Interview #16: Scott Hatch, Lou Piniella's banker
And inspiration for Ferris Bueller's Day Off 2: The Wrigley Years
Background: Scott Hatch was born in 1984 in Calgary. He moved to Toronto soon after and then to Chicago at the age of 9. For the past 7 years he’s been in Arizona with his wife, Amy and dog, Sergeant Hazel and cat, Capone. This one has some high school, Catcher in the Rye type stories and then some hilarious stories from Wrigleyville told by a dude living there in his twenties.
Toronto
So you were really born in Calgary and then where to?
“Calgary for 10 months. I was in Toronto for nine years. I moved here when I was 9.”
Wait you moved to Arizona at 9?
“No, to Chicago. To the United States.”
Ah, here as in to this country. Were you into baseball in Toronto?
“We’d go to games. So it was pretty soon after the Skydome was built (opened 1989). The Blue Jays won in ‘92 and ‘93, when Cito Gaston was the coach. Who's the first baseman that wore the helmet because he had the brain aneurysm?”
John Olerud. But I thought it was a motorcycle accident. (note: it was a brain aneurysm: Wikipedia: John Olerud)
“But he couldn't get in the head. He just couldn't get hit, if he would have taken a ball in the field, he could have died, so he had to wear a helmet everywhere.”
“I used to be able to name them all. Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado, Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, George Bell, Junior Felix, Glenallen Hill, David Wells, Kenny Williams, Mookie Wilson, Fred McGriff. Our goalie (note: pitcher) was that Dominican dude with the bright blue glove. He was lights out. Juan Guzman!”
Did you got any of the playoff games?
“We did not, couldn’t afford it.”
What did you think of the Skydome when you went?
“That was my first professional stadium. And it was, like, cold. Like, not cold as in weather. It’s like going to Chase Field now. It's just a big old stadium and it doesn't feel like a baseball stadium to me. Like Wrigley Field is an amazing baseball field. Maybe it has something to do with the roof. Maybe I went to some games when it was closed.”
Little League and High School
“When I was 12, our all-star team was the team that played all the other teams in Naperville (Illinois). The winner of that played the regionals. The winner of that goes to the Little League World Series, and we were one loss away from going to the World Series. We were close.”
What position were you?
“Pitcher and shortstop. Leadoff or 2nd hitter. I had speed. I used to be fast, now I’m slow as shit.”
You’re just lazy.
“No I just can’t run fast. I’m old.”
So you got within a game. Were you getting excited to make it? What did it feel like when you lost?
“It sucked. It’s not like I cried or anything. It would have been real cool. We were a little beat up, but it wasn’t like one of those memories that's burned into my head aboot me, like crying on the mound or anything like that. We had a really cool stadium, it had the in-ground dugouts. Like where you walked down in, the cement ones, I thought that was badass. It was at Centennial Beach.”
So why did you stop and switch to hockey in high school?
“Because the head coach of the high school team was our dean and I had behavioral problems. I just got in trouble a lot. I would skip classes a lot. I got in a couple of tussles. Nothing majorly bad. I didn't get busted with alcohol or drugs or anything like that. It was just, not showing up to class, back talking and getting in the odd tussle. And he was the dean.
And here's some shit. So freshman year, I was the number one pitcher on the team.”
Ok so you were on the team at one point.
“Yeah, I played freshman year (for Neuqua Valley High in Naperville). So freshman year I was on the team. We had a family trip to the Dominican Republic. It was a trip we planned way out. It was right before school started. Our team had a stupid rule that every single practice you missed, you had to miss a game. So since we were gone for two weeks, they took two weeks off my season. I had to sit on the bench for the first two weeks. And my first game back was against Waubonsie (High School, in Aurora, IL), which was our big rival. That was my first pitch of the year. We were getting smoked the whole year up until I started. Shutout that game and a couple more shutouts. I became the number one pitcher after my first start back, after they made me sit two weeks of the season. I think we lost every game that I was sitting.”
And then you didn’t make it to sophomore year?
“The coach, I knew I was going to have some problems with him and I didn't even want to go to the first tryout, but my mom really loved baseball. She loved watching me play. So she talked me into going to the tryout and said, you know, if you make the team, you make the team. If you don't make it, you don't make it. Who cares? I made the team and I turned down the offer. I had a feeling it was going to be the same kind of problem, politics and stuff like that. I was getting pretty good at hockey at the time and I decided to give up baseball and just focus all on hockey. Hockey is not associated with the Illinois schools, so it’s considered club. So if I got in trouble at school, it wouldn’t carry over to hockey.
