CHICAGO – The roar started before Vince Dooley’s name had even been announced. Then came the chants. For a few moments Wrigley Field sounded like a Georgia football game.
Dooley’s escort for the Cubs would tell him later that he had “never heard anything like that.”
"I'm used to hearing UGA," Dooley said. "But he had never heard it before, as long as he's been here."
It was a grand moment in what has basically become a UGA holiday weekend in this area: As Georgia prepares to play Notre Dame on Saturday night, Bulldog fans have descended on the area, many making a weekend of it. Dooley, the head coach the last time Georgia played the Fighting Irish, was invited to throw out the ceremonial pitch before Friday’s Cubs game against the Milwaukee Brewers. And it became the focal point for a Bulldog takeover of one of baseball’s great stadiums.
Even before the game it was evident, as red and black shirts and jackets dotted the stands. They rose to their feet and started cheering as Dooley made his way to the mound. They cheered as he one-hopped it – pretty good for an 85-year-old, by the way.
And then the chants began: “UGA! UGA! UGA!” Some called the Dawgs too.
“Seeing the reaction to Coach Dooley’s first pitch was amazing,” said one of the seemingly thousand Georgia fans in the stands, Mark Fox, who also is Georgia’s men’s basketball coach. “It’s great to have some fun with all of the Dawg fans. And we will all be more focused tomorrow in South Bend.”
“It’s unbelievable,” said Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin, who was also in the stands. “I knew we would travel really well. But this has been unbelievable when you see nothing but red and black all over Chicago.”
So it was only appropriate that the Chicago Cub who caught Dooley’s pitch was also a Georgia boy: Justin Grimm, the former Bulldogs pitcher.
Grimm and Dooley caught up for a few minutes before and after the pitch, and Dooley also conversed with Cubs manager Joe Madden, congratulating Madden on joining the championship club. After the ceremony, Dooley was taken to a suite to spend a minutes with Cubs legend Billy Williams, who was inducted into the Mobile (Ala.) Sports Hall of Fame the same year as Dooley.
Oh, and the actual pitch? It was over the plate, even if it bounced a couple feet before it. Dooley did throw from the mound.
“Everybody has excuses: I never had a chance to warm up,” Dooley said afterwards, smiling. “Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have bounced it in there. But it went over the plate!”
Scott Stricklin, Georgia’s head baseball coach, was also at the game. (He coached two Brewers players at Kent State.) And Stricklin said beforehand that Dooley had a built-in excuse.
“I’ve thrown out one first pitch in my life, and it was a Little League game. I was terrified,” Stricklin said.
Asked if he was nervous, Dooley said “a little bit.” It had been awhile since he was between the lines, doing something competitive in front of a huge crowd.
This was harder though, Dooley said, than coaching.
"I used to always just put people out there," Dooley said. "Herschel, go give him the ball. Not me get the ball!"
After the ceremony, Dooley was escorted up the bleachers, and as he walked up, numerous Georgia fans clapped and shouted out his name, and “UGA! UGA!”
Dooley was asked: With all these Georgia fans, if that many of them make it inside Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night, will it help the Bulldogs win the game?
He paused and thought a moment.
“Everybody that can get in is going to get in. There’s going to be a heck of a lof them outside too,” Dooley said. “But yeah, they’re everywhere.”
About the Author
