Chicago Fans Invade Indy, And Are Served A Really Weird Sandwich

            It was all on a whim, really. I didn’t even think there would be any cheap tickets available, but I whether it was the economy or the general pessimism of Pacers fans, I found myself at Game 4 of the NBA playoff series between the Indiana Pacers and my Chicago Bulls.

            I was actually looking for Cubs tickets when they visit Cincinnati to play the Reds. With attendance down so far early in the year due to weather and the economy, I was hoping to find some below-face-value tickets. I found there were plenty, in fact. That made me curious as to whether basketball was going the same way. I browsed over to the Games 3 and 4 of the Pacers-Bulls series and was surprised at what I saw. Not only did stubhub.com have almost 1,000 seats available, they were for terrific prices. I like stubhub mostly because it’s a lot more secure than dealing with craigslist or a lot of other open-markets. You don’t get counterfeiting or people flaking out on you or changing the prices at the last second.

The more reasonably-priced tickets were for the upper deck, sure, but they were only 30 dollars each, even after the stubhub fees. Now we were in business. Seeing that, my first text was to my friend Ryan, a fellow Chicago fan. He was in immediately so I grabbed two seats.

We decided to leave at 10:30 in the morning for the 2:30 p.m. start. It’s a two-hour drive from here to Indy, approximately so we wanted to get up there early. We’re lucky enough to be experiencing monsoon season here in the Ohio Valley, and we were surprised at just how flooded out things were along the I-65 corridor. Farmers’ fields were sitting in several inches of standing water and rivers and streams were bulging.

As I write this, it is supposed to rain several more inches over the next couple of weeks and homes have already been flooded out by the Ohio River. I have no idea where this is water is supposed to go.  

Back to Saturday, where we negotiated the downtown construction to find a parking spot at Circle Center Mall (six bucks, can't beat it). We noticed immediately there were a lot of Bulls fans in the area. That didn’t surprise us as Chicago fans of all sports tend to travel well, and it was a quick and easy interstate drive from Indy to Chicago anyway. Still, on the streets we seemed to have the Pacers fans outnumbered.

Downtown Indianapolis is a wonderful place to see a game. There is plenty of easy parking and the important arenas, stadiums, hotels, shops, restaurants and clubs are all within about a five-block radius. It’s fairly safe there and well-organized. I worked in downtown Indy for eight years and I miss it. This trip reminded me why.

Ryan was unfamiliar with Indy, so he let me pick the restaurant to grab some food before going into the arena. I decided on Claddagh's Irish Pub, just a couple of blocks from Canseco Fieldhouse. It had tables available immediately and both of us were refreshed at being able to order iced tea without being asked “sweet or unsweet?” (sweet tea doesn’t seem to exist north of Columbus).

Claddagh’s has a lot of traditional Irish food but there was a strange sandwich on the menu that caught my eye. Most people that know me are know I’m an adventurous eater, so when I saw the Monte Cristo my radar went on alert. The sandwich contained turkey, ham and cheese, which is nothing too strange. But then, it is dipped in egg and fried, then topped with – wait for it – powdered sugar. It was then served with a cup of jelly on the side. I had to have it.

As it turned out, the crisp outside from the fryer and the powdered sugar made it taste like an elephant ear, only with ham, turkey and cheese inside it. And the grape jelly added a nice compliment to the ham actually. I never would have thought of it myself, but it was a damn fine sandwich.

Now fortified, Ryan and I headed for the arena, where we found ourselves in the security bottleneck. Again, the Bulls fans were a heavy majority. I figured this was because most Bulls fans were from out of town and got there early to be on the safe side, so on the way in we heard chants of “MVP! MVP!” for my personal favorite player, Derrick Rose. They even started a “Scalabrine! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) Scalabrine” chant for Brian Scalabrine, the big white redhead that only plays in blowouts.

We headed up to the top level and found our section. There were a total of six Pacers fans in the vicinity. The rest was dominated by red and black. As it turned out, the Bulls 3-0 lead in the series led many Pacers’ fans to throw up their hands and sell their tickets, and Chicago fans evidently swept them up.  A few rows in front of us was a group of Bulls fans who had apparently gotten the festivities underway long before arriving at the Fieldhouse. I can only imagine how drunk they would have been had the game started at 7:30. The most amusing was a hammered guy wearing a No. 5 jersey with Rose on the back. How the hell does that happen (Rose is No. 1, Carlos Boozer is No. 5)? I can only imagine this exchange:

Drunk Guy: Gimme a Boozer jersey, personalized. No, wait! Gimme a Rose jersey.
Clerk: But I already got down the Boozer jersey!
Drunk Guy: Ah, screw it. Just put Derrick's name on the back.

            Anyway, since we had them outnumbered, we Chicago fans went about make it a home-game atmosphere for ourselves.

            The poor Pacemates (the Pacers’dance team), as sweet as can be when handing out rally towels and signing autographs in the main concourse, were now booed roundly as they performed. The Bulls introductions (done with a near-whisper by the P.A. announcer) were cheered wildly while the Pacers’ light and video show was booed. We cheered through the national anthem like we do up at the United Center, and when the mascot began shooting T-shirts into the crowd with his big air gun, Chicago fans threw them right back on the court, Wrigley-style. I do love my people.

We also found Canseco Fieldhouse has a souvenir cup with free refills available for $6.75. It’s a good-looking cup too, so Ryan and I took full advantage of that. Just as importantly, we took advantage of the fact that there was a men’s room directly off the entrance to our seating section. Score!

Those were the good parts. The bad parts started at tip-off. The Bulls played like crap. I’d  love to make excuses here, but they played like crap. Carlos Boozer had a terrible game despite a double-double. It’s one of the ugliest double-doubles I’ve seen. Derrick Rose sprained his ankle toward the end of the first quarter and his shooting woes continued. Joakim Noah almost single-handedly kept the Bulls from being blown out in the third quarter, but with just under six minutes to go in the game, the Pacers led by 16. At that point, I looked over at Ryan and mentioned the Bulls have been down by 11 with three minutes to go in Game 1 and came back to win it, but neither of us felt very confident.

Then something strange happened. The lead began to evaporate. The Pacers suddenly couldn’t hit a shot. They started turning the ball over. The Bulls made a few free throws and actually hit a couple of baskets. The lead was down into single digits, then down to five, then after a Noah drive to the basket for a layup and a foul, the lead was down to just one. But time was running out. The Bulls had to foul. Indiana made two free throws and the Bulls had a last-gasp to tie. Indiana was up to the challenge on that possession and didn’t give Rose, Deng or Korver (the best Bulls shooters from the 3-point arc all season) a single look. Carlos Boozer had to take the last shot, and he’s not the guy you want shooting a 3-pointers. It came up short and the Pacers had their win.

So the series stood at 3-1, and Indiana lived to play another game. Still, it was a great time at the game. The Fieldhouse is a wonderful place to watch basketball, and Indy is a great place to spend a gameday. We headed home a bit tired, but grateful for the chance to see the NBA playoffs in person.

So thank you for welcoming me back home, Indianapolis. We’ll look into Game 6 tickets if the series comes back to Indy, although - no offense - neither of us will mind if the Bulls wrap it up Tuesday. No need to make this too dramatic, now.