I want to preface this with: This subject matter is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn’t be insulted if you just skipped over it.
I’m going to be a little lost come March 26th. I planned on taking a half day. I planned on refreshing twitter over and over until I saw the season’s first lineup card. I planned on being irrationally upset at the construction of the lineup. After all, fans are near impossible to please.
Opening Day is hands down my favorite holiday. I’m a White Sox fan, as is my father, as is my father’s father, as was my father’s, father’s father. Like so many of us, I was born into fandom. It was never presented as a choice, but as something as necessary as saying “please” and “thank you.” Even when the family left Chicago and moved to Arkansas (where I’m from), the White Sox followed.
By the time I was 5-years-old, it was second nature. I didn’t quite understand why I felt the way I did, but I knew there was no other option. That year was my first year playing t-ball. I was drafted by the Cubs. I cried when I found out. I knew it was wrong. Five-year-old me was grasping for fatherly support during this true Shakespearean tragedy.
I looked up to my dad through tears and asked, “Will you wear a Cubs hat during my games?”
He looked at me and flatly answered, “Hell no.”
When my dad tells this story, he fondly refers to it as the moment he knew he succeeded as a father.
Baseball season is important to me. This season has a little extra importance baked in. I’m not sure if y’all heard, but the Sox made some moves, the young core is hitting its stride and La Pantera (sorry Tom Fornelli) is going to be in the lineup on Opening Day. We all have hope, but it feels rational this year. And that is different than years past.
I’m also living in a new state and working in a new city...Kansas City of all places. I’m working my first post college “professional” gig. This has presented all the predictable obstacles: making friends, missing home and my friends and family there, learning a new job, wondering if moving away was a good decision and many more.
I’m an anxious person, and watching the White Sox is something that brings me comfort. It’s something I’ve done since I was 5 years old. It’s familiar. I need that outlet a little more this year, but I’ll have to wait. It sucks, but we’re all going through it, and that makes it a little more bearable.
So many great people are working to give us our White Sox fix during this extended dry spell, and I can’t possibly thank them enough... but thank y’all. Stay healthy, be nice to each other and Go, Go White Sox.
