Game #57- Chicago Whitesox

Chicago Whitesox vs. Seattle Mariners U.S. Cellular Field August 25, 2012 I’m in Chicago for the 30th annual Chicago Lifetime triathlon. I planned the trip around the race over 8 months ago which included two baseball games. At the time I was in great athletic shape gearing up for a couple of races at the beginning of the year. About 3 weeks after I signed up and purchased the ball game tickets I tore my ACL, meniscus and cartilage in my right knee. Now that I am six months post surgery I am attempting my first race in a year and am pretty excited, but am a little scared of the heat and humidity. We will see how it goes, I am getting up at 4am tomorrow. That being said, why not go to a game the night before to relax the nerves… US Cellular field is apparently in a bad neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. I really couldn’t tell because I only went from the Red Line to the stadium. As I was walking around the ball park I found the site of the old Comiskey Park home plate. It is pretty cool, has the dates of the stadium and you can tell there was a perfect view of downtown. The new field is only about 100 yards away but is facing away from the city which is a little disappointing. You can still get great panoramic views but only on the outskirts of the escalator/elevator shafts. The building is still fairly new, it is a nice looking ballpark, but nothing too exciting to see. I was on the upper level and couldn’t get down to the ground floor so there might be more down there. I did like walking around the concession stand area because they have murals with pictures dating back to the early teens. That is what disappointed me a little bit, I wanted to see player uniforms and bats, signed balls and helmets, not just murals. Also what about the 2005 championship year? I only saw five blown up pictures and the only reason I found them is because I decided to take the ramp up to the top section of the stadium versus the escalators. Oh well. The game seemed like it was going to be a blow out by the Mariners. The first half inning took nearly an hour, pitcher Jose Quintana threw 60 pitches and quickly went down 3-0 after Kyle Seager’s 3 run homer. But the Chi Sox slowly crept back in the game (I think because manager Robin Ventura and catcher AJ Pierzynski blew up on the ump and were ejected) with great plays on third by Kevin Youklis (Yoooooook!!!) and some good batting by the middle of the line up. The game was at a stand still until the 6th when the Sox took the lead and never relinquished it back. I didn’t stay for the entire game because of my race the next morning and the fact that I was sweating so much I didn’t want to be completely dehydrated the next day. Overall, it was a decent experience. Sox won 5-4, but I think it would have been a lot cooler if Commisky was still there.

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