A Sports Fan

From the desk of ________________ July 31, 2008

I'm a sports fan. I am a sports fan. I'm a sports fan.

However, that doesn't mean I root for the home team. I never have. Never will.

I was born in Texas, moved all over, and ended up in California. As far as California baseball goes, take your pick. The A's, the Angels, and the Dodgers. The Giants and the Padres, too. From 1993 to 1998, I was a Rockies fan. My fleeting faith laid comfortably in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

My love of baseball grew quickly and ended swiftly. Really, I didn't care who won or lost. After baseball's own players killed baseball's greatest season, baseball hit the backburner. The year 1994 will forever hold the tortured soul of the most exciting baseball ever played. I was eight and I was pumped, then I was forgotten. Baseball betrayed me, and I lost my love of the game.

In 1998, the Diamondbacks were born, and Bank One Ballpark housed my baseball-enjoyin' soul. I didn't choose them because they were an expansion team. They did have the 3rd baseman that should have broken Roger Maris's homerun record on the line-up card. In truth, I chose them because diamondback rattlesnakes are awesome.

However, I was not a true baseball fan again until 2004. And even then, it wasn't until the playoffs. Despite the play of my favorite 3rd baseman, Vinny Castilla, I still could give a rat's ass about baseball... But I love competition, and I love underdogs.

The 2004 League Championships Series will hold some of my favorite baseball, ever. Both the AL and the NL showcased a 1 seed versus a 4 seed. And both League Championship Series went to seven games. Any time a series goes the distance, it's exciting. Any time a wildcard is the cause of "The Distance" I am happy. The 2004 playoff series had two sweeps and it had three separate series go to the last game allowed. Ultimately, the Red Sox, the AL's Wild Card, won the World Series.

The 2004 season was the year I finally made an allegiance. This was the first year I ever visited Chicago, and it was three years before I would actually live there. However, I was directly influenced by every Cubs fan I met, and I was even more influenced by the amount of Cubs memorabilia that adorned EVERY window. The Cubs finished 16 games out of first place, the White Sox finished 9 games out of first place...and still no one cared.

I went to college with a lot of Southsiders. There hearts were in the right place, but when the World Series came around, they rooted for the Cardinals. It was a sad and desperate cheer, but the Southsiders rooted for the Midwest before they rooted for their own league. Granted, my college was 25 minutes outside of downtown St. Louis.

2005 rolled around and I started to notice baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox were neck and neck for the best record in the league. The Cardinals won by one game. But that is all they won.

The White Sox had no fan support, but they had a playoff birth and an X-factor in 2nd-year Manager Ozzie Guillén. To say the least, Guillén had winning experience, but he had won a World Series in 2004 as a Third Base Coach for the Florida Marlins. Guillen had knowledge and vigor, but most of all he had balls. Manager Ozzie Guillén had what it takes to get the fans behind a team, and he had what it takes to get a team behind an idea.

In a city where no one cared who was in the Southside's starting lineup, Guillén brought something Chicago it hadn't had in almost a century... Real baseball. Not to mention, a World Championship. In 2005, the White Sox won the World Series.

The year 2005 was exciting for me because I was privileged enough to see a shift in power. Something I love more than anything else. No one at my school, even the Southsiders, admitted their true allegiance. "Go Cardinals." When the playoffs started, students from coast to coast raped their way onto the Cardinals bandwagon.

I will always turn heads with my diehard appreciation for the "Away Team", but the 2005 season was the best.

I was not specifically rallying behind the White Sox, but I was definitely rooting against the Cardinals. I spent many nights in a Gonzo-like state of awareness during the 2005 MLB playoffs. I spent many nights during the whole lost year of 2005 in a Gonzo-like state of awareness. However, in those days vodka was involved. I remember threatening to chug a water bottle containing vodka when the Astros won. Slowly but surely, the fans took their sides, and I ran out of vodka.

I could recount every baseball season of my adult life. That would be torturous. Instead, I will skip ahead to now.

The 2008 baseball season has been awesome. Things in the world have changed, and I am a full-fledged White Sox fan.

Most of all, I am an Ozzie Guillén fan. He's everything I want to see in baseball. Conceit, but not arrogance. Hits, not stolen bases. Passions and perseverance. Sometimes, I want to yell at the umpires and Steve Mariotti... But Ozzie Guillén gets paid to do it for me. And who else is going to keep Kenny Williams on his toes?

Please, don't tell me what you think of Ozzie, tell him. Then it will end up on Sports Center, get blown out of proportion... and pump the White Sox and the White Sox fans into a frenzy.

I can smell an Ozzie tirade coming on now. The White Sox are in first place in the AL Central and the Twins are only a half game back, and the Sox just traded for the greatest player of our generation, Ken Griffey, Jr. (I'll give A-Rod to the next generation). Shit is going to go down.

It's time the world started to give a damn about the South Side.

I am a sports fan. I'm a sports fan. I am a sports fan.

Present day America. August 7, 2008

The Twins gain first place. Ozzie takes action. The White Sox are back in first place.