Sports Events in Chicago

Hockey fans - if you're looking for a game to go to when you're in Chicago and cannot get your hands on Blackhawks tickets, my recommendation would be the Chicago Wolves (AHL). The Wolves do a good job of entertaining the fans, and the atmosphere is very family-friendly. But not so much so that it loses the hockey atmosphere (hockey fans know what I'm talking about).

ESPN Zone in Chicago closed for good in June 2010, there are still locations in California

ESPN Zone and Dave & Buster's are similar entertainment venues that are filled with young kids and us old folks who like to pretend we are young kids. Both visits we went with my niece and nephew, EPSN Zone back in 2005 and more recently in December 2008 to Dave & Buster's. Both are filled with video games and interactive games, it seemed like ESPN Zone had more of the interactive sports games and Dave & Buster's had more of the ones that looked like gambling machines.

ESPN differs in that it is filled with TV screens playing every sort of sport imaginable (I can just imagine the number of people here during NCAA finals or the Superbowl!), there is also a restaurant and a bar serving drinks which plenty of people were toting around with them, the crowd here is a little order because of the sports watching. Dave & Buster's also has a restaurant, we ate here and the food was OK, similar to Chili's but not as good. But the meal here came with card options, I got a $20 card and my meal was only $3.99. The clientele here was mostly young kids.

At Dave & Buster's we each had our own $20 card, the kids had a $30 card and they finished up before us. They were more interested in racking up tickets so they could trade them in for prizes, my husband and I got sucked into blasting T Rexs and velociraptors on the Jurassic Park game and we used a good chunk of our card on getting to the end of that.

At ESPN Zone we shared a $25 card for 125 points of video games. 125 points doesn't go all that far when split between 4 people, the games seemed to range between 4 points for shooting hoops and 12 points for hockey where you shoot goals against a wooden goalie. In between is every kind on interactive video sport you can imagine-bowling, golf, boxing, wave runners, NASCAR, white water rafting, foozball, air hockey, etc. Not a big video game fan myself, I actually found a lot of these to be fun as they are a little more interactive than the ones the kids are so entranced with. A 2nd $25 card got us through, stayed about 1 1/2 hours in total.

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In 2009, Chicago will be hosting its 27th annual Triathlon. Last year was the first year I attended the event as my oldest son, Tim, was participating in his first one. The first picture is of Tim swimming the almost 1 mile swimming leg of the event. His strong event is the cycling part of the race since he did a lot of cycling in college. The swimming was his weakest as he just "relearned" how to swim this past summer by taking lessons.

Each year there are about 11,000 participants in the race most of them competing against themselves.

Equipment: A wetsuit, a bike and some good running shoes.

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The 2007 Chicago Marathon was run in extreme heat even though it was in early October. Temperatures reached a high of 92 degrees F which kept the medical crews extremely busy. My oldest son ran his first (and he claims his last) Marathon and eventually did finish.

Equipment: Good shoes and lots and lots of water

The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon is held every October. About 35,000 runners participate in the event, with a million people watching. The course starts in Grant Park, goes north through Lincoln Park, comes back through downtown, heads west a couple miles, then south through Chinatown and up to U.S. Cellular Field. It is a flat course which has seen world records broken. It is difficult to predict how the weather will be at that time of the year. Most years it is cool, but it has been warm some years.

There is an open registration, but sign up early as the race limit is usually met months in advance. I ran and completed the 2002 and 2003 marathons. The first time is exciting, but if you run it twice it can get repetitive.

Which baseball team in Chicago you root for is more or less predetermined upon birth-you grow up on the Northside you will become a Cubs fan, Southside a White Sox fan. Moving to another section of the city rarely breaks the bond and people who root for both teams are an oddity. I'm one of those oddities, I grew up a Cubs fan since I lived on the northside until after college, but I've lived in White Sox territory almost as long so I find I can root for them as well, it doesn't hurt that they won the World Series in 2005!!!!

Visitors to the city are more likely to head to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubbies play. Why? Wrigley Field where the Cubs play is a classic ballpark, the replacement for Comiskey Park known as US Cellular Field has no emotional attachment with its fans or visitors. Cub fans are loyal and fill the stadium even when the lovable losers are doing just that, Sox fans tend to be a bit more fickle although still riding high on the 2005 World Series sweep. And Wrigley Field is in a more appealing neighborhood, fans historically have fle from Sox Park right after the game although the area is undergoing some gentrification, Wrigleyville has many nice bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity.

If you are just a baseball fan in general and the high ticket prices are discouraging you from going to see a game, you might check out the minor league teams that play out in the suburbs-the Kane County Cougars, the Schaumburg Flyers, the Joliet Jackhammers or the Gary Railcats.

If Chicagoans weren't serious Sox fans before, they definitely are now. This was right after they won the World series - October 2005. Sox stuff was everywhere. Even the lions in front of the Art Institute were wearing Sox caps.

Yeah there's the Cubs, and the Sox, but who wants to spend $200 or more for a family of four to watch a baseball game?

Here the best tickets in the house are $10.50 each!

Equipment: This is a great place to watch a great game, for an affordable price. Most days they also have promotions for free hats, bats etc.

Take Interstate 90 West to Route 53 South. Stay on Route 53 as it merges into I-290 East in the vicinity of Woodfield Mall.

Take I-290 East to Thorndale Ave. Exit at Thorndale, follow ramp to the right and head west. Thorndale will become the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway. Take the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway 4 miles west to the Springinsguth-Irving Park Road exit. Exit and turn left at the second light (Springinsguth).

Drive under the expressway overpass, Alexian Field is just on the other side on the left. Parking is accessible on the right-hand side.