Sunday Funday, South Side Style

If you know me IRL, you know I'm a White Sox fan. My fandom goes back to 1985, though I've attended their games since 1977 or so. As a child of frugal parents I didn't have access to many White Sox broadcasts, as they were mostly only available via pay TV that we didn't have. 

So those Cubs games on WGN Channel 9 were my jam. But the way that seemingly mighty 1984 Cubs team crapped the bed turned me off even more than the post-season failures of the '83 Sox. 

And that '85 Sox squad was hella fun, so I never looked back after falling for the team that featured Rookie of the Year Ozzie Guillen. (By then I also had a bit of social consciousness and bought into the notion that I should root for Chicago's blue collar team, what with my blue collar blood and all.)

So blah blah blah TL;DR -- Suds is a Sox fan.

And so a few weeks back I began to look into tickets for White Sox opening weekend. The idea of sitting in the new Goose Island section in right field was appealing, so I grabbed four for the Sunday game (the section was close to sold out for the first two games). And so despite some foreboding forecasts full of thunderstorms, three buds (including a Cubs fan) and I headed off to the city a bit before 11am to do some tailgating before the game. 

For some, tailgating is all about grilling. For others, it's about playing bags. For us, it was all about the beer. I'd packed a cooler full of Chicago brews to share, so we opened the fun up in Lot E with the unofficial beer of the White Sox, a rye Cascadian IPA from Hype, er, Hop Butcher.

From there we worked our way through a half dozen or so other brews, including a barrel-aged coconut-vanilla stout from Werk Force Brewing of Plainfield, IL; a pair of 2014 Bourbon County Stouts (the regular and the coffee version); Cryo-Hero, a ridiculously fresh (4 days old!) new IPA from Revolution; and a few other random brews. All too soon we heard "The Star-Spangled Banner" being sung so we packed our gear away and headed into the park.

Our Gate was right next to the Goose Island Craft Kave, so we headed there so a few of the fellas could snag beers. (I'm not a very good day drinker so I held off.) Unsurprisingly, the ballpark mirrored society and the Hop Butcher beers were sold out. From there we were able to head directly to our seats, though we had to roam as a herd since Ticketmaster and the Sox have a stupid new policy whereby you can't print your tickets out at home -- "your phone is your ticket," which doesn't work so well for groups.

I knew that The Goose Island section featured wait service; I didn't realize it also featured counters and movable chairs, which was a nice perk.

It also featured a lot of confused employees. In fact, considering it was the third home game of the year the staff seemed disappointingly clueless. A few people in our section had been given wristbands so they could get back in; we asked multiple employees for these bands but were told they didn't have or use them. The guys down in the Craft Kave had no idea if we'd be able to access our seats from the Cave (happily, we could -- much better than having to take a couple minutes to walk up four ramps to get to the concourse level). The wait staff had no idea what beers were actually available and for some reason put my buds' orders on my card, which was a PitA to rectify. I had to present my phone each time I returned to my seat while my buds just gave the security staff a "my ticket is on my buddy's phone." Dumb annoyances abounded. 

But when the Sox are good again The Goose Island is going to be a pretty hot ticket. And not just because it's right next to Section 108, where the world's funniest collection of Sox fans hangs. (I may've creeped on them via Twitter.)

The game itself was decidedly meh; the Sox got their asses kicked by a surprisingly good Mariners team. It took two hours to get through the first four innings. And there were several brief rains but it was never hard enough to stop play. 

So after a lap around the 100-level concourse, which just seems to be nicer and nicer each time I attend a game, and a trip to the huge gift shop up the third-base line, where I bought a pretty sweet two-sided navy blue Sox tee, we decided to head over to Marz Community Brewing a couple miles west of the ballpark. 

Why Marz? Well, their haze and sours are both super solid (stouts are hit or miss) and they currently feature the Marzcade, a room with about two dozen free video game consoles and pinball machines. 

The non-hazy IPA I tried was just okay but my buds, none of whom had been there before, all enjoyed their beers quite a bit. I got to say hi to Ed, which is always nice. And some very cool and generous guy recognized me from Facebook and gave us several very nice pours from a little bottle share he was engaged in. (This beer and this beer, stuff I probably wouldn't ever have otherwise encountered.) 

I played a few games of Star Wars pinball, a bit of Burger Time and some Ms. Pac-Man. (Among the many thoughtful touches in the Marzcade are the cup holders affixed to the pinball machines.) All told we spent about an hour and a half at Marz before heading home.

So spring is just beginning to spring but I was super happy to get my first Sunday Funday of the year on. Here's to many more between now and Halloween!