The Chicago Transit Authority got into the spirit of the 2003 All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular Field by highlighting the Mid-Summer Classic on its fare cards.
This was my card.
I worked the game in the Scoreboard but road the train home with my wife and daughters and dad, who attended the game.
Note: This is the latest in a series showcasing some of the memorabilia I have collected over the years.
Early in his term, George Bush was pictured wearing a White Sox starter jacket.
This photo appeared in the White Sox program for the “Crosstown Classic” in May of 1989.
The picture had no information other than indicating that Bush was a Sox fan.
The jacket later turned up on an auction site.
I look at this picture of one of the west walls of the park quite often.
It captures everything I love about baseball: the Sox, the park, the passion, the pride, tradition and the daytime.
Not bad for a picture I snapped on my way into the park a few years and a few phones ago.
The White Sox gave out toy Hummers prior to their game vs. the Cubs on June 28, 2003 at U.S. Cellular Field.
The giveaway was meant to give the five Hummer dealers in the Chicagoland area as they were listed on the back of the package.
The trucks turned out to be a good luck charm.
The Sox treated the toy holders and the rest of the 45,440 on hand to a 7-6 walkoff win thanks to a ninth-inning walkoff single by D’Angelo Jimenez.
With it being 41 days out from Opening Day, I thought I’d feature Tom Seaver, baseball’s most famous No. 41, and his first entry in a White Sox publication.
The Sox acquisition of Seaver came so late in the off-season that they didn’t have time to stage a photo shoot for the 1984 media guide, which explains why the future Hall of Famer is wearing a Mets cap.
Ozzie Guillen’s endorsement of Bill Daley in the Chicago Mayoral race reminded me that I have a White Sox item that involves the First Family of Windy City politics.
On Oct. 3, 2005, Mayor Richard M. Daley, a lifelong Sox fan, hosted a pep rally at Chicago’s Block 37 on the eve of the White Sox opening game of the postseason.
I was basically working as a stagehand at the event hosted by Gene Honda which featured Sox legends, dignitaries and Nancy Faust before a solid and enthusiastic lunchtime crowd.
As I was helping break down the stage, I spotted a card on Mayor Daley’s seat.
On one side it read, “MAYOR DALEY” while the other side was a business card of a Sox employee.
I thought it would be fitting to mark this event and season by getting the signature of Chicago’s most prominent fan.
The Mayor obliged and smiled when I said, “Thanks for being a Sox fan.”
My wife keeps a great scorecard and this White Sox game of Aug. 7, 1991 is no exception.
Always tidy, detailed and accurate, Mrs. @SoxNerd scores every game she works or we attend as fans.
This is a lifelong skill she perfected while taking in hundreds of games with me and while watching as I toiled for the Sox in the Scoreboard.
That was the case this Wednesday night when she was among the 41,870 on hand to watch Jack McDowell and those classic Sox of the early 1990s plaster the big bad Bronx Bombers.
Our unique method of scoring features (among other things) Xs for RBIs, a line denoting the direction of a base hit and a horizontal line denoting a pitching change.
I am proud to say this is a skill we passed along to our daughters and we will be doing the same with our Grandson.
The one “nerdish” item I’ll pass along from this one is that she scored the final hit of Ron Kittle’s career in Chicago.
