Cubs - Astros

One last opportunity to take in a game at the Friendly Confines before the football season officially begins. Monday's night was the first of a four game series between the first place Chicago Cubs and the surging Houston Astros.

This Monday game was under the lights.
Thanks to a college friend, Brett Dolan, the radio play-by-play voice of the Houston Astros, we were treated to a trip to the broadcast booth before the game. Brett is a native of Adair, Iowa.

The tiny Houston broadcast booth looks into the voice of the Cubs, WGN's Ron Santo and Pat Hughes.

Des Moines native and Olympic Gold Medalist, Shawn Johnson threw out the first pitch as well as leading the crowd in Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the Seventh Inning Stretch.

It started out as a pitcher's duel between the clubs' aces. Tied at one heading into the 13th, Alfonso Soriano hit a walk-off Grand Slam to give the Cubs the 5-1 win and keeping them in first place. However with a long drive back to Iowa, eleven innings were all we could handle.