HG Sports was accused of a similar scheme in the World Cup

As much as were loyal to Section 416, its great to see the Cubs play away from home. Rich, Old Style and I went to St. Louis in 2015, and this year, we journeyed to Milwaukee.For better and worse, Cubs fans are never lonely on the road.Our trip to Americas Dairyland was, like everything else about the 2016 season, different. Last year in St. Louis, we could have used a modern Moses to part the sea of red shirts and caps. A distinct and gently heckled minority, we watched the Cardinals beat the Cubs not long before Maddons team began its hot streak into October, and we didnt have a lot of fellow Chicagoans to commiserate with.At Miller Park this year, Cubs fans werent just a few stray visitors. We were an invading army. Our downtown hotel lobby teemed with folks in Arrieta, Bryant and Banks jerseys. Whole families in matching Cubs caps huddled in corners, trying to figure out the shuttle to the park. The restaurant was jammed for pregame chicken wings, burgers and beer.Only the preponderance of children and the vast parking lots around Miller Park kept Milwaukee from feeling wholly like Wrigleyville.Cubs fans dont just travel. They live everywhere. Thanks to the Rust Belt Diaspora that has sent so many people from Chicago to cities in the South and West, Cubs players can count on cheering and autograph-seeking fans at any ballpark from Atlanta to Phoenix to San Diego. Baseball fan identity is as much about who your mother or father rooted for as it is about where you were born, so the children of Cubs fans who moved to the Sun Belt are just as genuine as any born and bred on the North Side.Beyond relocated Chicagoans, cable TV superstation WGN helped to create a nationwide Cubs fan population during the 1980s and 90s, much as TBS did for the Atlanta Braves.Transplanted fans clearly seek the Wrigley experience, even when in remote places such as Denver, as the recent controversy over a young fan throwing a Rockies home run ball back onto the field suggests. Security came and escorted the lad and his family away, which showed that Wrigley bleacher traditions dont exactly translate to other ballparks. Luckily, some common sense prevailed, and the family was able to return to their seats.One key difference between the experience at Wrigley, with 2016s high expectations and great record, and other ballparks: You can get great seats out of town without dealing with scalpers. Rich scored tickets in the 10th row behind home plate. Officially obstructed view because of the protective netting, these were among the best seats weve ever had at any level.But things werent perfect, and the worst part of this particular experience was something peculiar to a Wisconsin road trip: high expectations about sausages. I have had nothing but good encased meat experiences north of the Illinois border. But the crowd was apparently more than the Miller Park concessions workers were prepared for.Lines were long and slow, and when I finally got my brat, it was cold. And it wasnt cooked all the way through. No amount of mustard and onions could save it.I threw it back like an opponents home run ball -- not onto the field, though, as that wouldve been ejection-worthy -- and headed to our seats.It soon became obvious how many Cubs fans were there. Based on the volume of cheering at Dexter Fowlers leadoff home run in his first at-bat after being on the DL, at least half the place wasnt pulling for the Brew Crew. This sort of split crowd changes the dynamics of a game.Usually, theres a rhythm to crowd reactions. When the home team gets a hit or a strikeout or makes a good defensive play, the vast majority of the crowd cheers. When the visitors do well, its boos or stony silence. The intensity ratchets up in the late innings of a close contest, but the noise ebbs and flows.Not so with the Cubs on the road this year. Every play, whatever its result, gets raucously cheered, either by Cubs fans or by the home teams rooters, and so the noise is pretty much constant. As the Cubs cruised to a 5-2 victory, the Brewers fans got quieter and the rhythm of the crowd noise felt more like Wrigley.The guys seated directly behind us, though, made clear the potential negative of Cubs fans taking over opposing ballparks.There are lots of varieties of Cubs fans, and the guys behind us were of the drink-an-inning/know-it-all variety. Besides loading up on beer and Long Island Iced Tea, one of them loudly questioned every decision made during the game. Whatever pitching or defensive move Maddon made, whatever pitch Miguel Montero called, whatever pitch a Cubs batter took or swung at, this mope would ask, What was that?! What are they thinking?! When the move worked (Justin Grimm got the third out in the seventh, striking out the only batter he faced), well, then he cheered for what was obviously the right move all along.Nine innings of that got a bit tedious. But unlike the experience with season tickets -- you get to know and love, or know and not love, the people sitting around you -- you can put up with almost anything for one game.Except an under-done bratwurst. Jose Juan Barea Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Jason Kidd Mavericks Jersey .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. http://www.mavericksteamofficial.info/dirk-nowitzki-mavericks-jersey/ . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. Kostas Antetokounmpo Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Steve Nash Jersey . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The man named to head Irelands Olympic committee after its president was arrested in a ticket-scalping case during the Rio Games is also suspected of participating in the scheme but left Brazil before he could be questioned, police said Tuesday.Authorities said William OBrien, who took responsibility for the Irish committee after Patrick Hickey was detained last week, departed from Brazil one day before authorities obtained a warrant to seize his passport and mobile devices in a Sunday raid.There are a lot of messages mentioning William OBrien along with Patrick Hickey, Aloysio Falcao, one of the investigators in the case, said after a news conference.Falcao said Brazilian investigators will be requesting help from the Irish government.Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland and a member of the International Olympic Committees executive board, is being held in Rios Bangu prison complex as the investigation expands.Charged with conspiracy, ticket scalping and ambush marketing, Hickey is accused of plotting with other members of the Ireland committee and two companies to sell tickets above face value in a scheme that authorities say could have netted about $3 million in profits. More than 1,000 tickets have been seized in the investigation.Authorities say the Irish company Pro 10 Sports Management was created to facilitate the transfer of tickets between that ccountrys committee and an unauthorized vendor called THG Sports that would sell them for high fees disguised as hospitality services.dddddddddddd. THG Sports was accused of a similar scheme in the World Cup.Investigators determined last week that the choice of Pro 10 as the authorized ticket reseller for Ireland was a joint decision by the Irish committee.On Sunday, hours before the Rio Games closing ceremony, police executed search warrants at the Olympic Village to seize passports and other items from three members of the Ireland committee, including Ireland team leader Kevin Kilty, chief executive Stephen Martin and secretary-general Dermot Henihan. Police confiscated 228 tickets for the ceremony from Kiltys room.Henihan appeared at police headquarters Tuesday to answer questions. Investigators said they had ruled out his involvement in the alleged scheme, saying there was no evidence.Kilty and Martin had been expected to also testify Tuesday, but officials said their lawyers had asked for a postponement to have more time to review documents in the case.The investigation has been unfolding since the Olympics began Aug. 5, when the head of THG Sports was arrested with tickets allocated to the Olympic Council of Ireland.The council declined to comment Tuesday. ' ' '