Our first Sox game of the season was a bit of a disappointment. It was a chilly 46 degrees for most of the 11 innings that it took to loose to the Twins and the Sox had 2 errors and almost non existent bats. There were two highlights of the night, one coming from each side of the fan base.
The seats behind us always seem to have a different group of people in them so I assume either they do not belong to season ticket holders or some company owns them and gives them out to employees. I will have to the next group how they got them just to satisfy my curiosity. Tonight’s fans in the four seats behind us were transplanted Minnesota residents who now live in Chicago but are still Twins fans. They were decked out in full Twins gear and were enjoying their Miller beer products. The more they drank the funnier their comments got (at least the two guys in the group). The men were obviously true fans of the game and tailored their comments to specific players and player situations on both teams. The girls just started swearing at Chicago fans who did not find the humor in their comments. It got to the point where one of the men had to tell them to shut up or suffer the physical wrath of nearby drunk Chicago fans.
At one of the cross-town (Sox –Cubs) games last year, a woman from New York was sitting in the seats behind us and she commented that she really enjoyed the creative comments/taunts that the White Sox fans produce (my son included that night). She said that at Shea stadium the fans just swear and hurl insults. Funny that it was the Twins fans that were excelling in that area tonight.
The other highlight was when Jim Thome came in as DH for the Twins late in the game. The Sox had shown a tribute montage on the center field scoreboard in the 4th inning as kind of a welcome home for Jim. The fans, me included, gave Jim a standing ovation as he approached the plate to try and break the tie score for the Twins. Jim responded by taking off and tipping his helmet back to the fans and to our satisfaction Jim ended up striking out. So we were able to show our appreciation and not have him hit a homer to beat us.
Despite the White Sox slow start, I am looking forward to a good season this year. Come on Ozzie ball!!