How did you become a White Sox fan?

[Dan Pasqua]

I was born and raised a Cubs fan by my dad.  We lived in rural central Illinois.  There were 3 tv stations back then.  I was a radio listener only.  I used to go with my Dad every year on a State Farm bus trip to see the Cubs.  We got the program, kept the box score, had the hot dog and malt.  Cubs fans were boring.  The young kids used to chant we want a hit and that was silly in my eyes, a hit?  And lucky they were to get those.  Then around age 9 I fell in love with Harry Caray & Jimmy Piersall and listening to their call on the radio.  They made the game seem like a fight, all the batteries thrown from Comiskey outfield and beer dumped on those Tigers & NYY players.  That was more my style, the AL was much more rugged.  For that matter I didn't even know what the uniforms really looked like nor the players faces   This week in baseball would occasionally show them on one of those 3 channels.  Every game I listened to and all the pregame and post game as well.  I became hooked.  And now at 54 I'm still addicted to this team.  I'm a different fan now.  It's not the end of the world anymore but I'm still frustrated as can be when we play like this and lose.  But no matter what I will never stop being a White Sox fan.

[wegner]

5 minutes ago, Dan Pasqua said:

I was born and raised a Cubs fan by my dad.  We lived in rural central Illinois.  There were 3 tv stations back then.  I was a radio listener only.  I used to go with my Dad every year on a State Farm bus trip to see the Cubs.  We got the program, kept the box score, had the hot dog and malt.  Cubs fans were boring.  The young kids used to chant we want a hit and that was silly in my eyes, a hit?  And lucky they were to get those.  Then around age 9 I fell in love with Harry Caray & Jimmy Piersall and listening to their call on the radio.  They made the game seem like a fight, all the batteries thrown from Comiskey outfield and beer dumped on those Tigers & NYY players.  That was more my style, the AL was much more rugged.  For that matter I didn't even know what the uniforms really looked like nor the players faces   This week in baseball would occasionally show them on one of those 3 channels.  Every game I listened to and all the pregame and post game as well.  I became hooked.  And now at 54 I'm still addicted to this team.  I'm a different fan now.  It's not the end of the world anymore but I'm still frustrated as can be when we play like this and lose.  But no matter what I will never stop being a White Sox fan.

Harry and Jimmy were the best. I miss Channel 44.

[SoxAce]

This question has been asked alot over the years on this board. So instead of my long answer, I'll just sum it up in two words.

 

Frank. Thomas.

[MEANS]

Frank. Thomas.

[Lip Man 1]

Came from a White Sox family. It was passed down. (And to be clear despite the incompetence and dysfunction I don't regret that)

[zisk]

9 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Came from a White Sox family. It was passed down. (And to be clear despite the incompetence and dysfunction I don't regret that)

birth

[reiks12]

Im a contrarian from the north shore and hated how Cubs fans talked down on Sox fans calling them poor and low income losers. I watched both the Cubs and Sox until Harry died. 

[joejoesox]

ask myself this on a daily basis

[Quin]

My dad. 

Despite growing up in a Cubs family, his first game was a Sox game and he got to meet players. Since he was a short, left handed second baseman in little league, his hero was Nellie Fox.

And then my earliest memory is a Frank Thomas home run when I was 2 years old (which means it was during the '94 campaign).

Bonus: My mom grew up a Cubs fan, but switched when she married my dad. She and I will never root for the Cubs because they didn't win while my grandfather was alive. That was the only way we would have rooted for them.

[dohnut]

Started following MLB at 8 years old - in ‘83. Fisk, Baines, The Bull, roof shots, and Winnin’ Ugly.

Waited in line for 2 hours to get Kittle’s autograph at Service Merchandise, and that was it ?.

So, the Sox caught at least one kid at just the right time. One more year and I’d probably be a Cubs fan.

[4uckOffCommieScum]

Unfortunately I was born this way. I was young enough in 1983 to be fooled into thinking the Sox being good was the natural order of things. I was jaded by age seven but haven’t been able to shake the sad condition ever since

[4uckOffCommieScum]

My dad used to split a season ticket package with a guy who owned a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. Every opening day we’d go meet him at his factory to pick up tickets and every weekend series for the Sox, dad would drive us into chicago from Indiana, from ever since I can remember up until Comiskey was closed. We had seats right in front of Nancy in the upper deck along the third base side not far from the plate. They were actually great seats with a great view. There was a vendor in that section that always asked trivia questions and handed out a  baseball card related to the question as a prize. Every game I said hi to Nancy who I had a major crush on even though she was probably like 48. Best times ever I only regret Comiskey closed before I was an adult. No baseball stadium experience has ever come close to old comiskey imo

[Y2HH]

I was born in Bridgeport.

