Cubs Vs. Giants At Wrigley Field

I went to my first night game at Wrigley Field this evening.  Although the Cubs have had lights installed many years ago, I had never had the opportunity to see a night game until today.

Like many Cubs fans, I had always thought of Wrigley Field as a place for day games only.  So when I was given the chance to see the Cubs in a night game against the San Francisco Giants, I didn't hesitate in going.  I wanted to see how Wrigley Field looked at night.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the stadium was how bright the field looked and how dramatic the sky was!  I also noticed how hazy the stadium looked due to all the smoke generated by the barbecues from the neighboring rooftop seating companies!  I overheard some people saying how disgusting it was to go to a game and have to try to view the plays through all the smoke.  When the smoke is backlit by the bright lights, it looks like you are viewing the game through a dense fog.

Game time was 7:05 PM and my wife and I arrived at our seats just minutes before the National Anthem was played.  Already, night was beginning to fall, adding wonderful colors to the sky.  After waiting for some of the smoke to clear,  I turned on my Nikon D3 and took several shots of the scene in front of me.  These images are "standard" photography and not HDR images.

Because we had been given the tickets very late in the day, I had to rush to gather my camera gear together and leave for the game quickly.  In my haste, I accidentally left my 70-200mm f2.8 lens behind but I had my 24-70mm f2.8 lens with me.  I was disappointed as I wanted to take some shots of players but all I could do was take photos of the overall scenery.  I did not bring any flash equipment with me.

We were situated in excellent seats out by the right field side.  I looked around and thought, "We are in a position to get hit by a foul ball."  Now I had never had a foul ball come even close to me... but today one came at the top of the 2nd Inning.  I thought I saw the ball flying straight for us, but instead it was about 10 feet away from us.  Had I not had my camera with me, perhaps I could have jumped out of my seat and moved towards the path of the ball.  Instead, another person got into position to catch the ball.

Unfortunately for him, in his effort to catch the ball, he hurt his right hand.  The ball bounced and went to someone else.  The usher came over and suggested he go with another usher to get the hand looked at.  Later, I overheard another usher stop by to tell his friend that the man had ripped the webbing of his hand!  The friend left to go see him and they never returned to the game.  I guess a baseball still has a lot of power left in it even after traveling so far.  While I felt bad for the man, it was rather exciting to have a ball come that close.  I had my Cubs baseball cap in my hand ready to catch it.

In the end, the Cubs defeated the Giants with a score of 2 to 0.

Be sure to click on each image for a closer look.