Another crummy day at work, another crummy drive into the city. The vehicle inspections seem a little bit more thorough. Gates opened at 4 for the 7 o'clock game. We had a long wait ahead of us, but we didn't care. It wasn't a wait - it was an experience.

Batting Practice was another home run clinic. When the AL was up, we were talking to our buddies Janie & Gary, who were in the row in front of us but at the end of the row (Note to self: - never sit in the outfield again. The rows are 24 seats long and it's just too hard getting people in and out of the row and still be able to see the game. That's why we like our section for season tickets - our row has only 8 seats and we're on the aisle).

Anyway, we're talking when Ichiro is in the batting cage, He hits a homer that hits Janie's bag back at her seat, which was to our right. As we're yakking about that, he hits another one, a few rows down but just to the left of us. As we talk some more, we lose sight of the fact that he's still in the cage as a ball bounces off a seat directly in front of us, scaring the crap out of us. We started to pay attention after that, still talking to each other just keeping our eyes on the field.

After BP, the team went out to center field, where they took their Team Photos. THE NL then came out for their Photos, and went in to take their batting practice. Barry Bonds eventually hit the cage toward the end of practice and put one on the concourse behind us, and later bounced one off the beer stand on the concourse. Would have made more excitement if was during last night's Home Run Derby!

The crowd slowly trickled into the park. The Marine Corps Marching Band played in Center Field, until they brought in a HUGE friggin' US Flag that took up the entire outfield. The crowd is starting to get pumped now, as we get into the player introductions, which I think is a pretty cool part of the pre-game. Any Cub player got booed. Barry Bonds got booed. Jerry Manuel got booed (after all, the team went on an embarrassing 1-7 road trip just before the break and everyone thinks he should get canned). Why did the boo Roger Clemens? Because he's a Yankee? Or was it because he was named to the team at the last moment to replace Barry Zito? The crowd went NUTS when they introduced Estaban Loaiza. I mean, here was a guy that was a non-roster invitee to training camp and is now the starting pitcher for the All-Star Game in his team's hometown.

The Canadian National Anthem was great (I found out later it wasn't broadcast... God, I hate Fox). The American National Anthem SUCKED. It was lip-synced by Vanessa Carlton. She looked terrible, she couldn't hide the lip-syncing.

But... This is the All-Star Game. At my ballpark. I was there. It's the National Anthem. There's the huge, friggin' flag in Center Field, and then... The Blue Angles fly a couple hundred feet over the scoreboard toward homeplate, and I was friggin' shuddering and may eyes welled up and... crap, I was into it.

The game started and the crowd settled-in. Loaiza did well - one hit and one strikeout in two innings. Clemens came in for an inning and had two strikeouts. It wasn't until the 4th when Shigetoshi Hasegawa came in and the next thing we know, the AL is losing 5-1. Time to walk around the park a bit.

The crowd was different. That park was packed (47,609), but there's no, um, "riff-raff". I guess it's because the ticket to the game costs $150 a seat. Definitely a lot of people with money.

The souvenir stands, buy the end of the night, are stripped clean. I've never seen that before. Then again, I've never been to an event of this size or exposure.

Back at the seats, I can hear the hometown fans starting to do the "O-E-O Magg-lio" chant, to get him into the game. He finally got in the 7th and the crowd went nuts again. It was only a pop-out, but when he came out onto the field the next inning, the crowd goes nuts again and he has to turn around and acknowledge the fans. This is so friggin' cool...

The AL has a huge 3-run comeback in the bottom of the 8th and former Sox Keith Foulke (who was not booed) came in and saved the game.

(Boxscore)

We stayed as long as we could. Tonight, they chased us out and we had to use the closest exit instead of being able to walk around the park.

When we were walking to the car, we noticed some people gathered around behind the home plate area outside. We still didn't want to leave, so we walked over and saw... Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signing autographs. Then over to the side,up against the building, we noticed a lot of video crews standing around. We wandered over and it was all Japanese media, all pooled together, waiting for what appeared to be a press conference or personal appearance or something (Ichiro maybe?) There were a lot all jammed together, basically silent, just waiting.

We waited for a long time and nothing happened. It was time for us to leave.

So came the end of our All Star experience.

It's a cliché, but I have to say - I will never forget it.

It was baseball. It was the best. It was in my town.

And I was there.