Returning "Home"
There was a moment last night where things just sort of came together...
Dear Fellow Expat:
A few weeks ago, a stranger asked me what baseball stadium was better.
Camden Yards… or Wrigley Field.
Now… before you start listing the pros and cons and voting with your capital letters…
Let me tell you about a moment that I had last night.
All Stars Doing All Star Things
Two nights ago, the American League beat the National League in a snooze fest. The National League only had three hits during the game. That was the lowest number of hits that the National League had in an All Star game since… 1990.
There I sat with my wife at a pizza shop about a half mile away from the stadium where the 1990 game was played - Wrigley Field. And, it was the third of six All Star Games that my father, brother and I attended. I remember that game very well… we sat under the overhang along the right field line… and a rain delay stretched this already sleepy All Star game. I remember the tarp… and the rain… and a two-run double by Julio Franco (a man who played professional ball until he was 48).
That was my first Wrigley Field memory. And as I sat in those seats, watching Wrigley transform into a concert arena (it was the third concert I’ve seen at Wrigley), there was a moment where every single memory was witnessed in my mind - stretching back 36 years… And every seat and every angle…
Onto Northwestern
In 1999, I went to a game while attending a journalism summer program. My parents visited and took me to the bleachers. My father had gotten tickets from the concierge at the Drake Hotel, and when we arrived, we found that the tickets were fake. They still let us in. I was 18, and when my parents left in the 7th inning, I moved over in the bleachers two seats.
The guys who took my parents seats bought me a beer. Then, two batters later, a home run was hit directly where I was sitting. One of the guys caught the ball, and won a $500 gift card to Southwest because there was a promotion. They bought me a few more beers… I took the train back to Evanston and avoided all of my chaperones for the evening.
That day, along the way out of the stadium, a woman asked me if I wanted to sign up for Cubs season tickets.
The waiting list was seven years. I signed up… largely as a joke…
When I went to college in Chicago, I went to a few games. We lived in Wrigleyville during the 2003 playoffs, and after the Cubs lost to the Marlins in Game 7, I walked back from Wrigleyville to Evanston… That was about eight miles.
After graduating, I was moving back to Chicago in early 2005, and my mother called me. “The Chicago Cubs called. Apparently you signed up for season tickets…”
I guess I wrote down her landline number when I signed up…
Twelve Years of Ticket Holding
I was offered a nights and weekend package - 65 games a year.
And even thought I’d move to New York, and spend almost every weekend out in Queens watching the Mets play… I held onto those tickets…
I found two local people in Chicago who would take 50 of them combined a year, and I would give them first preference on games for the playoffs (meaning, I’d get every third game of any playoff series. It was a fair tradeoff…)
The Cubs were awful for a decade. One of the funnier events was when I asked a friend out from college to go to a game with me… and in the process of walking to the game… I was struck by a car making a sharp turn without looking at the stop sign. We battled through it and sat in dead-center field, but I think she took that as a sign…
Fast forward to 2008, when I lived in Chicago again (after the Lehman crash). I had tickets to the second game of a double hitter, and ran into her as she was leaving the first game. She joined me for the second game, and we sat out in right field. Then… she told me she was moving out of the country for two years. I took that as a sign.
No Hitting the Cubs
I met my wife two years later in Maryland (while in graduate school in D.C.), and we moved to Chicago in 2015… shortly after the nuptials.
I still had my season tickets, and I still had two partners. One of them dropped off in 2015, and I kept 30 of the games, and the original partner took 35. In 2015, my wife and I went to her first game, and we sat in our seats in Section 205. The Cubs were playing the Phillies.
And Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter. I took that as a positive sign. But seriously, this is her first game at Wrigley, and I’d gone to 500 baseball games in my life, and she sees the first no hitter thrown at Wrigley since 1972.
That year, the Cubs went to the playoffs.
I deferred my tickets to the NLCS as the Cubs were the underdog. I would have gone to Game 5… if there had been one and sat in my seats.
But the Cubs were down 3-0 against the Mets…
My brother and I secured tickets… and we ended up sitting directly … and I mean directly behind a pole in the 400 section. The pole is still there. I saw it last night.
But… finally… in 2016, there was magic… the Cubs won the World Series.
I deferred on games 3 and 5 to the partner, as we had agreed. And I kept Game 4, which I sold. But, the Baltimore Orioles had entered me into a lottery system. I was able to get tickets to games 3, 4, and 5 for the series (Thank you… Baltimore). My wife and her father went to Game 3.
I went to Game 4 with my father. And in Game 5, the Cubs were down 3-1. My brother and I went (a year after Pole Game), and dressed like idiots in seersucker and madras. Fox cut to us about 10 times…
My phone kept blowing up while we were watching the game… That was right field, I believe in the second row…
Of course, the Cubs won…
A Picture that Matters
In 2017, I kept my tickets for one more year. They lost to the Dodgers (who they beat the previous year) in the NLCS. It was kind of anti-climatic…
The following year, I relinquished my tickets to my partner… and it was a time when they were sunsetting the nights and weekend package, and jacking up ticket prices to a point where it made little sense. We knew when to fold, since it was always about being in that stadium when they finally won the pennant.
But in 2018, the Cubs did make the playoffs as a Wild Card… and my wife and I did attend that game against the Milwaukee Brewers. There was one more person with us… a nine-month-old girl named Amelia. And in that moment - straight away in Center Field, we took this picture. It is my favorite picture… and I’m wearing the same stupid jacket that I wore with my brother in 2016…
And so… all you just read… crossed my mind… in just seconds as Noah Kahan sang A View Between Villages… the songs that embodies and characterizes my relationship with my real home down in Timonium, Maryland…
And my mind went to every seat in that stadium… every moment… every memory, and I felt… this peace of being home… and remembering why it is that I do love Chicago.
I’ve lived in Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Southwestern Florida, and Washington D.C.
And the simplest way that I’ll put it is that Chicago is the only place where I’ve ever felt that neither of had to forgive the other for anything…
And with that, I sat in these seats, right beside the batter’s box, creating another memory, watching my wife and daughter belt out the lyrics to songs that I’m still learning… and remembering that every day doesn’t have to be about this completely insane financial system that extracts so much time and energy…
About 37 years ago, I was eight years old, sitting in the right field stands watching the All Star Game with my father and brother…
And now, at eight years old… my daughter sat in that same stadium… with a memory that I hope lasts her a lifetime. It will for me…
Both flights arrived from Baltimore Washington International. Both trips tell a story…
And I remember… that this city, this stadium, and this little square mile of earth brings out the best of me…
In conclusion… let me say this… I know that many of you read this because you are looking for investment insight and something actionable to do.
One, go spend money on a member…
And secondly… this is an investment newsletter (I suppose)… so go buy gold at $4,000 an ounce. China’s probably going to engage in stimulus… I’ll talk about that tomorrow on Money Printer Pro.
Stay positive,
Garrett Baldwin
Great stuff. And for what it's worth... I'm buying Gold.com
This was a refreshing pause from our everyday rat race. Thanks and you are a great writer, especially when you talk about your own experiences. Made me feel like I was there with you.