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April 10, 2009
Sox vs. Royals – Attended Game #1 (4/9/09)
White Sox 1, Royals 2
Yesterday, I attended my first Sox game of the season. I had an early corporate job that morning that lasted until about 11:30am, but I was still able to make it over to the South Side right before the first pitch at 1:05pm. I had already had a ticket but while I was making my way over to the park, I purchased a premium lower box ticket for ten bucks! As you can see from the photo above, these were amazing seats! (Also, it’s hard to tell from the picture above, but because of the corporate gig, I was dressed up in a white button down, black pants, and dress shoes. Just like the ole days at the ball park!) Unfortunately, the game itself was far from amazing.
The Sox have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to be competitive in the AL Central Division. On the plus side, the six innings of pitching from John Danks were great. And as relief pitchers, Dotel and Thornton were also impressive. MacDougal was MacDougal. Which means he almost cost us a few runs before being saved by Thornton. The most exciting moments of the game were the Sox getting in trouble, and watching the pitching get us out of the inning.
In the 9th, closer Bobby Jenks gave up two doubles and a winning home run from ex-Red Sox, Coco Crisp. Someone around me was annoyed because as soon as Crisp swung the bat, a person in the crowd yelled, “Lucky Charms!” Baseball fans (and players) are very superstitious. So, of course, it was because someone yelled out something stupid that gave Crisp the power to crank one over the right field wall. Or, more logically, it could be because Big Bobby has a tendency to give up hits and, at times, runs in his attempts for a save. No, it was definitely that pesky leprechaun. Who knew Sir Charms was a Royals fan?
Coming into the bottom of the 9th with only three hits (and I have no idea how we even got those), the Sox actually put up a little rally. And with a fielding error on the Royals, Sox fans were given a glimmer of hope that the game might be tied up or won by Wilson Betemit. The Sox had obtained Betemit from the Yankees during the off season through the Nick Swisher trade. My only problem with Betemit was that he was pitch hitting for Brian Anderson. Anderson had only been brought into the game in the 7th, and had only once at bat. Sure, he struck out, but Anderson has been a hero in clutch time before. For some reason, Anderson is never given much of a chance. So, out goes Anderson and in comes Betemit. What happens? Betemit strikes out. Oh well, if he had hit a game winning double, I wouldn’t have anything to complain about, and Ozzie would have looked like a genius. Baseball is weird.
Though the crowd wasn’t large, it was loud during the critical moments which was nice to see. Next to me were two Cubs fan who said that they were attending the game “undercover”. Which didn’t mean that they were spying but rather not in any Cubs garb, so that they could enjoy watching the game without being harassed. When I told them I was debating wearing my Sox cap to a game at Wrigley next month, they warned me, “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
So, my first game was a bust. Still, I had amazing seats!
And, I had one of these…
Baseball taste good!