Whether it was called new Comiskey Park, the Cell, the Rate or just Sox Park, the ballpark at the corner of 35th Street and Shields Avenue has been unloved over most of its 35-year existence.
Derided as the “Ball Mall” after opening in 1991, it eventually underwent a series of changes to improve the game-day atmosphere for Chicago White Sox games, including lopping off the top rows of the upper deck, turning the seats from light blue to green and allowing tailgating in the parking lots.
It still wasn’t as beloved as old Comiskey, but it was home.
And now, with owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia planning to build a new ballpark in the South Loop, the end days of Rate Field are probably at hand. Eventually we’ll have a new park with water taxi service and all the modern amenities, perhaps turning the Rate into a ghost town unless it gets a new tenant.
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But on days like Wednesday, when 40,590 black-clad fans packed the place for Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, you’re reminded that home is what you make of it.
Sox fans brought the smoke, refusing to take a single pitch off as their team played from behind most of the afternoon and the shade washed over the sun-drenched seats on a gorgeous, 75-degree afternoon.
In the end, it wasn’t enough. The Guardians staved off elimination with a 9-3 win, forcing a Game 4 on Thursday.
Sox fans were thirsting for a clincher, but it turned out to be nothing but a thirst trap. Sox hitters struck out 19 times — including three apiece by Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery and Tristan Peters — and went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
It started out like a Picasso and ended like a kindergarten finger painting.
So Sox fans will have to do it all over again, bringing the same vibe to Game 4. And though the disappointment of Game 3 will linger for a while, there’s little doubt they’ll bring their “A” game again.
The buildup before this game was unlike any postseason game on the South Side since the 2005 World Series, and it seemed like everyone felt a win was a fait accompli, even though sweeping back-to-back series seemed ridiculous going into the postseason.
A win would’ve been the Sox’s fifth straight in the postseason and sixth straight overall, including the regular-season finale. Their longest winning streak all year was five games, which they accomplished three times but not since May.
I asked a Sox executive before the first pitch if he felt good about the game.
“No,” he bluntly replied.
Sometimes the DNA of a Sox fan can override any other senses.
Missed opportunities were the story for the Sox, including stranding runners on second and third in the one-run first when Chase Meidroth and Peters fanned to end what could’ve been a big inning.
Miguel Vargas was doubled off second on Kyle Teel’s sharp liner to end the fifth. Vargas lined out with the bases loaded in the sixth after the Sox had pulled within two runs at 5-3, ending their last best chance at a comeback.
The game devolved from there, with sloppy fielding and poor relief pitching sending fans to the exits in the eighth and ninth.
Manager Will Venable used seven pitchers and no bulk pitcher, making it a bullpen game. They issued 10 walks among them, and Bryan Hudson’s ineffectiveness in the Guardians’ four-run second put the Sox in a hole from which they couldn’t recover.
Sox fans anxiously awaited the big hit that never came. Sam Antonacci getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth was the biggest offensive contribution after the fourth.
Guardians closer Cade Smith struck out five Sox hitters in the last two innings, turning it into a nightmare.
It all started so well, when the pregame vibes were perfect, a cool breeze was wafting through the bleachers and the feeling of omnipotence was overwhelming. Strolling around the park before the game, you could feel the Sox community coming together, wearing its ceremonial black for a Guardians funeral.
“One and done” was the mantra of Sox fans hoping to get it over with and move on to the AL Championship Series.
It’s hard to imagine the Rate looking any better than it did Wednesday, a nice comeback for the yard that was one of baseball’s most criticized ballparks in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“Look, I thought people wanted unobstructed views and wide aisles,” Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told the Tribune in 1999. “I guessed wrong. People wanted a more homey feeling. But I really believe that if we had built Camden Yards instead, I would have been massacred. People wanted a modern park.”
Actually Sox fans weren’t asking for a new ballpark in the final days of old Comiskey, a park they grew up with and loved despite its own unique issues. They just wanted a winner, and when they got one in 2005, they came out to the new park in droves.
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Now they have a winner again, and it has made the Rate the place to be. From the parking lot tailgate affairs to the bleacher concourse, it was one, supersized party.
The Sox will have to suck it up and come back Thursday with a better performance. The fans were ready to rock, but the Guardians knocked the Sox on their backs.
No one thought they’d get through the entire postseason without a clunker.
Now that it finally happened, we’ll see whether the Sox can be as resilient as the fans have been through the last three decades.