I just didn't have a passion for baseball really. It was my freshman year that totally drained out all the passion, sitting on the bench for like two weeks. I took my glove to the Dominican Republic and I was pitching sessions with my dad, like on the beach. So I was committed when we were there. So to come back and like… because I was going to be a dual sport athlete. That was my whole plan in high school. And then it took the wind out of my sails.”
So if you had more fun freshman year… say, not missing those two weeks…
“I think it could have carried over.”
Do you think you would’ve showed up to school more if you’d kept playing?
“Probably. I was really good at school, so I still got straight A’s. I just didn't have to go. I wasn’t really challenged my freshman and sophomore year, so I would just leave early a lot of the days. I got through 3 or 4 periods and just be like alright, I'm done for the day. Then those would turn into detention. Then the detentions would turn into Saturday schools and then suspensions.”
Wrigleyville
So you felt the Skydome was just a big building with a field in it. What did you think the first time you went to Wrigley?
“It's amazing. As soon as you get in the neighborhood of Wrigley Field, it's a vibe, it's a feeling. Like the Taco Bell has a Cubs hat on the sign. They just tore down the Taco Bell, but it was there for like 30 years.” (it is amazing how much reading material there is about this specific Taco Bell: Google Search Results)
“But like every single thing in that neighborhood is aligned. It was the same thing with going to Blackhawks games. You go to Hawks games, you go to Cheli’s Chili (note: a source confirmed it’s closed now) and then we go over to the game. And then when we enter Wrigley, we'd go to a bar, basically everything was a bar. And it was just that feeling where, you get in there and half the people have Cubs crap on. Every single game, no matter what, everybody has a Cubs hat, Cubs jersey. Once you find parking, once you get out, it's just madness. The peanuts guys are everywhere. It's the whole neighborhood. It's just amazing. Walking through the tunnel and actually seeing that stadium from the inside.”
How many games did you go to there?
“A lot. Went to like 60 games one year. A girlfriend had season tickets, and I didn’t go to school a lot in college either. I lived on Clark and Waveland.”
“So it was the rooftop decks, I had the building right behind them. A lot of days I’d go out the night before, it’d be a late night and I'd actually wake up because the games start at 1:20. So the national anthem would actually wake me and my roommates up at like 12:45, 1:00. We’d hear the national anthem because we’d just keep our doors and windows open in the summer. And then we'd all roll out of bed and just sit down on the couch, turn on the game and the great thing is, anytime there's a home run, we would hear it in the crowd before it went on the tv. So when people would come over and watch the game with us, we’d be like, ‘Home run.’ My deck overlooked Wrigley Field, so I could see the lights and everything. I couldn’t see in the field, but I could see all the lights and the back of the scoreboard.”
So the national anthem would actually wake me and my roommates up at like 12:45
How long did you live there?
“Like 4 years and then before that I lived at Ashland and Addison. So it was only a five minute walk to the stadium. Me and my brother, we had no money when we were in college, so we would go in like the fourth inning to get tickets because the scalpers would lower the price, lower the price, lower the price. So we’d go around the second inning, maybe like $20. Yeah, we'll see in two innings. And then we would just keep going back until we’d get it down to like eight bucks. We were in college, we had no money, right? And the Cubs were good at the time so tickets were selling pretty good. So unless somebody gave us tickets or there's a special event, you know, we would go in the 4th inning. I used to actually have a keg at the house, so we would just drink and watch it on tv, and then if it was a good game or a good team in town, then we would just walk over and get cheap tickets. We’d try to sneak in a beer or two, just so we didn't have to pay those beer prices. We’d go to the game, the 4th through 9th inning, two beers in our pockets, we spent $8 the whole time. So it's pretty cost effective.”
What was the vibe like before and then during the 2016 World Series run?
“Right when I got downtown, it was the Sammy Sosa era (Sosa’s last season with the Cubs was 2004). There was a lot of stuff going on. Then it died out for a while and then we were bad. But pre-Sammy Sosa, I watched some games a little bit, but I wasn't a huge Cubs fan. When I came to America, going into school, you make a choice. You’re a Cubs fan or you’re a White Sox fan. You can't be both. And I liked Frank Thomas. I had a Frank Thomas picture on my wall. I had the Big Hurt and then I had a Ken Griffey Jr… Have you ever seen that poster? Like it was with the tide or, like, there's a tide, rolling over while he hit it. It's a really cool poster. (note: I couldn’t find this poster, but I’m sure you can tell AI to make it for you). I went with the Cubs when I came to the States.”
