The luminaries inside U.S. Cellular Field for Game 2 included a former Illinois governor and a basketball sportscaster, but the real story was die-hard fans rooting for their home team, wherever they could.
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They included neighborhood fans erecting their own Jumbotron, a trio from Champaign and a diehard who signed up for a credit card–for the promotional blanket and the plastic bag it came in, to protect his head from Sunday night’s rain.
Last-minute deals
Without tickets to Sunday’s World Series, buddies Stan Farlow, John Graham and Joe Graham drove to Chicago from downstate Champaign, convinced they would be able to buy a ticket outside U.S. Cellular Field.
By nightfall, they already had turned down an offer of three tickets at $900 apiece, and a second offer on a Red Line train car for three tickets at $500 each.
“I’ll pay $300 to $350. That’s a lot of money for somebody like me,” said Farlow, who owns apartment buildings in the University of Illinois college town.
Cutting it close, they stepped into the rain on 35th Street, looking over their shoulders out of fear the police would catch them talking to scalpers.
As they reviewed their ticket-buying plan a block from the ballpark, a third ticket broker made them an offer. They melted into the crowd around the stadium together, locked in negotiation.
Family heirloom
Craig Sager, an NBA analyst for TNT, brought into U.S. Cellular Field a 12-inch softball signed by the 1959 White Sox. The 54-year-old Sager, who grew up in Batavia, said his mom, Coral, 80, got it signed in Game 1 of the 1959 World Series at Comiskey Park.
“I figured it was a good time to dig it out,” Sager said
Much-needed loan
Fan-of-all-things-baseball Mike Mock grew up in Clay Center, Kan., “population 4,000, nearest Wal-Mart 45 minutes away, two hours west of Topeka.”
And Sunday night, he was standing in the rain, shivering outside U.S. Cellular Field. He had borrowed money from his mother and took out a credit card loan to fly in from Kansas State University in Manhattan, where he’s a freshman. But he couldn’t find a ticket.
“I’ve been a baseball fan forever,” he said. “At least I can say I’ve been at the World Series. I just never got in.”
Unfazed by the elements
Fashion sense took a backseat to Jack Hughes’ determination to stay dry and warm. He applied for a credit card just to get a free Sox blanket, which he stuffed under his Sox jacket, giving himself a slightly lumpy appearance. Then the 53-year-old Chicago man took the small, clear plastic bag that previously held the blanket and crowned his hooded head like a bizarre imperial headdress.
His buddies were giving him grief from a nearby concession stand, but he didn’t care.
“So far, it’s working,” he shrugged. “You won’t believe how it’s comin’ down out there.”
By the end of the first inning, the Hall of Fame Gift Shop had sold about 300 ponchos, a staffer said.
Public service
It was a night of Sox heroes, no matter who you were, and former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, a White Sox season ticket-holder for 14 years, approached his seat with a list of favorite names in mind.
“Bobby Jenks is my hero,” Thompson said. “But I’m very excited for Ozzie, Reinsdorf and the entire team. They are finally getting their due.”
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`Jumbotron’
Watching it on television inside would not be enough. Getting tickets to Game 2 wouldn’t have been possible. Instead, residents in the 8800 block of South Hamilton Avenue set up a 15-by-20-foot “Jumbotron” in a front yard–a movie screen with a television projector aimed at it.
Three white tents were set up in the rain as the screen’s owner, attorney John Sommerville, dressed in a black parka and ball cap, struggled for an hour to set up the screen in the cold and rain in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood on the South Side.
“That’s just as good as being there,” said Jill Trotter, 54, who lives in the neighborhood.