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Published Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 7:45 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 7:51 a.m.
NOW
If you want to know where the Road to Wrigley (which is what they called Sunday's game between the Iowa Cubs and 51s in Chicago) narrows, I can tell you.
It's in the visitors' clubhouse.
You almost need a miner's helmet to make your way from the first base dugout to the visitors' clubhouse, which wends beneath the playing surface, around a couple of corners, back up and over the concourse beneath the seats, where Cubs fans line up to buy Frosty Malts and Old Style beer, and, finally, up another flight of stairs.
It's hardly worth the trip. The visitors' clubhouse at Wrigley is not much bigger than the one at Cashman Field. It's not exactly as well-appointed as a Chrysler Cordoba, either.
Nonetheless, I stood there in the middle of it, where most of the 51s weren't paying attention to the NASCAR race on the not-so-big screen plasma TV, soaking it all in -- if for no other reason to say I did it -- when I saw 51s broadcaster Russ Langer doing the same thing.
"To think that this is where Honus Wager once put on his uniform ... " Langer said, his voice trailing off in reverence.
Upon further review, forget what I said. It was totally worth the trip.
THEN
What I really wanted to do is pretend I was from Des Moines and talk my way into the home clubhouse at Wrigley, because that's where Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown put on his uniform.
But there simply wasn't enough time.
This is one of the reasons why baseball is still the greatest game ever invented. Its tradition and history are unbeatable. Wrigley Field is the closest I've evr been to a man-made religious experience, and I am no Cub fan.
Was the Flying Dutchman the greatest player ever? Quite possibly, quite possibly. To stand where he once stood must be quite a thrill.
Wrigley...The Monument!!! I had one high school classmate who won a Nobel prize in medicine for genetic research and another classmate who developed the Stealth bomber, but they never got to put on a uniform in that catacomb of a visitors locker room at Wrigley and field ground balls on that hallowed infield as I was privileged to do when the Cubs gave me a brief tryout back in the last century. Imagine...Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth. WOW!!!
When I was very young my dad took me to Forbes Field to see Honus Wagner. It was a special treat. In those days there were no bobblehead dolls or T shirts etc. Just baseball and before the game this Really old guy came out of the dugout and waved to the crowd. I was impressed because he moved under his own power , no steroids or growth hormones.