Well, the Chicago White Sox got in a game this afternoon. I enjoyed the pictures from yesterday -- when Opening Day was postponed due to snow. As I looked at the groundskeeper shoveling snow off the field, I thought of all the early season baseball I shivered through when I lived in Chicago during seminary.

The wonderful thing about baseball in Chicago is that there is a game every day!! Either the Sox or the Cubbies are at home every day of the season. The terrible thing about baseball in Chicago -- in April, anyway -- is that it's COLD! The few of us at the ballpark would huddle together, under blankets, with thermoses of hot coffee. Because only true fans would brave such cold to see a game, the conversation among the fans was elevated. There were no stupid questions and comments. (In other words, there were no stupid questions or comments, but we were total idiots for being out in that weather!)

Since I lived on the South Side, the home team was the Sox. They played in that ancient and magical place, Comiskey Park -- the kind of ballpark that new ballparks try to imitate, and only come close to succeeding.

General Admission tickets were $2, and big league clubs played Sunday afternoon double headers. (Remember, this was the '70s. There was outrage in the late '70s when Mike Schmidt signed a contract during that decade that paid him $560,000 a year! Wow. How money has changed the game.)

I remember in particular one Sunday afternoon we went out to Comiskey to see a double header between the Sox and the Twins. Two bucks. We figured we'd see Rod Carew hit eight times in the two games -- so here's how we figured out the price of admission. We were paying 25 cents per Carew at bat. That alone was worth it! Everything else was a freebie, thrown in!