CHICAGO The mission for Fridays Yankees-Cubs game was to recreate one of my best baseball memories. In the late 1990s, while covering the Phillies, I spent a game in the Wrigley Field bleachers.What made the day memorable then was meeting a longtime Cubs season-ticket holder who was blind. He had big headphones on to listen to the game on the radio. He was keeping score in Braille.He savored all of the Wrigley smells, everything from burgers on grills to foul odors.I thought of this man frequently over the years every time Id tell people about one of my favorite days as a baseball writer. I shared this story with a few Yankees players over the past week while asking if they had any fan encounters with Bleacher Bums.Cody Bellinger, a Cubs outfielder from 2023-24, assured me that I would have a blast out there. Max Fried told me, It always looks like a party out there in the bleachers. I told Spencer Jones to look for me out there if hes playing left field.My real goal for Friday was to find a good story. The Yankees 2-0 victory didnt count.I got lucky.I met and hung out with two of the Cubs oldest and most loyal fans in Section 511, Row 14 of the bleachers.Judy Caldow, a 77-year-old retired psych ed teacher, has been sitting in the bleachers for almost every Cubs home game for more than 60 years.One seat to her left was Linda Medo, a 67-year-old season-ticket holder who started going to games in 1969. She said her claim to fame is I live in New Jersey Kearny, N.J. Since moving to Jersey for work in 1992, Linda has attended about 30 Cubs games a year. The topper for me, the blind man whom Id met all those years ago, sat one row in front of Caldow and Medo for decades through last season. He was out there with them last year for a Cubs-Brewers playoff game.Sadly, Howard Tucker died at age 79 this past May. Caldow was a pallbearer at the funeral and kept half of her friends ashes.***Early Friday morning, I took an Uber from my downtown Chicago hotel up Lakeshore Drive to Wrigley. dropped off my laptop in the press box, then killed a few minutes talking college football with former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was working the game in the YES Network TV booth. Then I headed down to the Yankees clubhouse for pre-game media availability.I briefly chit-chatted with a few players, but didnt do any interviews.At 11:15 a.m., I decided Id better head out to the bleachers before manager Aaron Boones 11:30 media session. Fans would be let into the ballpark soon, and I wanted to get a good seat because its all general admission out there first come, first served.Out in left field, I took a seat in the first row and chatted with the guy next to me, a Chicago police officer. Chris Sloniec told me that his parents were from Europe and had never become interested in baseball. He became a Yankees fan at age 9 in 1990 because Don Mattingly was his favorite player. Sloniec, 45, worked outside Wrigley Field for Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, the infamous Steve Bartman game.I saw him being escorted out of the ballpark, but didnt know what was going on.Sitting along the left field foul line, Bartman interfered with a foul ball that Cubs left fielder Moises Alou could have caught. It led to the Marlins rallying for a late win. The Marlins went on to win Game 7 and prevented the Cubs from winning their first pennant since 1945.When the Cubs finally made it to the World Series in 2016, Sloniec was out there again working Games 3, 4 and 5. He was also outside Wrigley, off duty, when the Cubs were in Cleveland for Game 7. He said Cubs fans reaction to the first championship since 1908 was insane.Craziest thing Ive seen in my life, Sloniec said. Ive seen Bulls championships with Michael Jordan. Crazy. Ive seen the Blackhawks win Stanley Cups. Even more crazy. The Cubs championship, theres no way to even explain it.***Directly behind me, a Yankees fan who migrated from New Jersey to Canton, Ohio, sat with three family members. As a kid, Jim OHara used to deliver Star-Ledger newspapers from 1980-82. He paid $650 for four tickets to see the Yankees play in Wrigley Field, $50 above face value.Even before seeing a 2-0 Yankees win, OHara got his moneys worth sitting behind the ivy-covered outfield walls in the majors second-oldest ballpark. Wrigley Field opened in 1914, two years and three days after the Red Soxs first game at Fenway Park.This is a baseball mecca, OHara said. I love this ballpark. I love the atmosphere. This place is classy. Between Wrigley, Fenway, and the old Yankee Stadium, you cant ask for a better ballpark.The bleachers filled up as it got close to game time. Then, right around 1:20 p.m. CT first pitch it started sprinkling. When it started coming down a little harder, I regretted leaving my windbreaker up in the press box.When the Yankees took the field for the bottom of the first inning, Jones jogged out to left field. I wondered if hed remember to look for me. He took his warm-up throws, looked up, made eye contact with me, and lobbed the practice ball my way.The rookie misfired just a little: A teenager with a glove sitting two seats to my left jumped for it, but it deflected off his mitt to a Cubs fan one row behind us.After the second inning, the rain was coming down harder. My 2027 Ryder Cup polo was getting soaked. I decided to head up to the press box to get my jacket.The Chicago police officer next to me promised to save my first-row seat in section 504.