“I always liked Mark Grace, my dad liked him because he was old fashioned and didn’t wear batting gloves. So my dad said, ‘That's a real ballplayer.’ You look at Sammy Sosa and he has all the wristbands on and the braces, everything like that. And then Grace goes up there, no batting gloves on, just with a wooden bat and he's good.
I used to have a sign I used to take the Wrigley Field that said ‘I PEE ON MY HANDS, TOO. GO ALOU’. (note: here’s some more backstory on Moises Alou peeing on his hands: Moises Alou Routinely Peed On His Own Hands). It was a great thing. So I just made that board for one game and then I ended up taking it for probably like 8 to 10 games. I remember families would stop me and want to take their pictures with their kids in front of it. And I'm hammered at the time and I’m like, ‘I dunno…’
Wrigley Shenanigans
“I've been to that stadium a lot of times, right? We used to give the opposing pitchers and catchers, they would get so much shit just being right there (before the bullpens were moved out of sight beneath the outfield bleachers). And I was part of it. I was probably the one yelling a lot, but…”
Is there anybody you yelled at specifically?
“I got escorted out for yelling at Corey McPherrin. He was a sportscaster in Chicago.”
“I've never been to Cubbie Jail. A lot of my friends have.”
What is Cubbie Jail?
“The bars are blue and and they have a tv so you can watch the game, but it's underneath, like around the home plate grandstand. They take you down and they put you in jail. If you don't do that bad, they put you in Cubbie Jail. If you do really bad, they take you to the closest police precinct. I’ve had to get some friends out of there. You just sober up for like two hours. It's kind of like Disney World Jail, I'd imagine.”
(I couldn’t find Disney World jail, or Cubbie Jail, so this will do)
“I’ve been escorted out of the building a couple times. When they started not letting in smoking, you'd smoke in the stairwells. So you'd always get one warning. So we knew, like yeah, we'll just wait for one warning and then we'll be careful. And sometimes it was the same guy so we’d get kicked out. I’ve probably gotten kicked out three or four times and I've been there 200 times.
I'll always be a Cubs fan just because of living in Wrigleyville, being able to experience that camaraderie with so many players and I got to meet some cool players. My buddy beat up (Kyle) Farnsworth.”
I’m sorry, what?
“It was after a Cubs game. He partied a lot, right? But his ass would, he’d leave Wrigley Field, and he’d walk over to the bars that were literally 50 feet away from the stadium. And he ran his mouth to one of my buddies and my buddy punched him in the face one time. And then the funny thing is, we were sitting behind Farnsworth the next morning during warmups. Hey, Farnsy, what happened to your eye? He had a big old shiner. He was totally at fault. He was being an asshole.”
2016 World Series Game 7 at Wrigleyville
Did you go to any playoff games in 2016?
“I went to a divisional game, none of the actual World Series games. So, we were going to go to game seven. And obviously it was a huge deal and so I had a couple of buddies that had a couple dollars. So we were going to rent a private jet and fly into Cleveland for the game. But right away, it didn't feel right, I guess. First thing that happened was the jet that we originally had, we decided to upgrade to a more expensive jet. And already it was like, alright, this is gonna be a little bit of money. Tickets are not cheap and then it started to rain a little bit. The weather wasn't good. Chicago's not that far from Cleveland, so the whole Doppler was just not looking good. So I'm like, you know what, I’m out boys. I had a ticket. I ended up giving the ticket to somebody else.
So then I'm like, all right, so I'm in town and all my good friends are on a jet right now going to Cleveland. What am I gonna do? So just kind of looked around on Facebook, or maybe Myspace.”
I don’t think it was Myspace by then, but go on.
“I had friends that were going to this one bar that was close to my house. It was right by Wrigley Field. I knew that's where the party would go. So I ended up paying $100 for a bar stool, just to be able to sit at the bar, but the tab would cover it if you spent at least $100. I knew somebody that worked there and I knew aboot four friends that were going. So it was aboot three blocks south of the field, but in Prime Wrigleyville, Dark Horse Tap & Grille.
