The Crosstown Classic.

I spent today at Wrigley Field, trying to find 1,000 of Chicago’s hottest baseball fans. For my friends who are not familiar with interleague play here in the Windy City, I’ll elaborate. The Crosstown Classic is an annual event that pits the Cubs and the Sox against each other for 6 games. Three are played at Wrigley, while the other three are hosted at U.S. Cellular Field.

Since WGN broadcasts both Chicago teams’ games, it has been dubbed the Official Summer Baseball Station. Of course, this opened up opportunities to tailor some really cool promotions tied in with the Crosstown Classic.

Thus…the Northside/Southside Hottest Fan contest was born.

This afternoon, a few of my colleagues and I set out on a mission: Find the 500 hottest Cubs fans and the 500 hottest Sox fans. Get them to pose for a picture. Get the public to head to www.wgntv.com/contests (shameless plug) and vote for their favorites. The winners? One guy and one girl from each side will get to be in a promo for an upcoming game.

I won’t give you the play-by-play of the day…it wasn’t too interesting. Well, with the exception of a fight in front of the field and a homeless man holding up a sign reading: “Why lie? I need a beer.” Hey, I like his honesty.

What I did like, though, was being at Wrigley Field for a game. Sure, I spent last weekend in the area at bars with post-game fans. But today was different. Before the game, literally thousands of people descend on Wrigleyville, pouring out of the L stations and falling out of busses like clowns out of their cars. It’s not hard to identify team affiliations, since pride is black and white…or red and blue.

It felt like a homecoming football game. Everyone gathered for one reason, well, I guess a few. To watch a good game, hang out with good friends and have a good drink…or twelve. The booming bass from frat-flagged trucks is replaced with the hollow sound of plastic 10-gallon buckets. The beats resonate through the streets, bouncing between the stadium, the L and shops on the south side of Addison. Perhaps the most popular musician of the day was the 4-year-old boy who wasn’t much taller than the bucket he drummed on.

The pounding is accompanied by a chorus of hawkers, trying to pawn tickets and bags of peanuts or pistachios to the already buzzed up crowd.

I enjoy doing promotions, in particular ones that allow me to spend my day chatting and flirting with good-looking guys. But I think what made today such a great day, was really taking in the atmosphere of Chicago. North, South…whatever. This is a great city.