[4uckOffCommieScum]

Upon further review, I guess Nancy would have been closer to 38 than 48. Sorry Nancy!

[Melton1972]

My Dad was a Sox fan although everyone else I knew growing up in NW Indiana were Cubs fans. Played catch with the guys down the street and argue which team was better. They could watch their team on crystal clear channel 9 while I watched the Sox on fuzzy uhf channel 44. When my Dad took me to my first game in 1971 I half expected to see the team playing in a fuzzy haze.

[coldwatersox]

The Detroit Tigers was my favorite team until they dumped their best players around 2015 except for Victor Martinez and Miggy.  Purging the roster was an insult to the fan base. After the death of Mike Ilitch his son, Chris, controls the purse strings and he is tight fisted.  Payroll dove from top 3 in MLB and attendance sunk from near 3 million annually to average of 1.4 million. The Tigers have morphed into a small market team. Searching for another team to follow I discovered the White Sox in 2018. The team was fun and entertaining to watch in 2019 and 2020. Sinnce midyear 2021 the White Sox have been as enjoyable as a daily root canal. Ownership will not change until Reinsdorf dies because only then will the tax basis of the value of the asset (franchise) step up to its then fair market value. To sell before Reinsdorf dies would result in a significant tax liability for his survivors. It seems that the White Sox have a mediocre roster which has been poorly constructed. The expectations for greatness are unrealistic. MLB is full of stories of underachievement similar to the actual on the field performance shown by Eloy, Yoan, and Luis, all three of whom have been grossly overpaid up front based upon expectation only rather than proven performance. Eloy and Luis are similar to Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler. Moncada has shpwn that he is above average fielding but mediocre at the plate. There is much more that could be written about other players and the front office, but the bottom line is that the White Sox today and likely tomorrow is a team mired in mediocrity. 

[ScootsMcGoots]

15 minutes ago, coldwatersox said:

The Detroit Tigers was my favorite team until they dumped their best players around 2015 except for Victor Martinez and Miggy.  Purging the roster was an insult to the fan base. After the death of Mike Ilitch his son, Chris, controls the purse strings and he is tight fisted.  Payroll dove from top 3 in MLB and attendance sunk from near 3 million annually to average of 1.4 million. The Tigers have morphed into a small market team. Searching for another team to follow I discovered the White Sox in 2018. The team was fun and entertaining to watch in 2019 and 2020. Sinnce midyear 2021 the White Sox have been as enjoyable as a daily root canal. Ownership will not change until Reinsdorf dies because only then will the tax basis of the value of the asset (franchise) step up to its then fair market value. To sell before Reinsdorf dies would result in a significant tax liability for his survivors. It seems that the White Sox have a mediocre roster which has been poorly constructed. The expectations for greatness are unrealistic. MLB is full of stories of underachievement similar to the actual on the field performance shown by Eloy, Yoan, and Luis, all three of whom have been grossly overpaid up front based upon expectation only rather than proven performance. Eloy and Luis are similar to Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler. Moncada has shpwn that he is above average fielding but mediocre at the plate. There is much more that could be written about other players and the front office, but the bottom line is that the White Sox today and likely tomorrow is a team mired in mediocrity. 

Guess it's time to pick another team?

[ScootsMcGoots]

04. I was ten years old. Witnessed big Frank hit a bomb on tv into the night sky, with Hawk's iconic you can put it on the board, and fireworks exploding everywhere. I was hooked instantly. I remember lying in bed in 05, in the middle of summer praying for the Sox to win the world series lolol. They won it. I became cemented as a fan. And I've been duped ever since. I'm lucky that I'm young and have a shot at seeing a new regime with this team. I feel bad for some of you older guys that might not see this team under a different ownership group.

