My last game of the season at Guaranteed Rate Field

I made my 20th and final trip to Guaranteed Rate Field for the 2022 season Monday night. The White Sox came away with an inconsequential 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.

In sharp contrast to last October -- when the stadium was filled with 40,000 people dressed in black, cheering on the AL Central champions -- there was plenty of legroom. The announced attendance was 22,891, but that's a joke. There weren't even half that many fans there. 

The Sox are 80-80 with two games to play. It has been a sorely disappointing season that began with postseason expectations. Fans want heads to roll, and while manager Tony La Russa has retired, we're stuck with owner Jerry Reinsdorf, general manager Rick Hahn and Ken Williams, whatever the hell he's doing these days. 

I was listening to the Sox Machine podcast before the game, and Jim Margalus noted that he roots for White Sox fans more than he roots for the White Sox. This comment resonated with me as a healthier way to look at the current situation on the South Side of Chicago.

It's impossible to cheer for oligarchs like Reinsdorf. It's very difficult to like the arrogant mopes who make up his front office. It's even difficult to root for these players, some of whom have been mailing it in for weeks, if not months.

However, it is very easy to like the fans who come to 35th and Shields every year -- sometimes against their better judgment -- to support the White Sox organization. Even if I can't cheer for Reinsdorf, Hahn and all these other idiots, I can root for the day when our White Sox fan community will finally have a baseball team that makes us proud. This hope is what keeps me going.

Fans have been coming to the street corner where I took the above photo since long before I was born, and they'll still be going there long after I am dead and buried. The bond we share as White Sox fans is one that endures through the generations.

That's something we should keep in mind, as this disastrous 2022 season turns into what will likely be an offseason of cost-cutting and discontent. We still have each other, and this storm of hell, too, shall pass.

See you at the ballpark in April.

Guaranteed Rate Field 20 minutes before the game Monday night. The seats filled in a little bit, but yeah, it was die-hards only.