Sox Games
In the past 2 days, I went to 2 Sox games. Unfortunately, the team is pretty much out of the race after getting repeatedly handled by the Twins. But I decided to go anyways, seeing as how baseball season is almost over and it will be a long winter with the Bears.
Yesterday's experience driving to "The Cell" was one of the most frustrating I have ever had. I was stuck at the exit ramp at 35th St. for literally half an hour. Then, parking people routed me all the way back to IIT where they charged me $15 anyways. Man, I can't believe I paid 15 bucks to park somewhere and walk 10 minutes to get to the stadium. It's so stupid how they complain that no fans come out to Sox games, and then they jack you with ridiculous parking fees and overly priced food.
An interesting incident was when a cop tried to scalp me a ticket on the way to the gate. I was like, "why is he looking at me funny", and then when I got closer he mumbled "hey, you need a ticket", trying to be all subtle and everything. Now, I'm used to all the ghetto people trying to scalp outside the ballpark, but not one of "Chicago's Finest".
The Sox eventually won in a pretty good game. Magglio hit a walk-off 3-run homer in the 10th inning. Also, Soriano got me 2 jacks which could prove to be quite valuable in the very tight fantasy race against P. See his blog for more details.
Having gone to quite a few games in the past few seasons, the in-game festivities are pretty routine to me now. I'll take the opportunity to outline the highlights:
- The Races. They have the airplane race and the frog race, in which I always cheer for blue. The pizza race, gotta go with Sausage. Then they have the 3 people running around the bases and making ATM transactions. I hate how they trip for no reason, can't you people even run without falling down? But anyways, I usually bet on the black lady for that one.
- Guess The Attendance. I've gotten pretty good at this by now. You can't just guess by looking around the stadium, it's imperative to also consider other factors. Such as, how bad was the traffic, how full was the parking lot (or which lot did you have to park in), and each of these in turn must be weighted in accordance with the time you arrived.
- The Hat Game. Nobody should ever get this one wrong. No matter what kinds of funky tricks they do, you should always be able to easily follow the one with the ball underneath. The only time I miss it is if I blink at a critical moment, but usually I'm willing to bear the significant dryness of my contacts in order to follow the hat. One thing that's always puzzled me is, how does the ball always stay in the hat when it's moving all over the place, and there's nothing physically holding it in there? Maybe there are magnetic forces, but I dunno.
- The Aquafina thing. Quite possibly, the dumbest and most annoying gimmick ever. All they do is move the camera around and zoom on people with Aquafina bottles, and people are supposed to get excited about it in between innings? Just for that, I'm gonna buy only Evian from now on.
- Fireworks. I think they have the extended fireworks after Saturday night games only, and those are usually some of the more quality firework shows I've seen. But even if it's just the fireworks after a home run, I like it and I think it's a good thing that adds to the Sox game experience.
- 7th Inning Stretch, sponsored by Cracker Jack. How clever, Cracker Jack sponsoring a segment when people sing a song that already advertises their product. Now, maybe I'm blind or something, but I don't think I've seen them selling Cracker Jacks at the ballpark in a long time. Not that I care, those things sucked anyways, even with the little toy inside. But yeah, maybe it's time to make an adjustment to the lyrics of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". Also, I think I heard somewhere once that the name "Cracker Jack" has certain negative racial implications and there was some controversy about it. Not sure about the details though, maybe I'll look it up sometime if I remember.
- Kiss Cam. Most of the time it's all in good fun, but what happens when they zoom in on a brother and sister? Cousins? Will and Grace? Maybe I need to get a life, but I truly wonder a lot about these kinds of things.
- The Wave. Not all that common in my experience at Comiskey, but at US Cellular, it seems to happen more. I usually don't care when the game isn't close, and it's entertaining to see how into it some people get (mostly middle-aged women and kids). But last night people were starting the Wave in the bottom of the 9th inning with the score tied. That's just retarded, people.
- Intro music. Another thing I always wonder about is whether or not the players get to choose their music. Does Paul Konerko pick all the alternative rock intros for himself, and Carl Everett pick 50 Cent all the time, or did the people upstairs just base it on stereotypes? Also, does Magglio like that stupid "OH-EE-OH... MAAA-GLIO" thing? If I were him, I'd be looking to shoot someone every time I heard it.
- Grounds crew dragging those comb things on the infield dirt. Does that even make a difference? And it's definitely not as cool as the Zamboni in hockey games.
Overall, I think the White Sox home game experience is above average. The stadium isn't as "friendly" as Wrigley, and there aren't as many hot chicks, but as long as the team is worth rooting for, I'll continue to try and make it to a few games a year. Maybe one of these years I'll even invest in some season tickets? Hmmm....
