My First White Sox Game

Forty years ago today my father took me to my first White Sox game. It was a couple of days before my ninth birthday, and it was an experience that would really change me. It seems weird to think about now, but I would get to watch the White Sox on a small black and white TV back then. Seeing the old Comiskey Park in person was an amazing experience. The colors were amazing. The green and gold of the box seats was amazing. Hearing the crowd cheer for Harold Baines in their way was also amazing. Of course as we have probably gone over on the blog before I met my childhood hero Carlton Fisk before the game started. He was coming out of the batting cages and crossing the concourse to head to the dugout. He signed my program, and from that day on I was a huge Carlton Fisk fan. I met Richard Dotson that day as well, but Carlton played the game the way that I wanted to. I was left handed, but I started learning at nine how to play right handed so that I could catch like Pudge. That first game was a great day that really cemented my White Sox fandom for better or for worse. Since then they have changed ballparks, and players have come and gone. The team has won a World Series and also set the record for the most games lost in a season. No matter what I have always loved my Sox though. Every year I kind of set aside August 25th as a special day. I think that I treat it with more reverence than my birthday. On that first day I got to see Fisk, Baines, Bannister, and Guillen. Since then I have been lucky enough to see Thomas, Ventura, Jackson, Buehrle, Konerko, Thome, Abreu. We have done the same chant for Jose Valentin and Jose Abreu. I was at the statute unveiling for Fisk twenty years ago. Game 163 in 2008 was something that I will never forget. All of those games though came after this first one. 1985 was the summer the I found baseball. I watched every game that I could. I counted down to 300 wins with Tom Seaver. I watched the entire game at Yankee Stadium when he got win #300. I am rambling now, but I tend to do that when it comes to baseball.

A Tradition Of Celebrating

For the last couple of decades I have made a point of taking my father to a Sox game on the 25th of August every five years or so to repay him for that first game. We would find some good seats and go and have some fun. For some reason it has worked out that on those milestone years they have been at home. The one time that it didn’t work out was in 2020 when no fans were allowed in the stadium. My father and I watched the game together over the phone though, and Lucas Giolioto made it really special by throwing a no-hitter. This day has always been a holiday for me, and this year is no different. It will be weird to walk into the stadium without dad, but it is part of keeping his memory alive. My father loved baseball. When my father passed I found something that he had written one day. I think that this excerpt of it sums up his love of baseball pretty well.

“Just thinking about how much I loved baseball. When we were young if there wasn’t any snow on the ground and there wasn’t church, school, or dinner time you could bet that there was a ballgame going on somewhere. We played some on the Washington school field but it was too small even for the real young kids. We also played quite a lot on the Sacred Heart field. It was ok, but again right field was across the street. So we usually played at the field in City Park. When we were in grade school as soon as school let out we would gather in City Park and pick sides and play ball. We almost always had enough guys to play all fields open, but sometimes we only had enough for 7 or 8 players per side. This worked out great as we all loved baseball more than anything else. Most of the guys were either White Sox or Cubs fans. Back then you were one or the other. No one was a fan of both teams. It was quite a rivalry for us kids. It also caused more than a few fights. I was and still am a huge Sox fan so I would take up the mannerisms of a Sox player. I usually played shortstop so when I was in the field I was always Luis Aparicio. If I played 2nd base I was Nellie Fox. But when I was at bat I was always Minnie Minoso. Minnie was by far my favorite player. I copied his batting stance, his slide, everything. Minnie usually led the league in getting hit by pitch so I copied that too.”