Listing Through Life

I picked up some White Sox half-price coupons at a gas station a few weeks ago. My wife and I went with another couple.

As it turned out, we picked the first weekend the White Sox have had a sell-out crowd in four years. Our seats (and I’m glad we only paid half-price) were in the outfield grandstands, about six seats up from the field and 10 seats into foul territory. The seats were bad enough. The game quickly got worse. There were over 44,000 people in the park, and most of them quickly lost interest in the game. A bunch of them got rowdy and were escorted out. And then it began to rain. We were under the upper deck, so we didn’t get wet, but in the top of the sixth, the tarp was rolled onto the field.

It was a lousy, slow-moving game. There was a rain delay, and it didn’t look like it would end anytime soon. We left. I turned the radio on in the car, and when we were a few blocks from home, the game started up again. I kept score on a pad of paper while I drove, then finished scoring the game off TV when I got home.

If we had stayed to the end, we would have gotten to see Steve Lyons pitch the last two innings. That would have been twice in five days that I saw a position player pitch for a Chicago team. The Cubs hadn’t  used one since 1977, the White Sox since 1985. Chicago teams were outscored 31-11 in games I went to this week.

Oh … The A’s won 12-3.

Two friends and I bought tickets to this game back in March. Our seats were in the lower level, just down the first-base line, but they were only six rows from the back wall of the stadium. We were given plastic beverage pitchers when we arrived.

Dwight Gooden was pitching for New York against Mike Bielecki. That’s a match-up that would normally have Cub fans worried, but on this day the Cubs got 11 hits off Gooden, the most he had ever allowed in his career up to that time, and touched him for six runs.

But wait — this was the Cubs. By the time Bielecki had thrown three pitches, the Cubs were down by two. When Gooden left the game at the end of the seventh inning, the Mets were winning 14-6. A parade of Cubs relievers didn’t help the situation, and the Mets scored five more in the eighth. It was 19-6 when the Cubs brought in diminutive outfielder Doug Dascenzo to pitch the ninth. The crowd roared with laughter.

An old geezer sitting behind me wasn’t tracking. He tapped me on the shoulder and asked me why everyone was cheering. I said, “Dascenzo is pitching.” He sat back.

A few moments later he tapped me again. “What’s so exciting about him pitching?”

“He’s not a pitcher. He’s an outfielder.”

“Oh. So is he really popular or something?”

“HE’S AN OUTFIELDER. OUTFIELDERS DON’T USUALLY PITCH!!!”

I was still pretty sure he didn’t get it, but he didn’t bother me anymore.

Dascenzo pitched to three batters, gave up one hit and ended the inning by getting Tim Teufel to ground into a double play. The crowd roared the entire time. The Cubs scored two meaningless runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose 19-8. But the guy sitting behind me probably never noticed.

I went to this game with three friends. We ate at the Rosebud in Little Italy. It cost $80 for the four of us. We started with fresh-made bread that was good enough to be a meal by itself. The salad, with the house dressing, was also excellent. Next came a side order of pizza bread that was awesome. I ordered spaghetti because I wanted to find out what authentic Italian spaghetti tasted like, but our waitress, an authentic Italian woman, talked me into getting the rigatoni instead. I’m glad I did. It was perfect — tasty but not too spicy. The serving filled a two-gallon bowl to the brim, and I managed to eat about half of it. I had the rest put in a doggie bag to take home, but I forgot it on the table.

From the Rosebud, we dashed to Comiskey Park for the White Sox/Orioles game. We missed the first three batters, but they didn’t do anything exciting. It was a well-played game, and Fisk’s home run in the eighth was a thriller. I had a great time, even though I was very full. The White Sox won 3-2.

A friend and I drove down and spent the afternoon birding around Peoria before going to the Chiefs game. We received a free umbrella as we entered Meinen Field. Our seats were fantastic — right behind home plate. The park was clean and attractive. There were even cute usherettes who came around with wool mittens and wiped our seats before we sat down.

There weren’t many people at the game (2,448 to be exact) and in the second inning we moved down and sat in the front row.

The game was exciting, if sloppy. Peoria pitcher, Henry Gomez, had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning. I won a door prize — a $10 gift certificate for the local Butternut Bread Surplus Store.

We left the park at 10:40 and got home around 1:45 am. The Chiefs won 7-4.