Goodbye Soxtalk

[The Sir]

I've always thought of myself as a diehard White Sox fan.

I remember, as a young kid in Chicago in the mid-90s, hiding under my covers late one night to listen to the Sox play the Tigers on a portable radio. It went into extras, I thought we had it won, and then Bobby freaking Higginson hit a three run bomb to tie it up. My mom chewed my ass when she heard my screams of horror, and I ended up not finding out that we won 17-16 until the following morning.

I remember, a few years after that, when my mother got stationed in southern Spain with the Navy. It was before the internet was really a huge thing (at least in my childhood), so I had relatives who were still stateside tape White Sox games and send them to me so I could watch. Of course, I was horribly impatient so I usually caught highlights on ESPN somewhere on base. I would faithfully watch the recordings later though. That was how I followed this team for a few years.

I remember going to Paris and crying pretty much the entire time. It was October 7th, 2000. I don't remember how I found out, but I definitely got word that the boys had been swept by the lousy Mariners in the ALDS. As a result, I moped the whole weekend, much to my parent's chagrin. Oddly, out of all the places in Europe we went while my mom was at that station, this is the only one for which I remember the date (most of the trips, I only remember that we went, not even the order or year), and it's only because of the Sox.

I remember using this new thing called Facebook to furiously message fellow Penn Staters who were in a White Sox fan club in October, 2005. I hoped we could all get together and watch the World Series. No one took me up on it and I ended up watching the games alone. I felt like a complete idiot because I took a long nap and woke up in the third inning of Game 1. Even missed part of the Penn State game which was on simultaneously. I set stringent alarms for the other games. I remember all the big plays, but honestly, I've forgotten how I reacted. I do remember that I considered it the best time of my life, up to that point.

I remember how mad I was when the Twins almost ruined our 2008 season. I saw a Twins fan in one of my class buildings one day, and for whatever reason told him I was a White Sox fan. He literally laughed in my face and walked off. I stood there dumbfounded that he would be such a prick. I wished I would have run into him again a week or so later, but no such luck. I spent several nights before the last minute salvation drowning my sorrows with some friends of mine who were Mets' fans. Their season actually ended in disaster, with no ultimate success. There was nothing fun about it- we were mostly grown men, sitting in silence, drinking, and feeling sorry for ourselves.

I do not remember when I relaxed about all this. Maybe it was when I was trying to follow the awful 2013 season on a shitty internet connection in my tent in Afghanistan (interestingly, the Sox once again help me with dates- I was flying to a new location on May 17th, because the airfield had much better wifi (WTF) and I was able to actually watch Sale dominate the Angels). Maybe it's when I attended the game to launch the rebuild. Yep. I was there when the Sox blew a 10-5 lead in Arlington. They became 23-11 and just got worse from there. I didn't stay until the end (there had been a long rain delay and my son was only a year), but I got home just in time to watch them fall apart on TV. It was devastating. I couldn't even think about baseball for a few days.

So I've been there. I've seen my entire emotional state ebb and flow with this team. I don't feel like it does that anymore, but maybe the awfulness of the last decade has just made me nonchalant.

Either way, to make my ultimate point, this is supposed to be fun. Regardless of what I thought about all these moments as they were happening, I now look back on these memories and smile. They've tied into my life in deeply meaningful ways and even helped clarify experiences that I've partially forgotten over the years.

I get that it sucks that the FO failed to achieve its goals. It takes the motivation out of watching in forty-ish days, and I certainly want JR to sell, and Hahn and KW to be fired. No objections there. But this is a game and it should be fun. It should bring joy to our lives. If it doesn't, then I say this without condescension or scorn, please do something else. Simply so that you can be happy. Play with your kids. Drive out into the countryside. Plan a vacation. Go on a date with a cute girl (or boy). Let this game enrich your lives; not darken them.

I feel like my thoughts have shifted slightly since I started writing this. So if you're still reading this, I hope I made it worth your time. If nothing else, I hope you smiled at how this team we all love tied into one kid's life as he grew up. Cheers.

[chitownsportsfan]

30 minutes ago, The Sir said:

I've always thought of myself as a diehard White Sox fan.

