Can't Compare

Back behind the center field fence here, with the Yankees making yet another pitching change, a White Sox cameraman momentarily left his post. Dean Botsaris, 22, of Flushing, N.Y., used the opportunity to his advantage, peering into the camera to gain a new perspective on Chicago. Botsaris had already been to Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field today -- each for the first time in his life -- but he wasn't yet finished soaking in the baseball atmosphere.

"You can't compare them because they're so different," he said. "You have one of the oldest stadiums there, and you have a new stadium here. These new stadiums are nice because of the technology, there's so much open area, you can see everything that's going on. But Wrigley Field -- it's old school, it's classic. You can't get that anymore."

No, you can't. And who knows when we'll be able to see something like this again, with both New York teams playing in Chicago on the same day. Botsaris, here with two of his childhood friends from Flushing, holds allegiance with the Mets. And while he couldn't decide which Chicago stadium he preferred, Justin Stein, 22, also of Flushing, knew right away.

"I feel like Wrigley's got a better atmosphere because it's more like New York," he said. "Everyone's fighting in the stands, but in a light-hearted manner."

Rooting for the Yankees to lose on the South Side, Stein and his friends found a better reception than they did at Wrigley, where Mets jerseys often draw some attention. And so they earned their fair share of stares all afternoon, returning most of them with a joke or a smirk.

"We're New Yorkers," Stein said. "We're obnoxious. Sorry."

So that's it. The Yankees won, the Mets lost, and all of these New Yorkers will soon head back east. Me, I'll be doing the same, with a whole new set of baseball experiences under my belt. Covering the game for the past two years, I've never felt so close to the pulse of a city. Forget the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks. Chicago is a baseball town.

And I guess there is more to Chicago than deep dish pizza -- in three days here, I never even tried a slice. But I've ridden the "L" train, walked down the Magnificent Mile, hung out at the Cubby Bear and sat in two different sets of bleachers. Not bad for a day's work.

Still, it's a foreign city -- to me, it probably always will be. And so perhaps Botsaris, peering out at U.S. Cellular Field from behind its towering center field wall, put it best.

"Amazing," he said. "That's it. Nothing else is like New York -- but Chicago's close."