The Baddest Part of Town, or Hey Nineteen(th)

For the first time since 1989, Sunday I got to see the Boston Red Sox play. The BoSox became my second-favorite team when the Cubs traded Bill Buckner there for Dennis Eckersley in 1984. I sure can pick 'em, can't I?

My local watering hole had a bus trip and a couple of other Boston fans were going, so I figured I'd head into enemy territory and root, root, root for the road team.

It was my first once-every-few-years trip to the Cell since the renovation. Their sign now looks like it belongs at a strip-mall in Berwyn instead of a ballpark. Corporate sponsors, check, check, check, check and check. Home of the White Sox? Umm... not so much. And no, it's not hidden by the school bus.


As for the inside, I never thought I'd see a ballpark where they made the Uecker seats worse by obstructing views that hadn't previously been obstructed. Even on a hot day, I'd prefer baking in the sun in the "old" new Comiskey to having a giant pillar blocking my view of half of the infield.

Seriously, I don't know what it is with me and bad seats this year. I couldn't even imagine how upset I'd be if I was one of the poor souls laying out serious green to sit in that seat for one of the World Series games last year. Excited as all get-out since the moment you got the ticket. Pins and needles all day long for what might be the game of your life, the World Series. Giddily hopping into the car, heading up the Ryan, more excited. There's the ballpark, more excited. Into the lot, through the gate, up the ramps, through the concourse, there's your section, more excited. Up the steps, counting rows, more excited. There's your row, there's your seat, you turn around and sit down and...


...oh.

You'd think for $67 million they could have thrown a little paint over that spot.

From Section 518, Row 19, Seat 20 it's a little tough to follow a game, so fortunately I was able to move two seats over where I could at least see the pitcher's mound.

This was my view when apparently a Red Sox popup landed fair near home plate. Somebody the size of an ant wound up on first base. Alex Cora, I think.

Before the renovation I sat in nearly the same place for a Cubs-Sox game and my only complaint was the distance from home plate. Sunday, with or without the vendor, I was completely unable to follow the game. I couldn't pick up fly balls once they passed the pillar, couldn't track grounders, couldn't track baserunners, and found it pointless to remain in my seat by the seventh inning.

As long as I had to rely on the Jumbotron for any action I was going to see, I figured I might as well stand around a monitor near a concession stand. While I can't say much for the seats, the concourse looks really nice and is covered with pictures and factoids and blowups of baseball cards from throughout Sox history. I don't, however, recall seeing Bill Veeck's picture anywhere.

So I wandered around for three innings, taking pictures from different vantage points around the upper deck (500-level ticketholders aren't allowed on the lower level), then figured I'd poke my head back in when rookie sensation Jonathan Papelbon came on to nail down the 3-2 lead and then head for the bus. Papelbon's younger brother Jeremy was drafted and signed by the Cubs this year and is 1-0, 0.00 with two saves in four appearances at Class A Boise, so I was excited to see this rookie I'd heard so much about all year.

I was in the left field corner and zooming all the way in with my camera when Jeremy's big brother threw this pitch...


...which wound up landing just on the fair side of the pole below me, blowing the save and tying the game. It was only the third run he'd given up all season, leaving him at 0.59 going into the All-Star break. I'd seen enough.

It's a good thing I had. Instead of "30 minutes after the game", the bus left during the 14th inning and arrived back at our starting point in time to watch the 18th and 19th innings on TV. I could have sat for six-plus hours and ten extra innings in that awful seat just to see my team fail to get the three-game sweep, then taken an angry trek through the parking lot looking for a bus that had long departed, followed by two frustrating El rides and a 10-block walk home.

Here's what the line score looked like:

BOS 100 200 000 020 000 000 0 - 5
CHW 000 101 001 020 000 000 1 - 6

All in all, the highlight of the day ended up being an ice cube fight on and around the bus that lasted six innings. Never underestimate the entertainment value of an ice cube fight on a hot July day, where there's no such thing as an innocent bystander.