I remember, as a young kid in Chicago in the mid-90s, hiding under my covers late one night to listen to the Sox play the Tigers on a portable radio. It went into extras, I thought we had it won, and then Bobby freaking Higginson hit a three run bomb to tie it up. My mom chewed my ass when she heard my screams of horror, and I ended up not finding out that we won 17-16 until the following morning.

I remember, a few years after that, when my mother got stationed in southern Spain with the Navy. It was before the internet was really a huge thing (at least in my childhood), so I had relatives who were still stateside tape White Sox games and send them to me so I could watch. Of course, I was horribly impatient so I usually caught highlights on ESPN somewhere on base. I would faithfully watch the recordings later though. That was how I followed this team for a few years.

I remember going to Paris and crying pretty much the entire time. It was October 7th, 2000. I don't remember how I found out, but I definitely got word that the boys had been swept by the lousy Mariners in the ALDS. As a result, I moped the whole weekend, much to my parent's chagrin. Oddly, out of all the places in Europe we went while my mom was at that station, this is the only one for which I remember the date (most of the trips, I only remember that we went, not even the order or year), and it's only because of the Sox.

I remember using this new thing called Facebook to furiously message fellow Penn Staters who were in a White Sox fan club in October, 2005. I hoped we could all get together and watch the World Series. No one took me up on it and I ended up watching the games alone. I felt like a complete idiot because I took a long nap and woke up in the third inning of Game 1. Even missed part of the Penn State game which was on simultaneously. I set stringent alarms for the other games. I remember all the big plays, but honestly, I've forgotten how I reacted. I do remember that I considered it the best time of my life, up to that point.

I remember how mad I was when the Twins almost ruined our 2008 season. I saw a Twins fan in one of my class buildings one day, and for whatever reason told him I was a White Sox fan. He literally laughed in my face and walked off. I stood there dumbfounded that he would be such a prick. I wished I would have run into him again a week or so later, but no such luck. I spent several nights before the last minute salvation drowning my sorrows with some friends of mine who were Mets' fans. Their season actually ended in disaster, with no ultimate success. There was nothing fun about it- we were mostly grown men, sitting in silence, drinking, and feeling sorry for ourselves.

I do not remember when I relaxed about all this. Maybe it was when I was trying to follow the awful 2013 season on a shitty internet connection in my tent in Afghanistan (interestingly, the Sox once again help me with dates- I was flying to a new location on May 17th, because the airfield had much better wifi (WTF) and I was able to actually watch Sale dominate the Angels). Maybe it's when I attended the game to launch the rebuild. Yep. I was there when the Sox blew a 10-5 lead in Arlington. They became 23-11 and just got worse from there. I didn't stay until the end (there had been a long rain delay and my son was only a year), but I got home just in time to watch them fall apart on TV. It was devastating. I couldn't even think about baseball for a few days.

So I've been there. I've seen my entire emotional state ebb and flow with this team. I don't feel like it does that anymore, but maybe the awfulness of the last decade has just made me nonchalant.

Either way, to make my ultimate point, this is supposed to be fun. Regardless of what I thought about all these moments as they were happening, I now look back on these memories and smile. They've tied into my life in deeply meaningful ways and even helped clarify experiences that I've partially forgotten over the years.

I get that it sucks that the FO failed to achieve its goals. It takes the motivation out of watching in forty-ish days, and I certainly want JR to sell, and Hahn and KW to be fired. No objections there. But this is a game and it should be fun. It should bring joy to our lives. If it doesn't, then I say this without condescension or scorn, please do something else. Simply so that you can be happy. Play with your kids. Drive out into the countryside. Plan a vacation. Go on a date with a cute girl (or boy). Let this game enrich your lives; not darken them.

I feel like my thoughts have shifted slightly since I started writing this. So if you're still reading this, I hope I made it worth your time. If nothing else, I hope you smiled at how this team we all love tied into one kid's life as he grew up. Cheers.

cheers bro (or gal), my late father used to turn the the game up downstairs on WGN so my mom would accept I "went to bed" but I could keep listening if I kept the door cracked. I remember he'd come up and close the door after the game was over and sometimes I'd wake and ask if the Sox won, he'd always respond.  Big Frank with the RBI!  Robin had the clutch pick at third to keep it close!  Ray stole the base to put himself in scoring position...

in 2005 my dad I were not on speaking terms.  I was a cocky college kid that had blown 120 K of his money at private school and done nothing.  Somehow we found common ground in El Duque's magical 3 outs and everything else that post season.  Wish the old man was here to here me b**** today!  And see my business succeeding of course and hear my laughter of how dumb I was at 22.

