Can a Cubs fan have fun at a White Sox game?
Baseball!
When it comes to sports, at least for me, there's baseball and then there's everything else. Don't get me wrong, I love sports, all of them. I watch everything, even Golf, Tennis and Bowling, but I have a pecking order of sports. If I had to watch only one, it would be baseball and nothing else is close.
This will be a surprising admission to some but as a young child I liked the White Sox better than the Cubs. They had my favorite player, the guy in the photo of the statue, Luis Aparicio. Little Looie. The Sox were a better team than the Cubs back in those olden days. They were in the World Series in 1959 and had some very good teams in the early to mid sixties. They would have won the pennant a few more times if it wasn't for those damn Yankees.
My Cubs fandom really started when my parents allowed us to go to games by ourselves. All day games at Wrigley Field and tickets plus transportation were cheap. Two bucks plus a lunch meant I would be out of my mom's sight for the afternoon and still be home for dinner. So summers were spent on the "safe" northside of Chicago.
Going to Comiskey Park was a no-no. It was on the "bad" Southside of town. You know...home of Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Plus they played almost all their games at night so it wasn't easy to sneak off and see their games. It really was a matter of logistics that I favored the Cubs over the Sox.
After college, I went to see the White Sox on a regular basis. Those night games came in handy for people with day jobs, which is most of us. Plus you got to see the stars of the American League live...up close and in person. Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Jim Palmer, Yaz. One of the advantages of living in a two team town before inter-league play. Not to mention the 70's at old Comiskey was a lot of fun. Women, beer and baseball...Hat trick!!
So even though the Cubs were my main men, I was more then okay with the White Sox and even cheered them on during their infrequent playoff runs. But then we had a falling out. More like a breakup after a long term relationship.
It started in 1996. My family had moved back to Chicago after a long run in Southern California. One night we decided to go to a White Sox game against the Kansas City Royals. Neither team was very good but that didn't matter....it was baseball and a beautiful summer night outside. We brought fruit and bought treats and drinks. There were fireworks after the game. It was a lot of fun, even for kids who were six and four years old. We were coming back...at least we thought we were.
The next season the Sox had this ticketing idea. If you wanted to buy tickets to see the Cubs-Sox games, you had to buy tickets to three other games. Geniuses! But I was fine with that. I'm good with four games a season. Not too much of a commitment. I went down to the ballpark to buy four tickets for four games. I just had one requirement. One of the games needed to be against the Angels. It was that living in SoCal for fifteen years thing plus my daughters were born in Anaheim. They said no, no, NO! The team picked the games, no exceptions. I took my money and walked away. I know $500 isn't that much to a baseball team but if you have young children, you can always find something else to do with that amount of cash.
I left with no second thoughts....and didn't come back...for almost twenty years. Apparently I hold a grudge for a long time.
Fast forward to 2016, last season. A friend calls and asks if I want to get together. I asked what he had in mind. He said baseball. White Sox baseball. I wanted to hang out with him so I said sure...why not. It's just one night. Well guess what happened? We had a good time. It turned out it wasn't just a one night stand.
The Sox have been a mediocre team the last few years. Attendance suffers when the Sox don't play well. It means tickets are available cheap...and by cheap I mean free. I ended up going three times last year and have already been twice this season. I've seen teams I hadn't seen in a couple of decades and one I had never seen in person. Tigers, Twins, Tampa Bay and even the team that led to the boycott...the Angels. It also gives you the opportunity to see more players. Last year I saw Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout play live for the first time. Real baseball fans shouldn't miss out on that.
One more thing...I like the ballpark, especially if you're seated in the lower deck. The sight lines are great, there are no posts blocking your view, there's a wide variety of food and because the crowds are small, there's plenty of room to spread out and be comfortable. I know this will be sacrilege for a Cubs fan to say but you don't get these things at Wrigley.
Plus, you can walk around the park without being bothered. The other night we watched a couple of innings from the outfield. It was Bring Your Dog To The Park night and we hung out with dozens of pups. It wasn't nearly as annoying as I thought it was going to be. Actually it was more than a little fun.
Now after rambling on for almost 1000 words if you think I'm changing allegiances, you couldn't be more wrong. Baseball-wise I'm still all about the Cubs. When I'm watching the Sox play, it's all about the baseball. I don't have a dog in these fights. I just want a good game and I want it to move fast. There won't be any four hour games for me at Guaranteed Rate Field. Actually there won't be any three hour games either. I'm a six inning kind of guy. Two hours and done...still working up to a full nine innings.
So the answer to the question I asked about four hours ago is sure...yep...why not. Fun is where you find it, especially if it's free. If any of you have some extra White Sox tickets, let me know. I'm now your go to guy on that...at least for six innings.
While I like going to their park, I still don't like their fans..well a lot of them. What I wrote two years ago explains why.
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