Park #4

August 7, 2005: Chicago, Illinois
Park #4: Today, I rolled into a Sunday afternoon game at US Cellular field which featured the Chicago White Sox against the Seattle Mariners. Now, being an Indians fan all my life, it was all but impossible to cheer on the White Sox. I mean, this team was 71-38 I believe yesterday, which was a phenomenon more confusing than how they get the cream filing into Twinkies (I mean, how do they do that?). These White Sox, on paper, have no hitters and a bullpen of nobodies. Yet somehow they are thirty games over .500. Well, in watching Jon Garland take the mound yesterday, it all came clear. They win ball games solely on starting pitching and defense, nothing more. Garland was great, pitching nearly 8 innings and only giving up one run and five hits. But more impressive was the Sox defense. There were four plays in the field that were just amazing. Aaron Rowand sacrificed his entire body to rob Richie Sexson of what would have been a bases clearing double. It was fantastic.
Now, the Sox hitting is nothing special, the only legitimate power threat is Paul Konerko, but besides him all their players are just average. However, their pitching and defense are strong enough that average hitting will win the day. I was very impressed by the team.
The stadium, on the other hand, not so impressed. First of all, the stadium on the exterior looked like a giant army barracks, with black steel girders all around, and no view of the interior of the stadium from the outside, you couldn’t even see parts of the stands. From the inside, you had no view whatsoever of the city. Its like the stadium and the city were two separate entities of which couldn’t look upon each other. The only place in the stadium that you could see any part of the city of Chicago was when you are leaving the park. As you are leaving, there are ramps which take you from your seats to the ground level, and from these ramps you can see the Chicago skyline. But the fact that you can see nothing anywhere inside the stadium is disappointing.
US Cellular, has a giant display in center field, with the pinwheels, and the humungous TV screen, but this TV screen is not a scoreboard, it just continuously flashes pictures of the players and little bits about them. The scoreboard is located in left-center and is quite unimpressive when compared to the center field TV screen. If you ask me, it should be the other way around. The scoreboard itself should be the focus, not play second fiddle to the TV screen informing you that Juan Uribe’s dog is named Bubbles. I did enjoy the fact that as you move around the stadium’s interior, there are constant murals of old White Sox players and team highlights, which was really cool.
Also, the day I was there was Carlton Fisk day in which they unveiled a life-size statue of him and honored him by bringing him onto the field in a 1959 cadillac (I think). It was really cool, and he gave a good speech.
The food was great! First of all, Chicago knows how to make a hot dog, they are grilled up nice with the peppers and onions, oh man, it was the kind of hot dog that even Kobyashi would stop and savor. Also, I give Chicago points for having the ever-elusive spicy curly fries. You know what I’m talking about: those Cajun style French fries that are also curly, they are great. They used to have them in Cleveland, but then they got rid of them, and that made me sad. Also, I had my first Churro, have you heard of these things? As I’m walking back to seats between innings, I walk past this concession stand where there are these foot long dough thingies I’ve never seen before, and they are called Churros. I asked the girl what was in them, and they are fried dough with either fruit, chocolate, or vanilla inside. I asked her if they were any good, and I was expecting to get the disgruntled and forced “Yeah, they are good” that food vendors are supposed to say, but no, this girl’s eyes opened really big, she smiled, and she says to me “you’ve never had one, they are fantastic!” Well, I had to get one after that recommendation. It was great, its like a jelly donut stretched out into a tube, WOW! I guess things can taste better just by changing the shape.
Much to my joy, there are no crazy driving stories from Chicago, but I’m still in Chicago, getting ready for a Cubs game Monday night. Even though I would give US Cellular’s food the highest grade I could, I was not impressed by the stadium, I just expected more (maybe the thought that this city also has Wrigley has skewed my perception and expectations), so I’m going to give US Cellular a C+.
4 down, 16 to go.
LAZ