For no reason other than sheer ennui, I haven’t posted much about the Wrigley experience the other day because my investigation rated an incomplete. Because I’ve been to so many games at Wrigley, I don’t feel the need to check out everything in the neighborhood.

My first stop was the first aid station after almost not being allowed to bring my camera in. I’ll never understand that as several people are violating the broadcast terms on a daily basis. The first aid folks couldn’t be nicer and more professional.

If I’ve learned one thing from third grade teachers-don’t yuck on someone else’s yum. That applies to watering holes in Wrigley as most people don’t pretend that it’s about the food. It’s more about the pops and being seen that’s what the fans inside the park are talking about as Ian Happ is embarrassing himself at the plate.

Unless you have the time/money/patience/and liver doing a deep dive in Wrigley is kind of a waste of time. There aren’t that many great unique places and I recommend you go where you like and enjoy drinking from a red Solo cup. The landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, but I thought I’d share the bare minimum on one of the newcomers to the hood. DraftKings has finally settled in Wrigley Field or at least the edge along the right field line. I was curious to check it out for 30 seconds, but the line of 6 guys deterred me. I was more interested in seeing what kind of crowd they had pregame.

Inside the Friendly Confines there are always changes to the menu(s) and names of the venues inside the park. Nothing caught my eye except for the soft-serve ice cream as it was melting in the heat after the people paid handsomely. I noted it because my Holy Grail was the old school Frosted Malt and even with the aid of King Arthur and Patsy, I never got one.

My only oasis in the cashless desert remains the stand down the third base line in the lower concourse. Friend Jon alerted me to the vendor who will take cash ($2) for a new scorecard. In a world where we are inundated with ads, I was surprised that the simple scorecard had zero sponsors and ads. I didn’t see anyone else keeping score all day. Along the same lines, it appeared that they’ve changed the stats the feature on the scoreboards.

I figure the $13-$14 per can of beer is par for the ML course and maybe the $7 for bottled water isn’t out of line. I chose to pass on both as the $3 water I brought in was just fine. I didn’t ask anyone what they paid for their better looking than not, loaded nachos and fully dressed dog, but I’m betting it was captive audience prices.

Considering it was a gorgeous day I was surprised by the quieter pregame crowd in and around the ballpark. However, I did notice more Asian fans in the park. This was due to the Asian American Pacific Islander Day-one of many ethnic centric games held throughout the league. It was very inclusive-such that Asian-Americans outside of the parameters were included in several in-game and pregame gigs. I think they missed the true intent of the national celebration.

While the hometown fans didn’t seem as bothered by the Cubs ineffectiveness and outcome, I think everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did.