by /u/Jeffs252

I’m a White Sox fan in a family of Cubs fans. My dad and I used to go to games growing up. It was our thing. White Sox baseball and collecting baseball cards. I remember numerous times being pulled out of school around 2 p.m., sometimes earlier (don’t tell mom), and we’d go down, stop off and grab a pizza before heading to Comiskey to watch batting prac

A couple of games I remember, albeit vaguely. One was the turn ahead the clock game against the Indians back in ’99 — I thought the idea of “future jerseys” was so cool. One of the interleague series against the Cards during the McGwire years. Tony LaRussa was in LF playing catch with Mike Matheny and my dad asked him how Mac was doing. He stopped what he was doing, came over to the warning track and talked to my dad for a good two to three minutes about how Mark was going to have to spend some time on the DL. We were bummed out, but mostly I was in awe that my dad was talking to Tony Freakin’ LaRussa. We also had brief interactions with Randy Johnson: Down the LF line during BP, he was warming up and a ball came right in front of where we were. Unit grabbed the ball and my dad goes, “Hey, good luck tonight … can my son get that?” Johnson smirked and threw it back into the infield. Cue, “Way to be a jagoff to the kid,” from my dad.

The times at the park didn’t stop with my dad. Once I was old enough (high school age), my friends and I started taking the train down. I have a box full of balls I’ve caught during BP. I do have a confession though: Torii Hunter was my favorite non-White Sox player for most of his time in Minnesota. I’ll never forget catching a ball he threw up into the stand

I can’t forget to mention the Blackout game. The energy from pitch one all the way till the final out was incredible. The Thomie Homie, Jr. diving catch and the peg at home plate … freaking amazing game. The days of good Johnny Dank

It’s tough times being a White Sox fan nowadays, which is probably why a lot of our “fans” have jumped ship to the Northside. It’s easy to love a winner, but it takes pride in your team to stick with ’em when your team pulls a Ventura for the past decade. A lot of us are overly critical, but that’s what happens when you see your team doing the same things night in and night out with little to no progress. To quote the late, great Owen Hart: “Enough is enough and it’s time for a change!”

We just want a glimmer of hope for the future. We have the building blocks in Sale, Q, Anderson and Eaton. We just need to not piss away their best years.