Eager White Sox fans gathered at a South Side bar Tuesday in anticipation of the team’s first playoff game in five years.
“I am absolutely sick to my stomach right now, but in a good way,” said Patrick Ramos, gearing up to watch the Sox take on the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series with his brother and friends at Cork & Kerry at The Park in Armour Square.
Right now, Sox fandom is defined by a few things. Rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami (the “South Side Samurai”). Young, fun-loving players who show their personalities on and off the field. All part of an odds-defying turnaround from the dark days of 2024, when the Sox set a major league record by losing 121 games, and ticket prices dropped to $1.
Sox fans anticipate a win and hope to welcome playoff baseball back to the South Side. All three wild-card games are in Houston; the Sox must advance to the next round to play on their home turf.
“I can’t wait for the crowd to be just as insane as when we were going to the World Series, as when we had the blackout game,” said Chris Ramos, Patrick Ramos’ brother. “I expect that level of intensity in that park when we come back after we win this series.”
And perhaps the team’s most famous fan is hoping for a successful postseason. Pope Leo XIV, a lifelong Sox fan, penned a letter to the team. It arrived at Rate Field this week.
“As I have noted, ‘sport can truly become a school of life, where all can learn that abundance does not come from victory at any cost, but from sharing, from respecting others and from the joy of walking together.’ In this spirit, it is my hope that the White Sox will continue to foster bonds of friendship and solidarity among people, and thus bear hopeful witness to the possibility of living and working together in peace,” the pope wrote. “With these sentiments, I willingly invoke the Almighty’s abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones.”
Glenn Kubek, 31, grew up in the East Side neighborhood and remembers meticulously following the Sox throughout his childhood — even watching playoff games while battling food poisoning during the 2005 World Series championship run. Now a baseball coach at De La Salle Institute, just three blocks from Rate Field, he said fandom takes on a different form.
“Growing up, we were so intent on baseball,” Kubek said. “I feel like the (younger) ages now in baseball don’t watch whole games. They like watching highlights. A lot of kids don’t have favorite teams. A lot of kids just have favorite players or stuff like that, so it became a little different scene.”
Kubek and Rich Barnotes, 34, who also coaches at De La Salle, applauded the Sox coaching staff for its ability to put together a winning roster after three straight 100-loss seasons.
“To think when we were there in April of 2024, and you can hear the center fielder saying, ‘I got it’ on a fly ball, and now there’s 37,000 people there on Saturday night,” Barnotes said. “It’s just a complete 180 turnaround.”
And for some longtime fans, the seasons spent suffering make a hope-filled playoff appearance that much sweeter.
“We were still here throughout the dark days, 100-loss seasons, and, you know, we knew it was going to get better,” said longtime fan Jason James. “Did we think it was going to be this quickly? Probably not. But now we’re just going to be riding the vibes on this because we honestly, for all the misery that we’ve suffered, we deserve this.”
But some put their fandom behind one player more than others. Joshua Burke, who was in Chicago from Philadelphia to watch the Bears play the Eagles Monday night, considers himself a fan of Murakami, but not the White Sox. He’s a Phillies fan, and always wanted his team to get more international players.
“When the White Sox got him, I was all in. And once he got the name of South Side Samurai, I watched all the games,” Burke said.