***Up in the press box, I charged my cell phone for 10 minutes, then headed back toward the bleachers. Before climbing the steps, I looked out at the Waveland Ave. buildings and the Wrigley rooftops. Id never been up there. I decided to see if I could talk my way in.I walked to the front door of the second building on the left and approached a woman with a list of names. I showed my press pass and asked if I could go in for a few minutes to talk to fans for my story. She made a call to the supervisor, who OKd my visit.The first thing I noticed was two front doors to apartments G and I. Id never known the Wrigley rooftop was atop residences. I walked up about 20 stairs and into the lower-level party area. For $150 to $300 a pop, you get to see most of the playing field but not home plate, plus food and drinks. There were big-screen TVs, too, but nobody seemed to be paying much attention to the game. The batter was too far away to see.Everyone was sipping on beer and talking while gazing out at the field.The burgers smelled good, but the pass around my neck was a 2026 BBWAA credential, not the one that gets you food and drink.Hungry to find a good story, I headed upstairs to the rooftop and met a few Yankees fans. They were everywhere and made up around half of the 150 or so ticketholders.I met Mark Iozzo, who works at a car dealership about 25 miles southwest of Chicago in Westmont, Illinois. Hes a White Sox fan who loves baseball. He traveled to Cleveland for Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and scalped a ticket for $3,500.Iozzo participated in a fraternity brothers baseball reunion over the last two days. Eighteen of them watched Thursdays Yankees-White Sox game from a Rate Field Suite, and on Friday, they had rooftop seats for the Yankees-Cubs series opener.If you want the honest truth, these seats suck, Iozzo said with a grin.***After 20 minutes or so in a building with rooftop seats, I headed back to Wrigley Field and into the left-field bleachers.I went to an usher and asked if he knew anyone whos been a Wrigley Field bleachers regular for years. He told me that I should talk to an usher named Vito. Hes been working there for decades. He said I could find Vito in the right field bleachers.Vito wasnt there. He was working near first base Friday; a security man told me before leading me to one of the bleachers most famous fans.When Caldow agreed to talk to me, I stood behind her and let her tell me her amazing baseball story. She was 8 in 1963 when she went to her first Cubs game with her grandfather, who worked at the fire station right outside the Wrigley bleachers on Waveland Ave. The ushers let firemen and guests in free back there.This was love at first sight for Caldow, who soon started attending games with her father. They always sat in the bleachers. He made her keep score.That started another tradition. She buys a scorecard for every game and keeps score from the first out to the last out. She said she left a game early just once, and it was because her mom had to go.By the Cubs count, Caldows now up to more than 4,200 games, but she said the number was higher because her early years werent counted.I have to check my scorecards, Judy said.She had kept them all, and everyone had a newspaper box score from the game scotch-taped on. She also taped her ticket stub to the scorebook until the Cubs stopped printing them after the 2019 season.Its just crazy little things people do, Judy said.For Fridays game, her scorebook was covered in plastic due to the rain.You want to see what I have behind it, she said. Its my scorecard from a Savannah Bananas game. Look, I even scored the whole game.Watching baseball at Wrigley has changed a lot over the years. Caldow protested when the ballpark added lights in August 1988, but got used to them because night games are better for a teacher who is addicted to Cubs baseball.Shes not thrilled by many of the casual fans who buy bleacher seats these days.Gamblers used to sit here with us, Caldow said, Now these people want to take pictures of their beer. They collect beer cups and stack them up. They call them beer snakes. Its very annoying.Theyre not allowed in our section. Thank the Cubs for that.She misses some of her favorite Cubs who are deceased, especially Ron Santo and Ryne Sandberg.This weekend, shes bummed that Bellinger is on the injured list. He was a fan favorite.I met him at a convention, Caldow said. He said he got engaged and that his fiance wanted to live here. We thought he would stay.Caldows been married for 56 years but usually goes to games alone. I dated a lot of guys before I met my husband, she said. He was the only one who would tolerate my love of the Cubs.Her second family is the about a dozen regulars in section 505. She also knows the regulars in the other sections of the bleachers from standing in line with them, waiting for the gates to open.Caldow always drives the four miles from her home to Wrigley, arriving more than four hours before first pitch.I wont pay to park, she said. They charge 50 bucks. I cant afford that.