Alright the much awaited Wrigley Field DO TR!!
Welcome to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Team DDF (Pinstripes) - Pregame by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
First and foremost, I’d like to start with a few very necessary thank yous. SPG did a phenomenal job with this event. Major shout out to them and the “Moments” team. The event went super smoothly, and honestly was better than any of us could have imagined.
Also, a major shout-out to anonymous DDFer #1 who acted as our liaison to SPG. It was definitely not simple getting the kosher food orders, guests, jersey numbers and other information from 12 different people. While we are at it, JB of the SPG Moments team did an outstanding job catering to our specific needs, and getting everything done. The only hiccup as far as I can tell is that I got a M jersey instead of a Youth XL (No Dan, A Youth XL is not in fact big on me). But seriously they did an awesome job as well. (We apologize if we made you little nuts, Ahem MT.)
Next is anonymous DDFer #2 for hooking up the post-game shallots DO which turned out to be a monumental task ) I always thought Shallot’s reputation, especially in DDF circles was a bit overblown, but now I see that is not the case. Truly, not enough can be said about the Shallots experience. A big thank you to Berel Fischler and the rest of the Shallots staff as well.
Next are the misaymim. Mazel tov to SrulyS on finishing Shavous and to myself for Makos.
Thanks to all the guests who cheered us on and took pictures.
Last but not least I’d like to thank everyone who came out. Each one of you added to this awesome experience and made it a moment I will not soon forget. This includes certain members of opposing teams as well.
(ETA: I cannot have written this all on my own. Thanks to all those who edited and added pics.)
Now, while we were considering, and frankly even after we knew we were going, we found regretfully little about the actual event online. And while, as I mentioned before, SPG did an awesome job with the event, getting info from them prior to the event is a long process. It is normal for them to take 24-48 hours to respond to any requests or inquiries. Hence I will elaborate about the actual event. I feel this can be immensely useful to folks considering this event in future years.
The event is a softball tournament played at Wrigley Field. (That much everyone should know by now.) There are a total of 8 teams playing each consisting of 12 players. Packages are sold in two ways. The first is 36 packages for 2 players each (Henceforth referred to as single packages). These are sold at fixed amount of 10k SPG each (an absolute bargain) and sell out VERY quickly. One thing to note about these is, at least this year these were not released all at once. I do not know if the second release was because people cancelled but there were at least two release times this year. The second is the full team package which is auctioned off. I will write about the auction in a moment. There are only 2 disadvantages to the singles package as oppose to the full team package which we bought. The first is that you receive a colored SPG t-shirt as oppose to the custom MLB jersey the full team receives. The second is that requests for a full or partial team are taken but not guaranteed. That said, there was a group of 12 Chicago guys who bought 6 of these packages and got their own team. So if you’re only worry is the team I would not sweat it.
Both packages include (besides the games and t-shirts/jerseys)
-Up to 2 guests per player at a 1k SPG fee (they allowed us to deduct that from separate accounts). The guests are entitled to all of the below.
-Stadium tour
-Full buffet style lunch with kosher food upon request. The food for us was ordered from Metroklub. If you do choose to order Kosher food you must submit a specific order in advance. They allowed us to each order an appetizer, entrée (sandwiches) and dessert. It was more than enough. There is an open bar at lunch.
The Auction. IIRC the auction starts at something like 20k SPG. It does not stay there for long. In order to prevent eBay style sniping, the auction end time is extended 5 minutes every time the final bid price is raised within 5 minutes of the auction end time. Interestingly, both auction end times are extended even if only one is raised. I seem to have forgotten to mention this earlier but thank you JJ1000 for some serious bidding. The auction end time was extended a full hour and a half in our case (all of which we were glued to our phones/laptops) as we watched JJ go to work. Remarkably, in this time, he managed to come through AND post an amazon deal on the main site. That’s more than I can say as I got NO work done during that hour and a half.
