White Sox Podcast Brings Back Fond Memories

CHICAGO, IL - ‘Homecoming weekend’ is a term often associated with remembering the good times with friends at your high school. But it can also be used to remember the years when you were even younger.

That was the case for me over the weekend, when I attended the Chicago White Sox’ Saturday contest against the Kansas City Royals and a Podcast held before the game featuring two of my favorite players growing up.

The entire weekend, the White Sox held their “Homecoming” by bringing back fan favorites from the 1993 American League Western Division championship team. Those who came back to the South Side included Lance “One Dog” Johnson, former All-Star closer Roberto Hernandez, Hall-of-Fame hopeful Tim “Rock” Raines and “Black Jack” McDowell, the most recent White Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young award.

Thanks to the White Sox and a story highlighting one fan’s awesome attendance streak of more than 600 straight home games, I was invited to attend ‘The Cycle,’ a Podcast hosted by Beverly native and comedian Pat McGann and others.

On Saturday, they had both McDowell and Raines on as guests, and for half-an-hour I felt like I was eight years old again.

McDowell wasn’t shy about opening up to the hosts about his playing days, discussing everything from how expensive room service was in New York to the time he broke future teammate Robin Ventura’s 58-game hit streak when the two were foes in college. He also gave us an idea of what gig netted him more girls, pitching for the White Sox or starring as a guitarist in a band and shared a story of Royals’ Hall-of-Famer George Brett spitting down the shirt of a rookie Ventura at the Old Comiskey Park during a game in 1988.

Both he and Raines also talked about some memorable moments during the games and off the field when they were teammates on the South Side from 1991-1994.

The 1993 and 1994 seasons were special times on the South Side, with some fans still wondering what could have been. One at-bat during Game 5 the 1993 American League Championship Series turned the tide from the White Sox to the Toronto Blue Jays, who beat the good guys in six games and won the World Series.

In the strike-shortened 1994 season when the World Series was cancelled, the White Sox were among the best teams in baseball when the season ended early in August.

“We had everything it took to be a world championship team,” Raines said during the Podcast.

McDowell, who was coming off a Cy Young season the year before, agreed.

“We were as good as anybody,” he said, while noting that both he and No. 2 starter Alex Fernandez got off to slow starts that season while No. 3 and No. 4 pitchers Wilson Alvarez and Jason Bere were lights out.

For me, listening to the Podcast brought back memories of the times where the only thing on the agenda was when the White Sox were playing. A typical summer day in 1993 included a trip to the neighborhood pool, basketball pick-up games with the other kids on the block, a stop at the now long-closed Willy’s Wayside Wagon on 111th Street in Mount Greenwood and watching “The Big Hurt” Frank Thomas and crew tear it up on the field to the TV broadcast from Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Tom “Wimpy” Paciorek. I caught every game in 1993 and can still recite the entire roster from that season without Google, Wikipedia or Baseball-Reference.com.

The Podcast reminded me that baseball can still be America’s pastime, and your memories of that one team that made you a sports fan can stick and give you a smile even through the pressures of adulthood.

But while times have certainly changed since 1993, kids growing up on the South Side this decade are banking similar memories. 23 years later, the team is again in first place and boasts the best pitcher in the American League.

The result this year won’t be determined for a few more months, but faithful fans have hopes of one more Cy Young coupled with a postseason ending more similar to 2005 than 1993.