One week until baseball starts

One week from today I will be sitting at U.S. Cellular Field, next to Mike, waiting for the first pitch of the 2010 White Sox season to start, just like we have done for the previous 6 seasons since we have been together, and for Mike it’s the 10th year in his season seats. This is a day that we have waited for since baseball ended in October.


To start, Mike and I have what many would see as a very strange relationship. We have been dating for almost 6 ½ years, with pretty much no pressure or pitfalls of most normal relationships. We are just happy being us, while we think about the future we don’t have deadlines and dates set, we just live our lives, and let things progress however they do, there is no pressure. Also many of our likes/dislikes, political, religious, and life views are completely opposite each other, including things we like to do. There are three major items (Major Items) that we have in common, our love of TV and movies, baseball, and the decision to agree that most things in life we will not agree on. It really is something unique, that I don’t think that anyone outside of us gets. On that note, while we spend most of our time together, we both still have friends who are close to us that we spend vast amounts of time with that have never met each other. I have friends, whom I spend a good amount of time with, who have never met Mike, and vice versa, but that’s just because we don’t force each other on our friends or to do things that we might not be particularly comfortable, or like doing. I like to say that our lives are separate but together. It’s a rare occasion where either of us feels forced to do anything. While we don’t spend a lot of time talking to each other about our future plans during the course of a normal day, week or month, there is one place where most of our life decisions have been made. That is in Section 158 of Sox Park.

It seems like in our relationship, opening day is like a fresh start to a new year, finally getting back to our summer home. So much of what makes us, US happens when we are sitting at the ballpark. We get to talk with old friends, laugh about long time "inside jokes" and make new memories every year. This year will be different since one of the old friends has moved away, and we do hope that we get to see him at least at a game or two this year, but even if he can't make it back to Chicago, we will be thinking about him.

Sox Park has become a place of refuge, and a summer home that we look forward to all winter. Finally breaking us out of our shells and sometimes mundane day to day life, forcing us once or twice a week to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the greatest sport ever played, together.

The White Sox have had a huge impact on our individual lives as well as our relationship.

I was a Sox fan before Mike was a part of my life, my grandfather used to watch or listen to every game while I was growing up. I remember being downstairs with them, playing while the game was on in the background. Thinking back now, it seemed that the Sox games were the background noise of most memories with my Gramps. My grandmother, who is an inspiration to us all, still watches all of the games, and she yells and the players and the umps with as much passion now at 95 that she did when I was a kid.

I always enjoyed going to games, and would pay a small amount of attention to what the White Sox each day, I’d crack a smile when they’d win, but not get too upset when they lost, I paid attention their record and players before Mike, but he is what made me truly love the game, not just the team.

With Mike we have shared many highs and lows. Being a fan of a particular baseball team is not about winning the World Series every year, it’s about being happy when your team does well, being ecstatic when your team does better than even you expected. 2005 was truly a memorable year, I will forever remember the feeling I had watching each game of that playoff run, and the conversations that were had sitting in the park at game 1, Paul Konerko’s Grand slam and Pod’s walk off to end game 2, the most unexpected home run I can ever remember. I remember the announcers talking about Huston pitcher Brad Lidge giving up a walk off in his last appearance, and that the chances were slim to none of that happening again, but it did. I remember sitting with my cousins in the garage in game 3, Geoff Blum’s homer to score 2 runs in the top of the 14th inning, another unlikely at bat. I remember being with Mike at Healy’s in Forest Park watching game 4, just counting down the outs and when it happened being filled with so much relief followed by happiness. Yes 2005 was a great year, but not the only one.

2008, the Sox had come off of a dismal 2007 season with a record of under .500, still splattered with some greatness (Bobby Jenks tying the record for batters out, Buehrle’s no hitter) they were not expected to do much of anything that year, but when it came down to it a young inexperienced pitcher wound up being our savior. They were faced with winning three games in three days to get into the playoffs, the last one of which was a playoff game with our longtime rivals, the Minnesota Twins. They dubbed the game a “black out” every Sox fan in the place wore black, and it was a site to behold, and Ozzie put everything into John Danks’ hands that day, and it paid off, and we went to the playoffs. Of course Tampa Bay was having a great year that year and knocked us out in the first round, but at least we won 1 of those games. Still the Black Out game was one of the greatest games we ever experienced, and made 2008 another great and memorable year. 2009 of course as another dismal year, that had its greatness, Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, Jim Thome hitting his 600th home run, Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko getting there 300th home runs back-to-back. Through all of this, the good and the bad, it has made us a better couple. And I have to than the White Sox for their part of that.

Some say hope springs eternal. Opening day is hope, and home.

GO WHITE SOX!