How I became a White Sox fan

I started following baseball in the spring of 1987 at age 5 as a fan of both teams. In the early days of my fandom, I had a game called Color Baseball on a very early PC that you could make up your own teams and lineups. There was a red team and a blue team and in the teams I made, the red were the '87 Sox and the blue, the '87 Cubs. I learned a lot about baseball this way as your player's averages represented how strong of a hitter they were. Copying down the averages from the first baseball magazine my parents bought me was how I set up each game.

There was another key development in my life as a fan that began in the spring of 1988, as I discovered Topps baseball cards for the first time. I am happy to say this is part of my fandom that remains to this day as I get a Sox team set every year, but it all started with the '88s. I would spend hours sorting, reading, and putting those cards in my first collecting album, also a Topps album, with legends cards on the cover. In 1989, I attended my first MLB game, Sox vs. Brewers at County Stadium. I don't remember much about the game itself, but I believe the Sox came up short that day. Later on that year, I went to my first games at Old Comiskey & Wrigley Field. Andre Dawson was my favorite player at the time, but I still followed both teams. In 1990, I really enjoyed the Sox season with the special emphasis on the final season at Old Comiskey. Still miss that park and I went to my last game there on August 23, 1990. The Sox played California, but it was more about the atmosphere than the final score to me. It was a fun game to go to, but a little sad as well.

In 1991, when the new park opened, Dad & I went to our first game in August and he taught me how to keep score and I've been keeping score ever since. I believe we saw a New Comiskey record in HR by both teams that still stands today as Detroit was in town with Cecil Fielder. My fandom really changed though, I'd say starting in '93, as the Cubs had let go of Andre Dawson and I really haven't thought much of them ever since. So many memorable moments from that year also with Bo homering at the home opener and on the division-clinching night, Fisk breaking the record for games caught. Sad ending though in the ALCS. 1994 was heartbreaking as I really thought we had the team to win the World Series. The 1 game I attended that year was against Cleveland, about a month before the strike and Dennis Martinez shut us out. Went to 1 game in '98 as the Sox played Griffey and the Mariners. My brother and I had a great time and we got Frank, Robin, and Albert Belle's autographs on Kids Day (security guy had to tell Albert to sign)

In 2000, I went to 3 games that year. The Sunday before Memorial Day, saw Cleveland and Bartolo Colon pitch and Cleveland won in a blowout. Went to my first Crosstown game in June, a loss to the Cubs. In August, went with a good friend of mine from HS and his family. We saw a great game as Frank won it in the 10th with a RBI 2B. Went to 1 game in '01, a loss to DET, 1 game in '05 (a loss to LAA) and 1 game in '08, a lloss to KC on Harold's statue day. More recent games I've gone to are in 2011, where I met Warner Saunders, and last 4th of July, a win over the Yankees.

To sum it all up, it's amazing being a fan of the White Sox, there have been so many memorable moments so far and I'm sure there will be many more to come in the future.