By Caron Schwartz
I am not a sports fan. If you twist my arm (not the recently broken one, please), I will admit to finding baseball interesting. It has weird rules, you can tell what job each player has, and it involves a surprising amount of strategy. Unlike America’s other favorite pastime, football, it’s not a bunch of guys just trying to mow each other down.
So, when Lenny’s Chicago cousin Anna planned her 85th birthday bash for mid-September, I surprised myself by saying, “Let’s see if the Cubs are playing at Wrigley Field.” We were in luck – they were even playing the Tampa Bay Rays.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the Windy City, but never before ventured into the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. We scored great seats on the first base side, high enough to see everything, and in the shade. (The last time I saw a game, it was at Denver’s Coors Field where the mile-high sun turned my skin a shade of red I’d never known before.)
When the Rays won, I might have been the only person in the stands who cheered.
A few weeks later a civic organization we belong to held a bowling tournament. Bowling, of course, is another great American pastime. It served as my grandma Bertie’s favorite babysitting activity. As a child I somehow managed to roll that 13-pound behemoth down the lane, occasionally hitting a pin or two. But I excused myself this time because a) the ball is too heavy, b) I’m too clumsy, or c) God knows whose feet have been in these stupid rental shoes.
When I lived in New England (about 150 years ago), my buddies and I enjoyed candlepin bowling. The point of the game is the same, but you get to throw a manageable softball-size, three-pound ball toward skinny pins. But it’s not available south of the Massachusetts border, a real shame.
The tournament at Ten Pin Lanes, a 1950s-era pink bowling alley on Pasadena Ave. S., was lots of fun. We cheerleaders rooted for our team, but it had no effect. We came in last. Still, it was a team building exercise that ended in beer and bar food and endless chatter about spins, slides, and silly walks.