There is no better way to watch a Cubs game on TV than in your own tricked-out basement. For one Cubs fan, Patrick Eriksen decided to take a small portion of Wrigley Field and bring it into his home bar in Sugar Grove, Ill. 

After two years in the making, Eriksen decided to open up Wrigley Fire Bar & Grille. 

“I had a lot of memorabilia and I was kind of putting in shelves and it was getting collected in boxes and I’m like ‘you know what, I real want to go ahead and put it in a predominant place that I can enjoy it and that other folks can enjoy it.’ So I decided that I’m going to build a bar,” Eriksen said.

With quite the collection, Eriksen has memorabilia from the Cubs and Blackhawks as well as firefighter memorabilia. Eriksen is a current firefighter in Dekalb, Ill., and he wanted to add some personal nostalgia to his bar with old firefighter masks as well as patches he’s collected. 

“My dad, uncles and cousins that have been on the fire department. I had a cousin who actually died in 9/11 in the Twin Towers when they went down. So firefighting had been a rich tradition in my family. I wanted to also incorporate that. I put that as a little bit of a homage to me as far as what I’ve been doing and to my father as to what he’s been doing,” Eriksen mentioned. 

Walking through Eriksen’s bar, there’s signed baseballs and signed photographs hanging on walls and on the shelves. One picture that stands out the most is when a younger Eriksen had the chance to meet what would be his favorite Cubs player of all time, Ryne Sandberg.

“There’s a photo that I got of him [Sandberg]. He pulled into the old Cubs parking lot and my uncle whispered in my ear ‘Go get this guy’s autograph.’ I was a relatively brand new Cubs fan at the time and my uncle said, ‘This guy is going to be big. He was just traded here from Philly.’ In the picture, you see me and I’m hanging onto the fence and I’m looking at him and he had big ol’ head of hair and nobody was around him and he signed a baseball for me,” Eriksen recalled. 

Throughout Eriksen’s entire basement, there’s memorabilia everywhere and it was important to bring a flavor of Wrigley Field into his home. 

“The one reason why I did it is because it’s the same feeling I get every single time I go to Wrigley Field. When you’re walking through that lower concourse and you climb up those stairs, and every single time it gets you. Once you start hitting it and you start seeing the top, and you start seeing the upper grandstand and then you hit there, you get that rush. It might be real quick, it might take a little while but it’s that rush. It’s that feeling you get that I’m home. And Wrigley Field is home,” Eriksen stated. “I wanted to make that ballpark come here so that everyday I have the blessing that I can come downstairs and feel like I’m at the ballpark.”

Watch more of the Pat Eriksen’s home bar on the Marquee Sports Network app.