The actual event. After you checked in at the gate you sign some papers (No clue what they say, perhaps AJK can enlighten us as I assume it was lawyer stuff) you receive your t-shirt or jersey. There are some photos taken and then the actual event begins. It is split up into 4 segments and then a championship game. Each segment is around 40 minutes long which was ample time for each activity. None felt rushed or too long. During each segment you are either playing one of your two 16’ softball games (If you don’t know what it is GIYF, but basically beach-ball sized softball), taking stadium tour or eating lunch. In the time coming up to this event, some thought the games would be too short. I would like to reiterate that they most definitely were not. I believe we got a full six innings in both games and I personally batted 5 times between both games. I should note that all games have an official pitcher provided by SPG and you can stick all 12 players wherever you want in the field (longstop, shallow left center etc…). The games are played on the outfield grass and are structured so that that the winners of game 1 face off in game 2 and the winners of game 2 go on to play championship game. The champions (congratulations White Team) receive 10k SPG EACH for a total of 120k SPG – not bad at all.
Our personal experience Normally, these TRs include flights but in this case ill skip that part. Suffice it to say we all BH arrived (some of us after some mishaps – but mostly without notable event) the only notable thing I can think to mention (besides my missed flight) is that Dan flew AA and all went smoothly. Can we expect a change of attitude perhaps?
Those who arrived early went for some practice at batting cages in the Peterson Park area while the rest of us just arrived at the appointed time (11:30) at Wrigley. We were scheduled to play Yellow Team for the first segment who we surprisingly not only beat but crushed 14-5. Highlights of this game included (other than a whole lot of errors and lousy fielding by both teams throughout), a Yitzshpitz 2 run blast, an absolutely phenomenal diving grab by Redbull3, awesome slides home by MosheD and EJB (slides were then promptly banned), a tag at 3rd by MosheD (Shidduch resume worthy), and a game-ending bang-bang play with Chuck at the plate (not because it was close, the catcher had the ball as he rounded 3rd. Just literally “bang-bang”).
Next we did the stadium tour which basically highlights why it sucks to have a 100 years old stadium. No elevator, or even escalator to press-box. Non-existent players’ lounge. And of course the bathrooms (not part of tour, but I felt necessary to add).
Upper Deck View by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Upper Deck View 2 by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Visitors Dugout by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Visitors Dugout View Of Home Plate by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Visitors Dugout View Of Infield by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Press Box View by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Wrigley Fields Hand Operated Scoreboard by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
We then played our second game against the eventual champions White Team. The defense at this game was remarkably improved perhaps thanks to a strategic substitution at third. This game was really close and only 1-1 going into the final inning (6th). We unfortunately gave up 3 runs at the top of that inning which we could not recover. Highlights of this game included another incredible over the shoulder grab by Redbull3 (MVP), some very clean plays on ground balls to 3rd (harder than it sounds as the bases were really close) and all around great defense.
Below are pics from both games;
Redbull3 At Bat by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Yitzshpitz Jacks A 2 Run Homer With Cubs Alumni Dave Otto Watching by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Yitzshpitz HR - It Will Go All The Way To The Wall by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Moes Tavern Calling His Shot..... by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Moes Tavern At Bat by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
AJK With The Barehanded Catch by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
AJK at Bat by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Redbull3's Awesome Diving Catch by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Dan at Bat by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
RedBull3 Tracks Down A Long Fly Ball In Deep Left Field by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
SrulyS Safe At First by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
MosheD At Bat by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Team DDF (Pinstripes) by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Get the Lefty Up....... by
Moes Tavern, on Flickr
Following the tough loss, we were (finally) served lunch. SrulyS was misayem allowing us to partake in the meat. Metroklub did accommodate for those who did not want to eat meat and had some great pareve dishes as well. All the food was delicious and we left full and satisfied. The championship game was then played which I did not stick around for, instead choosing to dash to my hotel for a quick shower (Halachic discussion below) before Shallots.
Oh, I almost forgot. We also got to meet a Cubs Alumni, David Otto (GIYF). But as Dan noted,
2 people took selfies with him, 20 random people with me 😂
ShallotsTo be continued….
Decidedly not a foodie. Someone else can write this. Yes it was awesome.
