Game 26: September 27, 2014 Royals at White Sox

I was on the 9:10 Southwest flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. It should've given me plenty of time to spare, except for two things. First, there was a fire at the Chicago air traffic control center. Fortunately, my flight wasn't cancelled. It was only 45 minutes late arriving. That still got me in more than three hours before the game. At least I thought it was three hours before the game. I didn't get to the hotel until 4:30, still with plenty of time to make the game. Then I opened up my MLB At Bat app and found out the game was scheduled for 6:05, not 7:05. What? Did they change it? Did I misread it? I caught the shuttle back to Midway airport a half hour later and was on the CTA L by 5:15. The train came quickly and I was at U.S. Cellular Field by 5:45.

That's when I found out the game didn't start at 6:05. That was the start time for the Paul Konerko tribute. This'd be Konerko's second to last game, since he's retiring from baseball. Konerko had been with the White Sox for 16 years.

The tribute was touching and fun, although I certainly didn't appreciate it the way White Sox fans did. So I picked up Chicago pizza and Chicago beer. Both were pretty good, although the pizza wasn't the deep dish I had last time I was in town.

I got what I thought was a good seat at a good price. And it was considering that it looked like almost every seat was occupied. Despite the White Sox being eliminated from the playoff race weeks earlier, the fans were there for Konerko. Unfortunately, my seat obstructed the batter.

Then Jose Abreu homered, which is why you go to see the White Sox.

US Cellular isn't as bad as I remember it. I've heard that the White Sox did a big renovation about a dozen years ago. There were too many billboards in the outfield and there was nothing charming or appealing. I'll leave you with a photo of one last Konerko at bat.