I was flying from Boston to Nashville for a TV edit at Filmhouse, the company that produced the TV spots for Magic 106.7 in Boston. Want a direct flight from Boston to Nashville? Fuggedaboutit. You’re stopping in Chicago whether you want to or not. No problem. This gave me an excuse to catch a game at US Cellular Field on the South Side without having to pay for the trip.
Flew the Friendly Skies into O’Hare and took the CTA Blue and Red lines. On the Red Line train there was a copy of yesterday’s Chicago Tribune “RedEye” edition. In the sports section they said that Monday was half-price night at the White Sox game. The Tribune wondered which would be a bigger draw…half-price night at Comiskey or double-price night at Wrigley? The White Sox definitely get the short end of the respect stick.
It was the last of the new ballparks built before the retro thing was started by the Orioles with Camden Yards and it lacks atmosphere and panache of the nicer new ones. Still, it’s pretty good. Ballparks always are. When the new ballpark opened in 1991 it was originally named Comiskey Park – same as the old one. With a naming rights deal it became US Cellular Field in 2003, but people kept calling it Comiskey anyway. In 2017 the naming rights changed and it is now known as Guaranteed Rate Field.
I got off at “Sox-33” station and got a ticket for the White Sox–Yankees game. I had my rolling suitcase with me (remember, this was just a stopover) as I approached the ticket window. I asked for one seat – the best they had – and I got one in Section 555, top deck by the left field foul pole. Because of the suitcase they probably thought I was a Yankee fan. There were definitely seats in the lower deck and the bleachers.
Like all newer ballparks, US Cellular has comfortable seats with legroom and cup holders. Lots of concession stands – some named after former players like Robin Ventura and Carlton Fisk (Fisk has his number retired in two different ballparks: #27 at Fenway and #72 in Chicago). Wide aisles, plenty of escalators and big ramps that can handle more people than usually go there. The field looks great. I had a Best’s Kosher Dog (very good) and a Sharp’s. They didn’t have Old Style like they do at Wrigley.
The scoreboard is very good. They claim it’s the best in the majors, but I have to give the award to Fenway for the best old one and either Cleveland or Houston for the best new one. When a White Sox hitter goes deep the pinwheels in the scoreboard light up and spin, just like at Old Comiskey. Or so I’ve heard. They might even be the same pinwheels. But it didn’t happen that night. The only home run was a Jason Giambi grand slam. Playing 3rd for the Bombers was Aaron Boone, who I’d also seen playing 3rd for the Reds and the Indians. This was the year he knocked the Red Sox out of he World Series with an 11th inning homer off Tim Wakefield. Boone is now manager of the Yankees.
It was a good game if you were a Yankee fan – which I am not. New York shut out Chicago 7-0. That eliminated from the AL Central race and the Yankees clinched their 6th straight AL East title. But the Yankees lost the World Series in 6 games to the Florida Marlins thanks to the likes of Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, who did the same thing for Boston in 2007.
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