
What better way to relive the White Sox dream season of 2005 than by sticking this bad boy to the refrigerator?
DON’T STOP BELIEVING!
What better way to relive the White Sox dream season of 2005 than by sticking this bad boy to the refrigerator?
DON’T STOP BELIEVING!
Blockbuster issued a “Limited Edition Comiskey Park Collector’s Hologram” in 1994.
The front of the card ensconced in thick plastic is a picture of the Sox new home in all of its early 1990s glory with a “hologram” on the flipside.
The text on the front reads, “On April 18, 1991, the White Sox moved into Chicago’s newest home to baseball — Comiskey Park. Built next to the site of old Comiskey, this new park features every modern convenience and technology available. The White Sox and Comiskey Park, a Blockbuster success!”
Thankfully, the Sox and their home didn’t go the way of Blockbuster!
This is a picture I took late in the 2019 season from my perch at Guaranteed Rate Field.
I miss this beautiful place.
This is the commemorative baseball the White Sox handed out to honor outing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on Aug. 3, 2011.
Daley, a Bridgeport resident and lifelong Sox fan, served as Chicago Mayor from 1989 to 2011.
This beauty shot from Game 1 of the 2005 World Series hangs by my back door.
It is the last thing I see before heading out into the world and I inevitably say as I step into the great unknown … DON’T STOP BELIEVING
This is the photo I snapped of the scoreboard at The Ballpark in Arlington when Frank Thomas was introduced as the American League’s starting first baseman at the 1995 All-Star Game.
Moments later Frank launched the first home run by a White Sox player in the All-Star Game.
This is Michael Jordan’s bio in the White Sox 1994 media guide.
The entry is almost all basketball related except for a few sentences near the end on Jordan’s youth and high school baseball career.
Jordan was on the brink of a one-season Double-A baseball career that was sandwiched around six NBA titles.
Lee Elia, who gained infamy for a 1983 tirade as Cubs manager, was a White Sox hopeful in the mid-1960s.
This is Elia’s entry from the 1967 Sox yearbook.
Elia played only 1966 with the Sox, hitting .205 with three homers in 80 games.
Elia, a shortstop, saw his career with the Sox come to an end when his contract was sold to the Cubs on May 23, 1967.
Pictured here is the coaching staff the White Sox employed during the heart of its “Go Go Era” from 1957 to 1964.
The staff was (from left) third base coach Tony Cuccinello, pitching coach Ray Berres, manager Al Lopez, Don Gutteridge and Johnny Cooney.
I got this picture thanks to my association with Berres.
Rest In Peace, Ed Farmer. You did this number, worn by so many White Sox notables, proud.
In keeping with the beard theme of my latest #SoxNerdCast, I thought I’d post a relic that featured Jack McDowell, who sported arguably the Sox best beard of the 1990s.
This Ozzie Guillen Starting Lineup action figure was perched on my desk at the last job I had that didn’t have a live game in front of it.
Ozzie kept me sane for years. He was as good of a desk companion as he was a manager.
The White Sox gave away lapel pins to commemorate the first regularly scheduled Opening Night game at Comiskey Park in 2000.
The 1995 Opener was a night game but it was rescheduled because of the strike.
The 2000 Opener, a win, was also memorable because of a Frank Thomas homer, a Paul Konerko start at third base and a tremendous runnkng catch by Ray Durham.
The White Sox gave away this Nancy Faust bobblehead when the longtime club organist retired in 2010.
It was a wonderful tribute to the greatest baseball organist ever but an even better person.
More on Nancy (link below) …
https://soxnerd.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/nancy-faust-the-first-lady-of-sports-entertainment/
I was lucky enough to work Mark Buehrle’s perfect game of July 23, 2009 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
This was the cleanest card I have ever kept in the 1,812 games I have worked at the White Sox new park.
The neat card was due in part to the game but also because I was getting more and more nervous and more and more fixated on the action as the gem progressed.
Notice I did not fill in the final square. The reason? I started to celebrate immediately!
There will be no games but we can still hear Gene Honda.
The White Sox public address announcer is immortalized with this talking bobblehead.
The bobblehead was produced in 2016 as Honda, also the arena voice of the Blackhawks, the Final Four, Illini football, DePaul and the Maui Invitational among others was honored for his work by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.
Portions of the proceeds went to Illini Media at Gene’s beloved University of Illinois.
More on Honda: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-spt-white-sox-blackhawks-gene-honda-announcer-20190521-story.html
Topps issued metal coins as well as trading cards for the 1971 season.
Josephson was one of 153 coins Topps issued.
The other Sox players who were “minted” that year were Luis Aparicio, Bill Melton, Walt Williams, Joel Horlen and Carlos May.
During All-Star festivities at Wrigley Field in 1990, I violated a big-time rule by getting two autographs.
I was a credentialed member of the working press corps and getting autographs was a major no-no.
I threw caution to the wind and asked Hall if Fame manager Al Lopez, who led the 1959 Sox to the World Series, for an autograph.
“The Senor” happily obliged and … I didn’t get busted!
14 years later it still sitting pretty.
On April 5, 2006 the White Sox gave away mini replica World Series Trophies to the first 20,000 fans who attended their game against Cleveland.
The trophy rests in my living room as a tribute to the greatest season in sports history and will forever.
When I first started working for the White Sox, I went on a stealth autograph hunting mission.
I played it cool on press level at Comiskey Park because I wasn’t quite sure how an employee getting autographs would play.
I later found out no one really cared as long as you were cool about it.
One night in 1984, I snared Hawk Harrelson and had him put his John Hancock in his 1965 Topps card.
The only thing I remember about this exchange was that I said, “That card is older than I am,”
Luckily, the “Hawkeroo” laughed.
I had no idea then that I would be getting the autograph of a Hall of Famer!