Fan Appreciation Day

So with the last day of the regular season upon us (kinda, sorta, well ok, not really...), I trekked out to U.S. Cellular Comiskey Park Field one last time. It was a nice day to catch a game. It would have been a nicer day to have caught soon-to-be Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, but he was scratched with a bent throat or something. 

It was Fan Appreciation Day, and boy did I leave feeling appreciated! To start off with, I got the ticket when the game I was supposed to see against the Tigers was rained out a few weeks ago, so I exchanged it for today. I originally got that Tigers game ticket for free too. 

So I traipsed up to Section 548 to watch the game. As has happened in the past, I spotted that Section 558 was completely empty, so I mosied on over to my catbird seat pictured below.

I've noticed this section is usually empty, and a front row seat over there is a thing of beauty (convenient). Room to spread out, being able to see the left field scoreboard, and just not having to sit with White Sox fans are just a few of the reasons I've come to enjoy Section 558 this year.

In the first inning I noticed that a couple of stadium workers were giving away prizes a couple of sections over. Ever on the lookout for some free stuff, I turned my Tigers cap backwards in case they noticed me sitting all by my lonesome. As luck would have it, I was noticed. The young girl came over and asked me if would I like a ticket to sit in a lower deck seat courtesy of U.S. Cellular. 

"Why sure," I told her, and she promptly gave me a gift bag full of the goodies pictured here. A very nice retro duffle bag and ball cap, plus a necklace!!! I knew that whole south side macho bullshit was just that, bullshit!

We got to ride down in the service elevator as VIP's, and I made it to my seat just as Paul Konerko's 2nd inning home run was landing about two sections away. Of course, our new seats were packed to the gills, and I even thought about taking my goody bag back up to my original seats, but what the hell, I was already down there.

There was a game played today, which the White Sox won 5-1 to force the Tigers to have to come to town tomorrow afternoon for the make up game that was rained out a few weeks ago. Amidst all the commotion in my new section, it was a little difficult to follow the game with the steady stream of people moving about. The worst part was sitting next to the little eight year old boy who never looked up from his video game he was playing the entire time. Some sort of race car business. Sad. At least it wasn't a soccer game.

But hey, it was a nice conclusion to my first season in Chicago. I made it to a whopping 17 MLB games this year. I wish I could make it to one more tomorrow, but c'est la vie. All in all it was a good time, and that's all I could ask for. Most of me would like to see the Tigers take it to the Sox tomorrow and knock them out of the playoffs, but the little bit of me that immensely enjoyed my trips to the Cell this year wouldn't mind if they didn't.