On a long, chilly, damp but glorious day the White Sox finally came out of the wilderness and into to the light. Team Boski did not have great seats for the game, but that did not deter us. In fact we did not even have seats. So Mr. Boski what are you saying. I am saying we paid exactly $0 for our tickets and parking. In fact we had not tickets, we crashed. But we crashed in a good name. We were manning the Habitat collection boxes for Katrina relief. So for couple of hours I was doing work for others. We did not gather too much, hey if you are going to buy a 25 dollar T-shirt, which will be on sale in a couple of days, you could drop a buck or two in the box. Hey I am just saying. Even with the bad weather our spirits were not dampened as we try to help our fellow man. As soon as our good deed was done. No one asked us to leave so we stuck around. So we watched most of the game from the concourse of the View level, no bother. It sucked out in the seats so we stayed dry. The game did not go as I hoped. I wanted an early knockout by the Sox. But even though we jumped out early the Angels hung in. The game was a little ragged. We made some mistakes on D thanks to the rain and the Angels made us pay. In fact the Angels managed to get a lead. I was fretting like usual when the we saw a sign that there was no way the Sox were going to lose. Around the 6th they showed up on the monitor that John Elway was in attendance. If that is not a sign that things are going Boski's way then I do not know. Here I am watching my White Sox who have my favorite baseball player of all time as a coach and now having Mr. Bronco Johnny Football in attendance that just sealed it. We snuck down to the concourse on the field level. Stood and watched the Sox tie it up thanks to Joe Crede homer off Escobar. Apparently he is the only guy who could hit him in this series. But in the 8th the Sox put together another rally and managed to get the lead. When the Angels brought in Rodriguez that they have to get to him now or they are going to have to hope they hold till they get to what's left in the pen. But tonight thanks to the weather K-Rod was not getting that slider to bite. So the Sox clawed and scratched and took what they could get (this time A.J. can not be blamed) and pushed another run across thanks to Crede's hit. It's 4-3 and we are 6 outs away. As we then snaked our way to the first base side, we watched the Sox pitching again dominate the Angels. Contreras, Buehrle, Garland and Garcia put the Angel bats into the sleeper hold. A hold that even the Hulkster could not get out.
When Kotchman's grounder got to Konerko and the third out was recorded it was finally real. The White Sox were going to the World Series. After wading through the masses and being directed and redirected by security we sent the next hour plus standing in the rain yelling and cheering with the other Sox fans who made the journey. I will say I was impressed with the number. Still not Yankee or Red Sox numbers, but more than I have seen over the years. Sure it was a special occasion, but still nice to see that I am not alone. I was on cloud nine. I did not care how sore my legs were from standing since 2:30 in the afternoon. Being amongst the fans, seeing the Sox celebrate is something that will be tough to top. The burgeoning small city yelled (Four More Wins!, Four More Wins), cheered (when the team came back out), mugged (for the Chicago TV stations) and sung (Na, Na, Na,Hey, Hey Goodbye) till security finally asked us to move along. But it was one of those surreal moments. It was like graduation. I spent these years rooting and following the team. Even though there were a couple of semester where I think I took a W. But I made it, I succeeded at being a fan and that fanatitism was being rewarded. I was moved to the point to yell at Jerry Reinsdorf ,"thank you." Even after the white flag and all the other failures he made things right. Team Boski then went into that good night and celebrated with other Sox fans. I caught a lot of them off guard in that I am not from Chicago. After hoisting one at the National Sports bar we headed over to the Hilton which I found out was where the team stayed. If I had only known that before 10:30 Sunday night. Had one more beer and soaked in the joy. Sadly missed Frank Thomas by 15 minutes, but still awesome to be there celebrating.
The best part of all of this was I got to see it with the person I wanted to share this moment with, my wonderful wife. Who has been there the last 12 seasons. There was only one other person I wanted to have there watching this with me. He was not a Sox fan, but he would have been happy for me and that is my Dad. I have a feeling he was looking down pulling a couple of strings. Thanks Dad, and if the Sox do win the Series, and there is DVD of the season I am going to take the laptop up to Holy Cross and watch with him.
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