A Soggy Night with the South Siders: Chicago White Sox

Chicago White Sox

Guaranteed Rate Field

Baltimore Orioles vs Chicago White Sox

Date of Game: Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Time of Game: 8:40PM – 90 minute rain delay

Final score: Orioles - 10, White Sox - 6

Section 139 Row 10 Seat 3

Preface

My plan for the week of June 11 through June 17, 2017, was to travel to three different MLB stadiums to watch three MLB baseball games in three different states. Guaranteed Stadium was sandwiched in between Progressive Field (Cleveland Guardians “Indians” at the time) and PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates), which means that the White Sox game in Chicago was the 2nd of the three games. Since there wasn’t too much flexibility in our dates, our tickets to all three games were purchased ahead of time.

For a quick bounce into Chicago to see a White Sox game, this night became pretty memorable. Not for the game itself (although it was an active game!) but our encounters around it.

Our arrival in Chicago came along with rain, pouring rain. Even with the rain, the stadium was easy to spot from I-90 Expressway as we drove past it to get to our hotel for the night. We had a room reserved at the Chicago South Loop Hotel (now known as the Wyndham Chicago Mccormick Hotel), which is a little over a mile away from where the Chicago White Sox play. It was less than two hours to game time, when we checked in. Even as we drove into the parking lot of the hotel, we were still toying with the idea of taking public transportation to the game, but since it was so close to game time, and it was raining, we decided to Uber a ride both ways.

Our Uber driver to the baseball park was wonderful. She explained that Uber drivers really weren’t permitted to pull directly up to the stadium, but due to the rain she’d try to get us as close as possible, but this meant that our disembarking would have to be quick. It was teaming rain outside, but she got us to the corner of the stadium entrance. The puddles were enormous and deep! To top it off as soon as we left the Uber, I realized I didn’t have my cell phone with me. I worried that I left it in the back seat of her car. Annoyed with myself I picked up the pace to try to get into the stadium as quick as possible and out of the rain. Going through security was a breeze, because there were very few people on the line to enter. Once through security, we were told about the rain delay. I mean, you could tell anyway, because once you peeked in at the seats you could see the tarp was over the infield and the words, “rain delay” were on the jumbotron.

While I searched my pockets for my phone, my partner scoped out the concession stands for ice cream and dinner. Some of the concession stands were open. We opted for a couple of Chicago dogs and a soda and looked out at the field as we ate. I really liked how colorful the scoreboard was. Afterwards we went down to our seats. It was drizzling at this point, which was bearable. The seats however were drenched, it was like sitting in a puddle, not fun! Since there was no movement on the game starting, we left our seats to seek out ice cream helmets. Although we were soggy, the weather was humid, and it was still in the 70’s. By the time we returned with our ice cream there was activity on the field, the tarp was being removed. This was about 8:00 PM approximately an hour after the game was supposed to start. The game got underway around 8:30PM, about 90 minutes late due to the rain.

The stadium was quiet, it felt like half the seats were filled (I checked, it was about 20K fans in the stands). From my view, the upper decks were almost vacant. Although an intimate affair, Chicago came out strong, two runs in the bottom of the first inning and a home run with two additional runs in the bottom of the second, but Baltimore came out swinging in the 3rd and 4th innings and in the 5th a grand slam home run! They took the lead from the White Sox in the fourth inning. The Sox had a homerun at the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn’t enough to catch up. I’m always disappointed when the home team doesn’t win.

After the game ended, we sought out an Uber. Since the stadium wasn’t filled, there weren’t too many people waiting around for rides. There was a designated pick-up area for Uber drivers, and it was really quiet. We were just about to be the last people in the parking lot when a driver pulled in. Verified, we got into the car, and we were on our way. We were on our way P-A-S-T the hotel. Ok, I’m tired, my phone is missing, I’m still damp, and now the Uber driver is driving over a bridge towards the city of Chicago. I should be freaking out, but I am mostly perplexed. Like, maybe there was a detour due to construction to get to the other side of I-90? I mean some places are also weird, where the road takes you away from where you want to go, just to go back the other direction.  I was also distracted by the view of the city skyline at night (really, really, wish I had my camera).

Meanwhile, my partner, although quiet was thinking that it was taking us longer to get to the hotel than it did to get to the stadium. So, he grabs his phone and pulls at my sleeve to see if I am thinking something is off. I nod my head and we both start to talk to the driver at the same time, explaining that we think he is going to the wrong place. The driver has music on, so didn’t respond to us. Now, we are both getting a bit concerned. We talk louder, suddenly the driver looks in the rearview mirror and notices our faces and turns down the music. We explain that we think he missed the hotel, we don’t remember the bridge, and my partner reads off the address to the hotel. The driver started to listen to us and got off the expressway to turn around.

Once he was back on track, he got us back to the hotel in record time, I looked at the city again, but the view wasn’t as nice from this side of the expressway. We left our driver with a good rating (mistakes happen) and we made our way back to our room. Where... on the bed... I found... my phone!

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT or Perplexity.

​Written January 10, 2025

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