Have I mentioned that I love baseball. I do. With so much of my being I love baseball. I have never played on a team besides T-ball as a tike and yet my first job was a little league umpire for the Country Club Hills park district at age 15. My dad raised us all to be Chicago White Sox fans and yet my very first game was at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs. At the time my parents didn't have two nickels to rub together, my dad worked at the Chicago Tribune and was tossed free tickets, it must have broke his heart. I still have the most vivid recollection of walking through the turnstiles. I also remember being excited to wear my baseball hat to a real baseball game, that is until Dad told me to leave it in the van so we didn't get beat up, you see it was a White Sox hat. Thinking back I guess he was teaching me a healthy respect for the game. Later we would get tickets through the school's "Book It" program and began to frequent Old Comiskey and its wooden green seats. We said goodbye when they tore it down and brought in the new park the next year. Then the strike hit in 1994 when the White Sox were white hot. Like so many fans the following years just didn't feel the same. It wasn't until the turn of the century when the Yankees and the Mets played the subway series in the Fall Classic that I really came to understand the game. I was 21 and living in Florida at the time with people from all over the country, lots of New Yorkers. The passion and tension surrounded me to the point of no escape. After that baseball in adulthood had a new meaning. I used to live less than 5 miles from Sox Park (or Comiskey, or US Cellular, or Church for that matter). This year will be the first full season I live closer to the "Friendly Confines" but I try not to pass up a ticket when it comes my way no matter where I live. Games are on rarely on antenna television so I find myself listening to most games but I love baseball and this town does it right. When explaining Chicago ball to my friend Nick he replied "Its like religion there". I couldn't have said it better myself. He got a little taste a few years ago when the Rockies made it to the World Series. Not long ago I sent an essay to Mellisa Isaacson's blog: Hey Missy at the Chicago Tribune about my experience when the White Sox won the World Series. She wrote me back with such enthusiasm that I decided to make an audio short of the essay. I posted a link below I hope you enjoy it.