Baseball is family and there are certain things you can say around family that always ring out.  All us hardcore fans are family, and right now we are hurting and mad.

Edited February 21, 2019 by chitownsportsfan

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, chitownsportsfan said:

cheers bro (or gal), my late father used to turn the the game up downstairs on WGN so my mom would accept I "went to bed" but I could keep listening if I kept the door cracked. I remember he'd come up and close the door after the game was over and sometimes I'd wake and ask if the Sox won, he'd always respond.  Big Frank with the RBI!  Robin had the clutch pick at third to keep it close!  Ray stole the base to put himself in scoring position...

in 2005 my dad I were not on speaking terms.  I was a cocky college kid that had blown 120 K of his money at private school and done nothing.  Somehow we found common ground in El Duque's magical 3 outs and everything else that post season.  Wish the old man was here to here me b**** today!  And see my business succeeding of course and hear my laughter of how dumb I was at 22.

Baseball is family and there are certain things you can say around family that always ring out.  All us hardcore fans are family, and right now we are hurting and mad.

Likewise, I think we all have a favorite uncle or grandparent or cousin who was probably a huge White Sox or at least baseball fan.

For me, it was my grandfather, and one of my dad's brothers...and my mom's sister's husband, Uncle Frank...who was of course from Dubuque, Iowa (you couldn't write this better in a Hollywood script) who worked for the Dubuque Packing Company, smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much Coors or Miller Lite and was a total character in the "good sense" of that word was it was applied back in the 1970's and 1980's.

My least favorite uncle, my mother's brother...just happened to be a Cubs' fan, and a fanatic at that.  He tried to convert me, but it was already too late.  I already had my 1979 Topps Claudell Washington card and the rest was history, even though my very first big league game was in that very same year, Gary Templeton's St. Louis Cardinals in Wrigley Field against the powder blue Cubbies.   Didn't take.  I was already a lifelong White Sox fan at the age of 10...all because Claudell Washington sent my self-addressed stamped envelope back with an autographed card back to me in the mail.

[The Sir]

6 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

cheers bro (or gal), my late father used to turn the the game up downstairs on WGN so my mom would accept I "went to bed" but I could keep listening if I kept the door cracked. I remember he'd come up and close the door after the game was over and sometimes I'd wake and ask if the Sox won, he'd always respond.  Big Frank with the RBI!  Robin had the clutch pick at third to keep it close!  Ray stole the base to put himself in scoring position...

in 2005 my dad I were not on speaking terms.  I was a cocky college kid that had blown 120 K of his money at private school and done nothing.  Somehow we found common ground in El Duque's magical 3 outs and everything else that post season.  Wish the old man was here to here me b**** today!  And see my business succeeding of course and hear my laughter of how dumb I was at 22.

Baseball is family and there are certain things you can say around family that always ring out.  All us hardcore fans are family, and right now we are hurting and mad.

Bro (I am also a bro, btw), that’s a really cool story of the impact this team had on your life. Thank you for sharing.

As significant as this all has been in my life, I’m not actually related to any White Sox fans. My dad grew up in upstate NY and rooted for the Yanks until the strike of ‘94, when he mellowed into something of a neutral observer of the game. Sibling rivalry made my younger brother into a Cubs fan when he realized I had already sided up with the Sox. My mother is a brilliant woman, but on this topic, she just tepidly supports whatever her boys do. And now I’m married to a Rangers fan. Remember a few years ago when we walloped then 19-3? I do. I had to temper my absolute giddiness with faux sympathy for her and her team.

Anyways, I know it stinks. Just don’t let it override everything. You’ve got bad jokes being made about suicide hotlines (ok, that might have been a one time thing), you’ve got people threatening to root for the Cubs, you’ve got people moving to Nashville, you’ve got people declaring how pissed they are after sleeping on it. Let this add to our lives in a positive way. Demand Hahn be fired to your heart’s content, but keep it in perspective. If you’re not having fun anymore, just let it go for a bit.

[BlackSox13]

Chicago White Sox. I really am sorry to see you go dude. I've always thought you are one of the more baseball intelligent posters here and enjoyed your insight. I wish you well and should you change your mind we'll be here.