As White Sox Begin Season, A Long-Time Fan Makes Presence Known

CHICAGO, IL – Paul Garrett hasn’t missed a season-opener at Sox Park since 2005, which not only kicked off a magical championship season for the Chicago White Sox, but that also began a run of 14 years that Garrett and his family have spent cheering on Chicago’s South Side Major League Baseball franchise in their home ballpark.

But when the coronavirus pandemic shut baseball down just as spring training was hitting its stride and delayed the start of the regular season until Friday, Garrett – a Sox season ticket-holder since 2005 – admits to feeling an emptiness. Since the first of July when Major League teams started their summer camp training and began playing intra-squad games and exhibitions, Garrett has soaked in as much baseball as possible, but he has done so knowing he likely won’t see a game in person this season.

So when the White Sox announced an initiative that allowed fans to create cardboard cutouts of themselves that would be displayed around Guaranteed Rate Field for this weekend’s three-game series against the Minnesota Twins, Garrett, who lives in Oakbrook and has been a White Sox fan since 1972 , knew he wanted in.

How much of a presence he ended up making, however, ended up being game-changing. Initially, Garrett planned for photos to be taken of himself, his wife, son and daughter that would be turned to cutouts.

But when getting his daughter back to Chicago to have her photo taken proved to provide a logistical challenge, Garrett’s wife, Sandra Lee, suggested that her husband be the lone family representative. Garrett, a self-described ham, agreed.

Garrett and his wife have long supported White Sox Charities – which is benefitting from the proceeds of the 1,500 cutouts that were sold at $49 each. So when Garrett spoke to Christine O’Reilly, the vice president of community relations and executive director for White Sox charities and learned that 100 cutouts remained, Garrett decided to buy the whole lot.

Initially, the Sox capped the number of cutouts fans could purchase to six. But after making sure the other fans were accommodated, the franchise made an exception for Garrett to be able to complete the sellout, which took place in 48 hours.

"(Garrett) is so generous and such an enthusiastic fan," O'Reilly said on Friday. "He is so amazingly generous to White Sox charities and has been so over time and so when he reached out, we just decided that he's such a great White Sox fan and special supporter that we wanted to make a special accommodation for him."

Before the cutout initiative was announced, all of the Garrett’s financial contribution had gone to support the Sox’s Amateur City Elite (ACE) program, which helps to support baseball in the inner city as well as Abreu’s Amigos, which was started in 2015 by Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, who partnered with Easter Seals Academy to help special needs children.

After purchasing the final 100 cutouts, Garrett said he contemplated what his cutout should look like. An old-school fan, Garrett still keeps a scorebook at every game he attends – which he thought might make for the perfect pose. But his wife thought differently and convinced her husband to pretend like he was yelling at the Minnesota Twins, one of the Sox’ traditional American League Central Division rivals.

“They’re certainly not one of my favorite teams,” Garrett told Patch on Friday. “I said (to the Sox) just put 100 (cutouts) of me yelling and I think everybody will get a big kick out of it.”

Garrett said he considered doing several different poses for the promotion but didn’t want to complicate matters for the production team. The cutouts will be on display during this weekend’s home series with the cutouts being displayed in the infield seats, including all 100 of those bearing Garrett’s likeness.

The FANtastic promotion raised more than $55,000 for Sox charities as all 1,500 cutouts were sold in short order to families who are using the cutouts to honor loved ones, children and others – including NBA player and former University of Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky – who wanted to get a glimpse of themselves at a White Sox game.

“There are so many familiar faces," O'Reilly said of the cutouts. "We just felt a bond that was so amazing and equally amazing were the personal stories that people were sharing about why people were buying the cutouts."

She added: "There is just such a tradition about opening day and we just felt like if we could pull this off, what a great chance to be able to have people here (remotely). They're so excited about the team and just through their cutout, just to be able to have a presence and make their support of the guys known."

Discussions are on-going whether the Sox will use the cutouts again or if they may even introduce another round of fans to be able to put themselves in the seats, O'Reilly said.

Even though Garrett likely won’t be able to see a game in person – a notion he is fine with given the safety risks involved – he holds high hopes for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008 and hasn’t posted a winning record since 2012. Now, coming off years of rebuilding, Garrett – along with other Sox fans – hope that the abbreviated season can live up to the optimism that fans had before the season was cut short.

After former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen picked the Sox to finish 33-27 this season, Garrett said that’s certainly a mark he would be ecstatic over.

“There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz for a lot of reasons,” Garrett said. “We look like a pretty good team this year, a lot of young talent. It’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to it.”