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How did you get into the Sox?


matt

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For me, it was simple I suppose. My dad was a northsider who moved to the southside when he got married. He always pushed the Cubs on me (whenever possible) when I was little. I couldn't stand watching them at all. My brothers, on the other hand, were all die hard sox fans so I started watching games with them to get away from the Cubs and they taught me more about baseball (as they are much older than me), so, quickly I became a sox fan. Since then, I don't think I've missed many games. lol.

 

Yeah, boring, but I'm glad it happened! So what's your story?

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I wrote this blog post around '05 postseason time and revised it a little since:

 

Why Sox?

 

Because the American League is in my blood.

 

My father was born Detroit, reared in Fort Wayne, Indiana a Tiger fan. A brief sojourn in Kansas City from where my mother hails was when I made acquaintance with the Royals and one of my favorite players to this day, George Brett. But the antiseptic modernity of Royals Stadium and the team's nacent history was unsettling, even in my kindergarten mind. When we moved back to Chicago in the summer of 1983, the Winning Ugly Sox were the perfect homecoming. Getting out of the car after that long trip through Iowa's vast nothingness, a housewarming gift from dad was waiting on the back of my door--a heather gray t-shirt with repeated lines of "White Sox" and a mesh-back home cap. I put them on at my own press conference in that bare bedroom, picked up at the trading deadline from Kansas City. Save about a season's worth of adolescent indiscretion, I've been a White Sox fan for life.

 

I grew up in Chicagoland and much of my coming of age in the 80s was spent without cable TV, which meant a great many Sox games weren't viewable to me. The few that made it to WFLD were often past bedtime. But the Cubs were on WGN, usually after school. I watched dozens of Cub games, not because I was a fan of theirs, but because I simply couldn't get enough of the game.

 

In Little League, second base was what I aspired to. Not enough power for the corner infield positions, not enough range for shortstop, sick and tired of picking dandelions in right field. When I chased down Jimmy Goodwin's flare into shallow right for the winning out of the season opener at Dryden Park in 1986, I wasn't pretending to be Tim Huelett--I was channeling Ryne Sandberg, because he was the best there was. There was no rivalry, only a bat and a ball, our neighborhood festooned in Cubby blue but for the Sox bastion of South Sixth.

 

Watching the Cubs at Wrigley a couple of times a season wasn't the same as the exploding scoreboard under the lights and Nancy Faust's flights of fancy. I suppose it was because my parents didn't take months-old me with them to Wrigley. That was the summer of the South Side Hitmen, 1977, and the story goes that I awoke to a Harold Baines walk-off at my first game. The Cub caps and t-shirts given lovingly by my paternal relatives don't have the same gravity as that first Sox cap and tee, or that navy cotton zip-up jacket with "WHITE SOX" on the back that I wore between first and second grade, the one that grew covered with assorted patches over the years.

 

Then again, that's most likely because Ribbie and Roobarb stomped my Cubs cap into a puddle of tobacco juice when I made the mistake of wearing it to a game on the South Side. I was only six, but should have known better to take a backpack of goodies from mom to the game, within which the wrong cap was inside. They smelled the granola bars and it was all over.

 

She knew what she was doing after all.

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I grew up in Springfield, IL where everyone was either a Cubs or Cardinals fan. I wanted to be different so I followed the Whitesox.

 

My love grew strongest the summer of '91 when my sisters and I were staying with my dad and his girlfriend at her house on the Ohio river in the middle of nowhere. We didn't have cable so everyday I would wake up anxious to read the sports page and see how Big Frank and Ventura were doing. I missed watching games so much I created the American League West teams in the nintendo game Baseball Stars and play as the Sox.

 

In '92 or '93 (can't remember) I became obsessed with Jason Bere because he was just plain nasty on the mound. In '94 I lived in Seattle and would go to card shows and buy up as many Bere cards as I could. I've since used them to start the fire ;)

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I fell in love with the White Sox back in 1976 when I was on vacation with my parents in Sarasota, Florida and my dad & I went to watch the Sox spring training. I got the autographs of half the players on the team that year including Rich Gossage, Bucky Dent, Brain Downing Claude Oosteen, Wilbur Wood and others. Also got autographs of legends such as Minnie Minoso and Paul Richards. So my screen name is named in honor of the 1976 Chicago White Sox.

 

When I arrived in Sarasota that year I was a big Detroit Tiger fan as I lived 75 miles from Detroit and I left Sarasota as a White Sox fan for life. So that memorable spring of 1976 started a love affair, 31 years and counting and a World Championship included!!

 

Love the Sox!! :gosox1: :gosox3: :gosox1: :gosox3: :gosox2:

Edited by whitesox1976
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My mom worked for the Sox for many years and my dad was a Mets/Sox fans growing up, so I have taken a liking to both teams. But since I live in Chicago, I am a die-hard White Sox fan and a semi-Met fan. I am as die-hard as it comes which many of you guys are as well, and in my opinion I would rather get uber-emotional about them than caring normal amounts.

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QUOTE(Jimbo @ Jan 13, 2007 -> 06:03 PM)
Never a chance to change, born a sox fan, die a sox fan.

Ditto on that! But I'll add to it. Never a chance to change, NEVER WANTED or DESIRED for a chance to change! Dad....die hard Sox fan. 4 older brothers....all die hard Sox fans.

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When I was two, my father started taking me to White Sox games. He was a die-hard fan. In 1980, when I was 3, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He continued taking me to games when he could, although it was difficult with his chemo. But he managed to get me out there a bunch of times until May of 1981, when he passed away. As I was only 4 when he died, I didn't, and still don't remember much about him. What I do remember about him is his love for the White Sox and those times we spent together behind those annoying gold metal bars in the box seats at Old Comiskey Park. The guy was always thrifty with his money ( he was a university professor), but he never allowed that to get in the way of good seats at the ballpark with me.

 

So I vowed to take that part of him with me for the rest of my life. And I have.

 

I am a die-hard White Sox fan.

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QUOTE(iamshack @ Jan 13, 2007 -> 11:39 PM)
When I was two, my father started taking me to White Sox games. He was a die-hard fan. In 1980, when I was 3, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He continued taking me to games when he could, although it was difficult with his chemo. But he managed to get me out there a bunch of times until May of 1981, when he passed away. As I was only 4 when he died, I didn't, and still don't remember much about him. What I do remember about him is his love for the White Sox and those times we spent together behind those annoying gold metal bars in the box seats at Old Comiskey Park. The guy was always thrifty with his money ( he was a university professor), but he never allowed that to get in the way of good seats at the ballpark with me.

 

So I vowed to take that part of him with me for the rest of my life. And I have.

 

I am a die-hard White Sox fan.

 

Thank you for that. I found that to be quite touching.

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I was about four years old and I was watching the Cubs at my greatgrandmothers house and I was cheering for them.And I remember my ggmther telling me"this family is a whitesox fan and I better never see you cheering for the Cubs again".Mind you this is the sweetest lady i have ever met and she said that in a very serious demanding way.Sox fan since that day.R.I.P. greatgrandmother Preski who died the summer of 04' year before we one the big one.

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