So the game is going great, then the rain delay happens, and it was a little while from what I remember. So we're just drinking, everybody's nervous. We just have our barstool and it's a good party vibe and as soon as they came back from the rain delay, it seemed like everything changed. They said (Jason Heyward) gave a good speech, like his speech really changed around. You could tell there was a different vibe when they came out. As soon as the rain delay ended and they started playing, maybe like half an inning or something, all the snow plows in Chicago came out of nowhere. And we're like, ‘Awesome!’”
“What they did was they knew Wrigleyville would go crazy and they didn’t want it to burn down. So they got all the snow plows out from storage and just blocked off every single street. So we were half a block inside the perimeter of No-Go zone and they had blocked it. So we were letting people in through the back of our bar so they could leave out the front of the bar so they could be in the zone, so they could go down to Wrigley and party with everybody. They had a riot plan in place where, they were stopping and blocked off at these main streets and there was gonna be two snow plows like that (blocking the road). And then there was just gonna be cops in between the snow plows. So literally it's building, cops, snow plow, cops, snowplow, building. So there's no way to get access to those streets because they knew that enough bars would clear out, that there'd be enough people in there that they just didn't want people coming up.
And people were coming, getting off the subway just one after another. Every single subway was just packed with people and they would all unload at either Addison or Belmont. And they stopped letting them unload at Addison. It was straight madness, but as soon it ended. We had a couple of last beers, went to the 7/11, picked up, picked up a 24 pack of Budweiser and just drank right around the stadium, like right underneath the marquee. It was shoulder to shoulder. It was absolutely nuts. Getting home was rough.
So at that point in time, I'm like, I got to get out of the perimeter and my phone had no juice. So I turned it off with just a little bit of juice left. I'm like, alright, I gotta get out of this zone. They weren't even letting me out of certain areas, like nobody in and nobody out. Like, don't you want everybody out? So I got over a fence to get out, and then I sat on somebody's front stoop, probably like half a mile from the from that zone and sat on somebody's front stoop, called an Uber, and my phone died right after it. And I just prayed that one would come. Like 30 minutes later, a car pulled up and he was like Scott? I’m like oh, thank you.
But it wasn't as bad as my friends that took the jet.”
Tease: the story of the friends on the jet will show up soon from one of the eyewitness accounts.
Lou Piniella and Carlos Zambrano
“So I got a good story aboot Zambrano. Yeah, so Carlos Zambrano. Was it when he beat the shit out of the whole phone box? Or one of the Gatorade coolers. But Lou Piniella (who managed the Cubs from 2007 to 2010) was my client for the bank. So Lou comes in in the morning after the game. I'm like, ‘Lou!’ And just sitting across the table from me, like at my desk, it was like talking to my dad. Such an approachable guy.
And I'm like, ‘Lou! What happened last night?’ He goes, ‘I don't know how to control that beast. That guy has a mind of his own. Great pitcher, great arm, but the guy has a mind of his own.’”
(turns out it was a Gatorade dispenser)
Takeaways
First, Scott’s baseball story sounds like one that’s played out in many high schools over the decades. Some coaches and players don’t see eye to eye and usually when that happens, it’s the player whose career loses. But it was interesting when I asked if he’d have stuck with baseball longer if he hadn’t had a miserable freshman season and he said he probably would have. Meaning he would maybe have put in more effort in class and avoided a couple fights if that’s what it took to keep playing baseball. But on the other end, maybe the team could’ve relaxed their attendance policy while he was on vacation. So maybe like most things, both sides could’ve relented a bit.
The fun part of Scott’s story is his days living in the immediate vicinity of Wrigley Field. They never made a sequel to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it probably would have also involved lots of bars, hungover afternoons waking up to the Wrigley Field organ echoing through the neighborhood and definitely a wild Game 7 victory celebration. Wrigley Field is definitely a 1 of 1 kind of vibe that is unmatched anywhere in this country.
But I listened to his stories, mostly being a poor college kid or young professional and finding ways to watch Cubs games on the cheap and you just think how much that kind of thing is a part of the history and allure of being a baseball fan. And then you remember that, especially under the Ricketts ownership group, how that is being erased. The big electronic scoreboards, the lawsuits with the rooftop bleachers, the shift to e-tickets that basically wiped scalpers off the map. Where does that end?