run isn't worth it. Should it really matter who hit the ball?

Don't be quick to follow the advice of other fans around you.  Keep the ball.

That's what's good.