Maddie’s World Series pick: Wrigley over The Jake
10/26/2016 4:03:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Homepage photo: The Nagles at the Ballpark in Arlington. Above: at Wrigley Field.
Her team may be down 1-0 in the World Series, after Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller shut down the Cubs in Game 1 on Tuesday night, but when it comes to Chicago's and Cleveland's home ballparks, it's no contest.
"I'd pick Wrigley Field any day of the week," says Maddie Nagle, who knows a thing or two about Major League Baseball stadiums. She bucket-listed something by the age of 18 that some baseball fans dream of accomplishing in a lifetime.
The first-year graduate student, who is using her final year of eligibility to run cross country and track for the Grizzlies after doing her undergraduate work at Iowa State, has been to a home game of all 30 MLB teams.
Nagle was raised in Glen Ellyn, Ill., a 45-minute train ride west of Chicago, so she's predisposed to giving the Series edge to the home of her favorite team, but few would argue the claim that Wrigley is on a very short list of baseball's most iconic cathedrals.
"It really is a great stadium," says Nagle, who guesses she's been to a dozen games on Chicago's north side. "They've done so much to it the last couple of years. They really modernized it without taking anything away that makes it special."
Ask her about Jacobs Field, which is what Cleveland's stadium was known as when Nagle visited -- it's since been renamed Progressive Field -- and she goes quiet as she rummages through her memory bank. Because after visiting 30 ballparks, all but the most indelible stadiums can start to blend together.
"I'm trying to remember. I know we sat on the third-base side. It was a little chilly. I was young for that one. I think I was only 11 then," she says.
In other words, The Jake doesn't make her top five. Wrigley does, but it doesn't hold the top spot on Nagle's list. Until something better is built, and Nagle experiences it in person, that position will be held by AT&T Park, the home since 2000 of the San Francisco Giants.
"That's my favorite. It's gorgeous, with the bay in the background and all the brick. It's a stadium that is modern but still has a classic look," she says, sounding erudite in all things baseball architecture.
The rest of her top five: "Camden Yards for sure. Miller Park, which sounds kind of random, but it's a good stadium. And Fenway was awesome."
It could be that great seats helped make her visit to Boston a little more memorable. Or the story of how they came about.
The Nagles bought tickets from a scalper, only to have the scanner reject both ducats at the gate. They scrambled back to find the seller, hoping they hadn't been scammed. He reasoned he must have accidentally sold them on StubHub as well. But all's well that ends well in the ticket-scalping world.
"He was really sorry, so he ended up giving us really good tickets for really cheap," Nagle says.
Fans of the Dodgers might be wondering why their stadium isn't in Nagle's top five. A beautiful setting in Chavez Ravine. Dodger Dogs. At least at that time, Vin Scully. What's not to love? Nagle admits she should probably give it another chance at some point, because her first visit didn't go well.
"I was super sick when we went there," she says. "We'd gone to San Diego the day before. Petco Park was really nice, but I think I got food poisoning.
"We were sitting in left field at Dodger Stadium, and it was a hot day. The stadium is pretty nice. It's cool with the palm trees, but I ended up throwing up under the left-field concourse." But the trip must go on. There were more stadiums to see. "The next day at Anaheim I was fine."
It was a quest that came about randomly and included Nagle and her dad, Jim, a construction project director who became a lifelong baseball fan after being born in sports-mad Pittsburgh. Nagle's younger brother, Jackson, also made most of the trips.
"One year we went on a vacation to the East Coast, and we thought it would be fun to hit a couple of games while we were there," she says. "We went to an Orioles game, then a Nationals game. Then we went up to Philadelphia, then saw both New York teams.
"Once that trip happened, we thought we should do more trips and get to all of them."
That was in 2006. They had the complete list checked off by 2012. Do some quick math and you'll correctly assume it only happened because the Nagles made some epic journeys, knocking off multiple stadiums on a single, circuitous trip.
"For one we started in Miami, then drove up to Tampa and saw a game the next day," she says. "Then we flew to Kansas City and saw a game the next day. Then we flew to San Francisco and saw games in San Francisco and Oakland, then flew up to Seattle, saw a game there and took the red-eye home.
"Most of them were bonker situations, but it was really unique and a lot of fun."
