Earlier this week I was  given the opportunity to sit in the bleachers at Wrigley Field for the Cubs vs. Reds game. Despite being a diehard Sox fan I have been to Wrigley several times. I had never sat in the bleachers but was always led to believe that it was basically the Holy Grail of baseball experiences. It most certainly was not. Now I will concede that it was a cold, April, weeknight game and that undoubtedly had something to do with it, but I am positive that wouldn’t have made the entire difference.

Honestly, they are the worst kind of bleachers you can imagine. Your butt is literally on the same level as the feet of the person behind you. Not only does this lead to feet nailing you, but knees go right into the upper back. Someone actually tried to tell me that this was “part of the experience” which I say is nutty. We had discounted tickets, but even so, for $25 I think I want better. The view of the action from the bleachers is really not that much different than any other park. But there is a downside. Wrigley’s scoreboard in center field is limiting enough, but the ones down the lines are downright crappy. During the inning pitch count was shown instead of the score and inning and other than balls and strikes and the jersey number of the batter you don’t get anything else. Most of the rest of my complaints are things not restricted to the bleachers, but rather the entire park.

There were a couple of other things that irked me. I was definitely led to believe that the bleachers was where the true “blue collar” fans resided, the diehards who couldn’t afford better seats. I found that most people weren’t paying attention to the game, and the ones that did cheered at odd times. By far the strangest part of the night was when the people near us (in the left field bleachers) started chanting “right field sucks” at the right field bleachers. Now this I didn’t understand. Isn’t everyone there supposed to band together to root for their team? Instead they shout insults at eachother?

I suppose its safe to say that I crossed an item off of my imaginary sports bucket list, but this definitely won’t be one that I repeat.