Northwestern students trickled into their seats and beer trickled into waiting plastic cups Tuesday night as football coach Pat Fitzgerald threw out the first pitch to open the annual NU Day at Wrigley.
Fitzgerald did his best impression of President Barack Obama in front of 1,480 NU students, who purchased tickets to watch the Chicago Cubs face off against the Florida Marlins. While Obama’s first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ home opener soared high and wide, Fitzgerald’s toss bounced just in front of home plate.
Splotches of purple were interspersed along the back rows of the third-base line. Only one Marlins fan was visible and he quickly slouched in his seat after the Marlins went three-up, three-down in the first inning.
NU students quickly realized they had found a place where alcoholism and crudeness seemed not only to be tolerated, but glorified: Wrigley Field. After the Marlins’ first home run of the night, the fans followed tradition and threw the ball back onto the field.
The Marlins took an early 3-0 lead over the Cubs.
Weinberg junior Neel Rastogi said the bad weather was consistent with past years he had attended the event, as he loaded up at the condiments stand.
“Every NU Day at Wrigley it rains, but I guess we can’t control that,” he said. “The weather’s bad, the food’s great-go Cubs, go NU.”
Weinberg sophomore and Marlins fan Samantha Terrazas said she felt a little uncomfortable about being one of the only visiting team fans among the NU crowd. “I’m from Florida,” she said. “So it’s kind of awkward because I am rooting for the Marlins, but I am enjoying this lead.”
Fitzgerald made up for his one-hopped pitch with a classic rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Students swayed back and forth as they belted out the lyrics to the song in time with the football coach during the seventh-inning stretch.
By the top of the eighth inning, the Cubs had managed to score one run. Medill sophomore Zach Warren said in true NU fashion that when he looked out at the scoreboard, he almost mistook the string of ones and zeros for binary code.
The Cubs’ late-game rally was not enough to propel them to another NU Day victory. Last year the Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 6-2, but this year’s event found the Cubs on the wrong end of a 3-2 final score.
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