[The Mighty Mite]

I was born 1946 at the old St. Luke’s hospital at 14th and Michigan and lived at 18th and Wabash  among many Greek and Italian immigrants. We lived there until I was 5 years old and then moved to Lake View 3 blocks from Wrigley Field and then to Rogers Park in 1954. My mother’s family were all Sox fans including my favorite uncle who really was the driving force in me becoming a die hard Sox fan. He didn’t take me to my first Sox as that was with the Cub Scouts in 1955 but took me to so many other Sox games including the second game of the 1959 World Series. He worked for the Sun Times and had all kinds of connections and was always coming up with tickets to everything, even came up with 2 tickets to see The Beatles at the International Amphitheater on Sept 5, 1964 on their first US tour. I took my high school sweetheart to see the concert, she thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread for taking her to see The Beatles. My father was not that much of a baseball fan as he was into boxing and also liked to make frequent trips to the various horse racing tracks in the Chicago area, he went to one baseball game in 1962 with my mother who loved the Sox and my sister who became a Cub fan.

Edited June 12, 2023 by The Mighty Mite

[Vote4Pedro]

My dad was a Cubs fan. Rebelled when I was young. Despite his best efforts to try to swing me to the North Side, unfortunately for him the Sox had Frank Thomas and the rest was history. 

[GreenSox]

Born at U of Chicago Hospital,  moved shortly thereafter,  but we had this Sox pennant in our bedroom when I was a little kid, so they sort of became my team.  But then I got a radio for my 9th birthday in the summer of '67, and low and behold, the Sox were broadcast into a south Louisiana town (complements of "Friendly Bob Adams"). I was hooked.
Later that winter, when I heard that Tommy Agee had been traded. I was devastated. I had opinions on Sox trades even at the age of 9!

[The Mighty Mite]

8 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Born at U of Chicago Hospital,  moved shortly thereafter,  but we had this Sox pennant in our bedroom when I was a little kid, so they sort of became my team.  But then I got a radio for my 9th birthday in the summer of '67, and low and behold, the Sox were broadcast into a south Louisiana town (complements of "Friendly Bob Adams"). I was hooked.
Later that winter, when I heard that Tommy Agee had been traded. I was devastated. I had opinions on Sox trades even at the age of 9!

You should have seen the backlash when the Sox traded Minnie Minoso in 1958, 2 of my best friends immediately became Cub fans but not me, Minnie was a favorite of mine but we still had Nellie, Looie and Billy and the Sox were already in my DNA.

[Lip Man 1]

14 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Born at U of Chicago Hospital,  moved shortly thereafter,  but we had this Sox pennant in our bedroom when I was a little kid, so they sort of became my team.  But then I got a radio for my 9th birthday in the summer of '67, and low and behold, the Sox were broadcast into a south Louisiana town (complements of "Friendly Bob Adams"). I was hooked.
Later that winter, when I heard that Tommy Agee had been traded. I was devastated. I had opinions on Sox trades even at the age of 9!

Where did you grow up in Louisiana? Worked in Monroe from 1981-1992.

Back in the day the Sox had one of the largest radio networks in all of MLB reaching out through the Midwest and into the South in towns like Jackson, Mississippi and Sarasota, Florida. 

[The Kids Can Play]

My Dad was always a huge Sox fan. I remember the many stories from the great 1959 team. He loved that one-two punch of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox. I heard tons of stories of that team, especially when Mayor Daly had the sirens going off when the Sox clinched the AL pennant. He also talked a lot about how the Sox got screwed playing the Dodgers in a stupid football stadium in the 1959 World Series.

I began liking them with the 1977 Go Go Sox team. However the year I became a permanent die-hard fan was in 1983 with the "Winning Ugly" team. Of course by the 90's, when Frank Thomas came along, he took my Sox team to a new level for my fandom...as my favorite sports team in Chicago. 

It's truly shameful as die-hard Sox fans, we have to keep experiencing this much frustration, all because of being stuck with the worst owner and front office combo in all pro sports. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by The Kids Can Play

[GreenSox]

2 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Where did you grow up in Louisiana? Worked in Monroe from 1981-1992.

Back in the day the Sox had one of the largest radio networks in all of MLB reaching out through the Midwest and into the South in towns like Jackson, Mississippi and Sarasota, Florida. 

Lafayette. The Sox were on a small station that we never listened to in the car, so I didn't knew existed until I got my radio.  Most of my friends were Astros or Cardinals fans (Cardinals were the "southern team" for the WWII generation).  I think they were broadcast through 1970, so i never got to hear the fresh-air of the Roland Hemond quick rebuild.
Sox have a roster that could really use a shakeup like Hemond did after the 1970 season.