One Way to Keep Busy

I always try to keep the ticket stubs from ballgames I attend.  If only I kept them in one place, but No.  Oh, well.  Maybe the two I found today—one in the attic, the other in a bedroom drawer—were meant to be first.

 

The older of the two is from June 17, 1997, the second-ever Cubs-White Sox game and the first game I took Clare to; she was five at the time.  I can’t say what my daughter remembers, Brian McRae batting leadoff for the visiting North Siders or the unpleasant Albert Belle in left for the home team?  Doubtful.  Maybe it was the noise a crowd of 44,249 fans made during the course of a 5-3 White Sox win.  If nothing else, Clare can always say her first Sox game was also the first-ever Sox win over the Cubs.

 

That game I have some memory of, the one on June 10, 2000, not so much outside of it being a day game.  I wish I could say I remember Magglio Ordonez hitting a two-run homer against Kerry Wood in the bottom of the first, but that would be pushing it.  Certain names, though, ring a bell.

 

Frank Thomas, Ordonez, Paul Konerko, Carlos Lee—talk about power, in which case you’d also have to mention Jose Valentin.  A child watches a team like this, and she could grow up to lead her college in career homeruns.

 

That I remember, in the most vivid detail.