The trip just described featured her favorite stadium and a few that make her list of least memorable: Miami, when the Marlins were still sharing a multi-purpose facility with the Dolphins, and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
The day after visiting the best of the best, AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Nagles traveled a dozen miles east for what still ranks as the worst of her 30 experiences: Oakland Coliseum.
"That's at the bottom of the list," she says. "The only good thing about it is that it was so cheap. It was an afternoon game, and they had some sort of deal going. Tickets were $2 each, and hot dogs and sodas were $1 each. We spent $8. Parking was more expensive than it was for us to go to the game and eat.
"It was absurdly cheap, but the stadium is in the middle of nowhere. That one left a lot to be desired."
In 2012, the summer after Nagle's graduation from high school, they made it 30 for 30 when they went to a game at Target Field in Minneapolis.
"It was a cool way for us to spend time together and always a lot of fun," she says of the seven-year experience. "Some games were better than others, but it was always a fun time."
Nagle spent the last four years at Iowa State. She competed for the Cyclones in the 800 meters at the Big 12 outdoor championships in 2015 and the 1,500 meters last spring, when she graduated with a degree in nutritional science.
But she redshirted her entire freshman year -- cross country, indoor track, outdoor track -- leaving her one more if she wanted to use it.
"I had a good track season last year, and I didn't know if I was ready to be done running," says Nagle, who was coached at Iowa State by former Missoula resident and Mountain West Track Club runner Andrea Grove-McDonough, a close friend of Montana distance coach Vicky Pounds.
"I got ahold of Vicky and talked to her. We talked about the program and the team, and decided it would be a good fit. It's been everything I thought it would be."
Nagle, who is pursuing a graduate degree in economics, has competed for Montana at all four of its cross country races this fall. She'll be in the lineup again on Friday when the Grizzlies compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships at Moscow, Idaho.
The men's race is at noon (MT), the women's race is at 1:15 p.m. (MT). It's a four-plus-hour drive back to Missoula, which means the teams won't be home in time for first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series, the first at Wrigley since Oct. 10, 1945.
No matter what happens in tonight's Game 2, the Cubs just need to get back home. As Nagle knows, everything is better at Wrigley.
Her team may be down 1-0 in the World Series, after Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller shut down the Cubs in Game 1 on Tuesday night, but when it comes to Chicago's and Cleveland's home ballparks, it's no contest.
"I'd pick Wrigley Field any day of the week," says Maddie Nagle, who knows a thing or two about Major League Baseball stadiums. She bucket-listed something by the age of 18 that some baseball fans dream of accomplishing in a lifetime.
The first-year graduate student, who is using her final year of eligibility to run cross country and track for the Grizzlies after doing her undergraduate work at Iowa State, has been to a home game of all 30 MLB teams.
Nagle was raised in Glen Ellyn, Ill., a 45-minute train ride west of Chicago, so she's predisposed to giving the Series edge to the home of her favorite team, but few would argue the claim that Wrigley is on a very short list of baseball's most iconic cathedrals.
"It really is a great stadium," says Nagle, who guesses she's been to a dozen games on Chicago's north side. "They've done so much to it the last couple of years. They really modernized it without taking anything away that makes it special."
Ask her about Jacobs Field, which is what Cleveland's stadium was known as when Nagle visited -- it's since been renamed Progressive Field -- and she goes quiet as she rummages through her memory bank. Because after visiting 30 ballparks, all but the most indelible stadiums can start to blend together.
"I'm trying to remember. I know we sat on the third-base side. It was a little chilly. I was young for that one. I think I was only 11 then," she says.
In other words, The Jake doesn't make her top five. Wrigley does, but it doesn't hold the top spot on Nagle's list. Until something better is built, and Nagle experiences it in person, that position will be held by AT&T Park, the home since 2000 of the San Francisco Giants.
"That's my favorite. It's gorgeous, with the bay in the background and all the brick. It's a stadium that is modern but still has a classic look," she says, sounding erudite in all things baseball architecture.
The rest of her top five: "Camden Yards for sure. Miller Park, which sounds kind of random, but it's a good stadium. And Fenway was awesome."
It could be that great seats helped make her visit to Boston a little more memorable. Or the story of how they came about.
