Imrem: Wrigley Field bomb threat another somber reminder

Sometimes a reminder isn't a bad thing.

What happened at Wrigley Field late Sunday afternoon can be placed in that category.

A little drizzle couldn't dampen what happened earlier, when the Cubs completed a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants.

Wrigleyville was particularly festive, as it can be when the Cubs are playing well enough to be in playoff contention.

Then something happened on the way to all us sports journalists glorifying the smokin' hot Cubs.

Security personnel entered the press box and told us we have to evacuate the ballpark immediately, as in right now.

And then it was easy to recall that the world can be a terrible place to be.

That fact is easy to forget when ISIS feels a million miles away and 9/11 a million years ago.

Turns out it was a bomb threat Sunday that thankfully, after a thorough search by law enforcement, there was no evidence found to suggest was credible.

As recently as late June, I visited the Sept. 11 memorial Museum on the World Trade Center site in New York.

I highly recommend that every American take the tour. But be prepared emotionally: It's gripping stuff.

With that in my recent memory bank, you'd think I'd be on high alert all the time for at least through the rest of the summer.

Ah, but you go to a sports event, or a lot of sports event as a sports writer does, and quickly you ignore that these are places that terrorists would love to target.

Wrigley Field? My goodness, is there a venue the bad guys would love to blow up more than this cathedral to our national pastime?

But even as fans have to have bags checked on the way in, it's a formality so routine now that you don't think twice about it.

It's a necessary evil, nothing more and nothing less, something that delays you briefly, like a red light at the intersection before you're back on your way.

But there's a reason for the precaution. There's a reason you go through metal detectors at the airport. There's a reason we endure inconveniences to avoid hardships.

And there's a reason a man in a uniform comes into the press box and tells you to evacuate the premises immediately.

So you leave the ballpark and hang out in front of the fire station across Waveland Avenue.

You perk your ears up to hear anybody who might mention what was going on. Someone says they heard there was a suicide inside. Somebody else say there was a credible bomb threat.

I went through this about a decade ago at an NCAA basketball tournament game in San Diego.

This time was the same as that time: Nobody on the street knew anything, and even if they did, they weren't about to tell you.

I walked to where other press-box evacuees were at the corner of Sheffield and Addison.

The authorities weren't revealing anything there either, nor were the bomb-sniffing dogs.

I sat on the ground, back against a light pole, attempting to finish my column on the Cubs' big victory.

After, I don't know, maybe an hour, the OK was given for the media and ballpark workers to go back inside.

At that point, nobody from the Cubs or the police provided any indication what caused the disruption of this pleasant afternoon.

I know this for sure: I'll be more vigilant at the next game I attend, and the next one, and the next one …

To be honest, though, it won't be long before I lapse back into fantasyland and need another reminder that the world can be a terrible place to be.

mimrem@dailyherald.com