Do you remember where you were when the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series?
I was in a hotel room in Las Vegas working on a SEMA story when that historic game came to a dramatic close.
Talk about sensory overload: I had just finished looking at some of the most impressive trucks on the planet and now one of the biggest games in baseball history—complete with a storied comeback—was coming to a nail-biting finish.
The Cubs’ victory attracted plenty of attention around the globe—something that city leaders don’t take lightly.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last night that this extra attention has prompted the city to implement a truck ban at Wrigley Field on opening day Monday, “and, probably, the entire season.”
The safety perimeter will be the same used during the playoffs and World Series. No trucks nor “anything above a cargo van” will be permitted beyond the perimeter roads of Irving Park Road, Belmont, Halsted and Southport. The ban will be in place two hours before the game and one hour after. Remaining traffic will be funneled to a single lane.
It really doesn’t make one feel like singing “Take me out to the ball game” anytime soon.
Hard Working Trucks called both the city’s office of Emergency Management and Communication and an alderman’s office, but neither could clarify if the ban applies to pickups.
As recent March sales reports proved, pickup sales continue to climb as car sales wane. Ford’s F-Series trucks still rank as the best-selling vehicles in the country.
God knows how many truck commercials air during ball games. It would be sadly ironic if it turns out that those same pickups are banned from America’s favorite pastime at Wrigley Field.
What is clearly ironic is the fact that the same Times article mentions that a car was used—not a truck—to carry out a recent deadly terrorist attack near British Parliament.
The point here is that radical Muslims will go to extremes to use any means necessary to inflict as much harm as possible on their victims. We’re talking about crazed zealots who will strap explosives on women and children and send them into unsuspecting crowds. It’s an unsettling reminder that a hateful, desperate ideology poses the biggest threat—not cars and trucks.
Last night, after unleashing a U.S. missile attack on Syria following President Assad’s apparent decision there to use chemical weapons on civilians, President Trump said something that caught my attention:
“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies,” Trump said during an announcement last night from Palm Beach, Fla.
“Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in Syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world.”
In the interim, keep learning to accommodate a new way of life. Keep your trucks, and perhaps your cars next, away from Wrigley Field on game day and continue offering up yourself and your property for close inspection at the airport.
