Nebelhom's Miscellaneous: Museum of Contemporary Art and Baseball

We took it easy today and had a very slow start as signified by the image below this paragraph. The reasons were simple, the last three days, once we reached 20:00, we had trouble keeping our eyes open and we were about to watch a baseball match that starts at 19:05 and would last until at least 22:00.

Once we managed to get our asses moving, we went first to the museum of contemporary art. Now, I am not exactly an art fan, nor am I particularly fond of contemporary art per se, but Isi wanted to have a look and so we went. As we were there with Serena, we got into the museum for free, since on Tuesday's it is free for residents of Illinois.

I had the usual "man has no time for this"-face on, but deep down, I tried to keep an open mind. I made a point of not reading the description next to the exhibit, so that the piece can work on me. At the end, I will attach all the fotos that I took, but I will give you two fotos of things, I liked and two that I just had nothing for. You will be the judge.

Exhibits that I liked

I was told the Americans do not understand irony and sarcasm... I was wrong.

Who does not like Batman?

Exhibits that I did not like

Seriously, what?

No clue what the artist was thinking, but it looks like that hot wire game just bigger

One last thing before we move on, in the café I found something called "Curiosity Cola"... let's just say I was curious ;) Let me ask you this: Do you like the Haribo Cola Bottles? Yes? Weeeee-ell, you sure as hell will like this strange liquid. It tastes exactly the same!!!

This funky liquid tastes exactly like the Haribo Cola Bottles!!!

After the museum was done, we strolled briefly to Mattia's workplace before we made our way to the Wrigley field to watch the game of the Chicago Cubs vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. I have to be honest, all I know about baseball came from the film "The Cleveland Indians" with Charlie Sheen as the short-sighted pitcher who can throw at 200 km/h. In that sense, I was just hoping to have some folks next to us, who were patient enough to explain all about the game to us. Thankfully, exactly that happened and we had a great time.

But let's back up a bit, firstly, it was again freezing cold and we got a seat on one of the highest sections, where it was even colder, so I bought myself a hat for a truly unreasonable $20. It turned out to be a good investment. As is usual on these events, the prices for everything are ridiculous. We got ourselves a hot dog and a beer for a combined $16.50 and sat down in our seat. We were warned by Mattia not to put ketchup on the hotdog. Something in Chicago makes this a deadly sin, but we all did not know why and at that moment it was not the time to find out.

If even Isi cannot eat this thing with grace, then there is no hope

I am happy :)

Shortly before the game starts, there are three things that happened:

1) Random kids shout stuff into a microphone... I think that is also common to European sporting events.

2) A glorious fatman in a suit and tie with a beard and the non-chalance of a true aristocrat among the pleb just belted the US national anthem into the ranks. No music, nothing, just his enormous voice. Just to blend in we stood up and Isi grabbed my hat off of my head. I was in the middle of eating my hotdog, so I was not sure what the proper decorum in this situation was, so I stood head held high while trying to sneakily carry on eating... our neighbours did not mind

and 3) a at least semi-known person makes the first pitch of the game. There are a 120 games in the season, so I am not sure what the odds are, that this guy gave the first pitch the one time that we are there. Have a look at a picture of him and let me know if you recognise him. One hint, he recently signed with Chicago Fire in the Major League Soccer...

Wherever we go, seems that we cannot get rid of Germans - Good ole Bastian Schweinsteiger

So, the game began and Isi asked me a lot of questions, where I made the answers up on the spot. We saw two home runs within the space of the first ten minutes, so that was a good start :D Thankfully, about 15 minutes into the game, two guys in their mid- to late twenties I would say, sat down next to us, because their view was blocked by the stabilising pillar, which gave me an opening to start asking questions about the game. Their names were Jeff and Peter, and to their credit, they tried hard to explain this game to me, but it already started to get complicated when I asked how many batter (the guys with the club) there are per inning (by the way there 9 innings, unless there is a draw after 9, then there are ten innings or even eleven).

It turns out that this depends. It is the aim of the pitcher, the thrown the ball within a specific zone. If he does and the batter misses, it is a strike. If he misses and the batter does not hit, it is a "ball" (a fault). 3 strikes and the batter is out. 3 balls and the batter advances one base. Then there are a lot of different tactics on when to do what. So for example, you tend to put your power-hitters (the chubby batters with the beer gut) on 3rd or 4th position, so that you get more points, but sometimes the opposite team throws three balls on purpose to move the power hitter one along...

At the end of all this, I managed to involve not only Jeff and Peter, but also the ladies in the row in front in this discussion :-D I think, everyone was having fun, because they took all these rules for granted and only thought about it, when I asked what must have been seriously stupid questions :-D

After 10 years in Great Britain, I was able to be a good conversation partner when talking with someone about a strange sport of which I had no idea, so I had a lot of fun and the others, as well... I think ;) After awhile, we also started chatting about the greater picture. I once heard that the Cubs were the self-proclaimed worst team in the league, because they haven't won the league in 100 or so years. This has changed last year, when they won the MLS title, after 10 years of serious management decisions. The Cubs are now expected to keep winning the league for another season at least, as they have essentially the best offense in the league at this moment. However, the fact, that it took them so long to win the title, makes for some funny commercials like the one below :-D

After the game, we made our way home and for the first time, we did not get drenched... just a little tipsy :D

Addendum: More Artwork - Carry on looking at your own risk