Angelica Flores didn’t grow up watching sports, but at Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, she wholeheartedly embraced the Sox fandom.
The game was at least her eighth this season, she said.
“But we watch every night,” said her boyfriend, Miguel Ortega. “Every game. Sometimes wear Pope hats too to bring them good luck.”
The DeKalb couple has been together for five years. That was her first introduction to the team she now dons black and white for religiously.
Ortega, 30, has been going to Sox games for decades and grew up loving the team.
The couple was among many fans at Rate Field who have caught postseason fever after the Sox clinched a postseason berth for the first time since 2021.
For Will Barbee, 53, Friday was an opportunity to share the winning spirit with his 14 children.
Barbee and his kids, who ranged in age from 6 to 23, don’t often get to attend a game all together. So it was made even sweeter that this one comes 24 hours after the team qualified for playoff baseball.
“The crowd speaks for itself,” Barbee said. “When you’re good, people watch you. They follow you. When you’re bad, only those people who understand the game show up.”
