US Cellular Field, Home of the Chicago White Sox

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Day 75

Happy Father's Day to all the great fathers out there! Today we begin our big push of 4 games in 4 days and then have a week or more off to visit with family in Minnesota. We left our host's house by 10 to catch the brown line and then the red line to US Cellular Field. US Cellular is across the freeway from where the old Comiskey Park once stood. The last section of the subway actually is in between the lanes of traffic on the Dan Ryan Expressway. This seems like a really good idea. 

 It stopped right outside the ballpark. We joined a big Father's Day crowd at the fan fest. They were giving away ice cream and I simply had to try both flavors! While we were waiting in line, I turned around and saw a couple wearing lanyard nametags indicating they were on a Jay baseball tour. I started talking to them and learned they were from LA but were here on a week long baseball journey with the tour group starting at US Cellular, going to Minnesota, Milwaukee and back to Chicago to finish their tour at Wrigley Field. We told them about our journey, gave them information on our blog and Unbound and talked for awhile. They were amazed at our trip.
 We saw nearly as many Blackhawk shirts as White Sox shirts in the crowd. It is understandable to celebrate victory, sometimes it is years and years until another one, or in the Mariner's case the first one. There is a fabulous 2005 Chicago White Sox World Series Sculpture right outside at Champions plaza. Note the White Sox fans waited a long time for this. 

 There were a couple of things at this ball park that we had never seen before. One is a working outdoor shower that is sponsored by the plumbing council of Chicago and is a replica of the one installed at Comisky Park under Bill Veeck. 

 The other was the announcement that you should not leave your cat or dog in the car but bring it to the ballpark and leave it at their pet check facilities. We never saw those facilities but the internet confirmed it is true! When entering the park, you could only enter the 100 level if you had a ticket there. Now all that know us, knows that is not likely. Jack told the attendant that we wanted to go to guest services and he waved us in so we could look around and take some photos.

Billy Pierce

When a home run is hit the candy like lights light up and spin and fireworks are shot off.
It is probably a lot more impressive at night.

Another unique thing about the game today was the Chicago Blackhawk players that were there at the game with the Stanley Cup.  They brought it out for the fans to see before the first pitch.  The White Sox team got to pose with the Cup and also the grounds crew.  

Shaw carries the Stanley Cup

Notice the young #30.  Hey Dad, did you forget me?

At least he got a ball

 We watched a great game with 33,000 other fans. The fans are quite passionate here. One guy we talked to loved the White Sox but said it was a very long summer when the team isn't very good. He told us they had recently lost 8 in a row. The game went into the 11^th inning and ended with a walk-off homerun by Beckham. After the game, we hopped back on the subway back to the North side and walked around and finally found some dinner.

Walk-off Home run

We did wonder why the stadium did not take advantage of the fabulous view of Chicago except from outside