***Caldow and Medo met in August 1994, the day before the baseball strike. Although both attended almost every Cubs home game in the 70s and 80s, they didnt become season-ticket holders until 1993, the first year they were available for the bleachers. The cost was $614 for 81 home dates, $7.58 a game. Bleacher tickets now fluctuate depending on the opponent, but the full season-ticket price is $3,800, an average of $46.91 per game.Medo moved from Chicago to New Jersey in 1992 to take a job in Manhattan at a supply chain management company. There was no way that she wasnt buying season tickets the next year and keeping them. She flies from Newark to Chicago for five or six homestands every year. For the last 20 years, shes also at Yankee Stadium five or six times every baseball season because her longtime live-in beau is a Yankees fan.And of course, Medo returns in October whenever the Cubs make the playoffs. Her heart was broken when they lost postseason series in 1984, 1989, 1998, three times in the 2000s, then again in 2015.Before the Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years, Medo thought they were going to blow Game 7. Her anxiety peaked when manager Joe Maddon pulled starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks with a 4-2 lead in the fifth inning.Watching from her living room in Kearny, she ripped off the head of her stuffed Maddon doll in anger. When the Cubs won, she sat on her couch for an hour, too emotionally drained to celebrate.I was out in Chicago every weekend going to playoff games and working a full-time job, she said. I was worn out.Medo decided to keep the Maddon doll, which was still in two pieces.***Cubs season-ticket holder Judy Caldow keeps photos on her phone of her late blind friend Howard Tucker, who sat with her in the Wrigley Field bleachers for decades.Randy Miller, NJ.comCaldows first call after the Cubs won the World Series was to Tucker. Theyd spent so many days dreaming of this moment as they sat together decade after decade. This was one of the best days of their life.We couldnt believe it, she said. People asked me if I ever thought Id see the Cubs win a World Series. I saw a lot of bad Cubs teams. I was here every game when they lost 101 times in 2012. Honestly, no. Now I want it again.Tucker had a nickname for his New Jersey friend. She lived in Hoboken before moving to Kearny, so he called her Hoboken Linda. Tuckers nickname was Chip because when he was born, weighing barely two pounds, a doctor said he was just a little chip.Tucker was in his late 40s when he got married in 1996. His wife, Renee, is also blind.Youve never been to a wedding until you go to a blind wedding, Medo said with a laugh.Besides negotiating their disability every day, the blind couple had to deal with their baseball rivalry. Shes a White Sox fan.They were a mixed marriage, like my family, Medo said. My mother was a White Sox fan, my father was a Cubs fan.Tucker died May 9, two days into a Cubs road trip. Six days later, he was buried on the day of a Cubs-White Sox game at Rate Field.A lot of Tuckers bleacher-bums family attended the wake. Caldow brought her Cubs win flag, a big W, and draped it over Howards open coffin.You want to see a picture? she said while pulling out her phone.At Tuckers wifes request, the Cubs victory song played as the casket was carried out of the church. Everyone changed the words of Go Cubs Go to Go Howard Go.The Cubs won that day, then lost 10 in a row.Everyone thought it was my fault for putting the W flag on the casket, Caldow said.Its not the same this year in section 505 without Tucker. Hed been out there with his baseball family for more than 55 years. Were a community, Medo said.From the bleachers, they cheer on the Cubs and talk about their lives. They make trips to Cubs road games. Caldow traveled to Texas for Greg Madduxs 300th win. When Cubs greats Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo and Sandberg were inducted at Cooperstown, she was there for Hall of Fame weekend.***Wrigley Field season-ticket holder Bleacher Bums Linda Medo, 67, and Judy Caldow, 77, dance to Y.M.C.A during Friday's Yankees-Cubs game.Randy Miller, NJ.comCaldow had lunch with Tuckers widow last Tuesday at a famous sports bar thats across the street from Wrigley Field, Murphys Bleachers.Renee wants me to sprinkle his ashes on the field, but its a definite no-no, Caldow said. One person did it and lost their season tickets.Sitting in the rain Friday, Caldow and Medo were together again enjoying each others company, watching Cubs baseball and embracing everything about Wrigley Field. They stood up and danced when Y.M.C.A. was played. They kept score. They talked the whole game.This is my therapy, Caldow said. I fell in love with Wrigley as a kid. My mom thought Id outgrow it. I never did. This is really like my home.***When the Cubs had two runners on base in the seventh inning with the Yankees ahead 2-0, I was about to leave. I had to make my way from the center-field bleachers to behind third base before the game ended. Thats where the media enters the visiting clubhouse at Wrigley.You cant leave, Caldow said. If youre with us and the Cubs have a rally, you cant leave. Im serious. Thats our rule here.I stayed until the end of the inning, but I wasnt a good luck charm for the Cubs.I watched the last inning from a third-base box seat. The Cubs put the tying runs on base, then Alex Bregman hit a two-out comebacker to closer David Bednar. The Yankees held on, with solo homers from Amed Rosario in the fourth and Jones in the fifth providing the margin.In the managers office, Boone was about to take his first question with the YES camera rolling when he looked at me and said, Did you show up late today?I told him that I was in the bleachers.Oh, wow, thats a great feature, Boone said.In the clubhouse, Fried slowed up while walking past me and asked, Hey, did you go into the bleachers?I did.Was it fun? I bet it was fun, Fried said.A lot of fun.When Jones spotted me, he said. Hey, I tried to throw you a ball. Sorry, I missed you.His throw my way was part of the fun.I didnt think this experience could match my late-1990s day in the bleachers, the time I met the blind Cubs fan.I was wrong. Meeting his friends and hearing his story as an honorary Bleacher Bum was even better.Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.