The Nagles bought tickets from a scalper, only to have the scanner reject both ducats at the gate. They scrambled back to find the seller, hoping they hadn't been scammed. He reasoned he must have accidentally sold them on StubHub as well. But all's well that ends well in the ticket-scalping world.
"He was really sorry, so he ended up giving us really good tickets for really cheap," Nagle says.
Fans of the Dodgers might be wondering why their stadium isn't in Nagle's top five. A beautiful setting in Chavez Ravine. Dodger Dogs. At least at that time, Vin Scully. What's not to love? Nagle admits she should probably give it another chance at some point, because her first visit didn't go well.
"I was super sick when we went there," she says. "We'd gone to San Diego the day before. Petco Park was really nice, but I think I got food poisoning.
"We were sitting in left field at Dodger Stadium, and it was a hot day. The stadium is pretty nice. It's cool with the palm trees, but I ended up throwing up under the left-field concourse." But the trip must go on. There were more stadiums to see. "The next day at Anaheim I was fine."
It was a quest that came about randomly and included Nagle and her dad, Jim, a construction project director who became a lifelong baseball fan after being born in sports-mad Pittsburgh. Nagle's younger brother, Jackson, also made most of the trips.
"One year we went on a vacation to the East Coast, and we thought it would be fun to hit a couple of games while we were there," she says. "We went to an Orioles game, then a Nationals game. Then we went up to Philadelphia, then saw both New York teams.
"Once that trip happened, we thought we should do more trips and get to all of them."
That was in 2006. They had the complete list checked off by 2012. Do some quick math and you'll correctly assume it only happened because the Nagles made some epic journeys, knocking off multiple stadiums on a single, circuitous trip.
"For one we started in Miami, then drove up to Tampa and saw a game the next day," she says. "Then we flew to Kansas City and saw a game the next day. Then we flew to San Francisco and saw games in San Francisco and Oakland, then flew up to Seattle, saw a game there and took the red-eye home.
"Most of them were bonker situations, but it was really unique and a lot of fun."
The trip just described featured her favorite stadium and a few that make her list of least memorable: Miami, when the Marlins were still sharing a multi-purpose facility with the Dolphins, and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
The day after visiting the best of the best, AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Nagles traveled a dozen miles east for what still ranks as the worst of her 30 experiences: Oakland Coliseum.
"That's at the bottom of the list," she says. "The only good thing about it is that it was so cheap. It was an afternoon game, and they had some sort of deal going. Tickets were $2 each, and hot dogs and sodas were $1 each. We spent $8. Parking was more expensive than it was for us to go to the game and eat.
"It was absurdly cheap, but the stadium is in the middle of nowhere. That one left a lot to be desired."
In 2012, the summer after Nagle's graduation from high school, they made it 30 for 30 when they went to a game at Target Field in Minneapolis.
"It was a cool way for us to spend time together and always a lot of fun," she says of the seven-year experience. "Some games were better than others, but it was always a fun time."
Nagle spent the last four years at Iowa State. She competed for the Cyclones in the 800 meters at the Big 12 outdoor championships in 2015 and the 1,500 meters last spring, when she graduated with a degree in nutritional science.
But she redshirted her entire freshman year -- cross country, indoor track, outdoor track -- leaving her one more if she wanted to use it.
"I had a good track season last year, and I didn't know if I was ready to be done running," says Nagle, who was coached at Iowa State by former Missoula resident and Mountain West Track Club runner Andrea Grove-McDonough, a close friend of Montana distance coach Vicky Pounds.
"I got ahold of Vicky and talked to her. We talked about the program and the team, and decided it would be a good fit. It's been everything I thought it would be."
Nagle, who is pursuing a graduate degree in economics, has competed for Montana at all four of its cross country races this fall. She'll be in the lineup again on Friday when the Grizzlies compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships at Moscow, Idaho.
The men's race is at noon (MT), the women's race is at 1:15 p.m. (MT). It's a four-plus-hour drive back to Missoula, which means the teams won't be home in time for first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series, the first at Wrigley since Oct. 10, 1945.
No matter what happens in tonight's Game 2, the Cubs just need to get back home. As Nagle knows, everything is better at Wrigley.
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