The Weekend Round Up – Sox Prom / Sox Fest / Baderbrau Meet Up
The Players……
Wednesday – White Sox Prom
The White Sox put together a little season ticket holder event for your friends in the 108….oh and the rest of the season ticket holders. It was quite the shindig, held at the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th Street. This is an old storage building that has been turned into a multi-purpose facility for hosting events and such. We took an old freight elevator, and when I say “old” I mean, you weren’t even enclosed up to the Sky Loft, which is the 6th floor. This is a large open space that looks like a former warehouse with exposed brick and gorgeous views of the Chicago Skyline. When up there, there were literally fans, players and front office folks everywhere. As you can see, we met Rick Renteria. Chorizy-E remembered to double up on beers before the bar closed, but he did not remember to discuss his Team Mexico idea with Ricky! Major fail.
It was that kind of event at White Sox Prom, free booze and food and fun times talking to other fans and season ticket holders. There was also a Q & A with Rick Hahn and Ricky Renteria, but at this point, the whole crew felt like we had heard this same old session over and over again, so we decided to huddle up and chat about what was going down on Friday (#Friyay).
Friday (#Friyay) – Sox Fest 2018
I woke up early on Friday, much like a kid before Christmas, but I went downstairs to pack up my items that I wanted signed. I would have finished it the night before, but after 2 Frutsunami beers at Baderbrau and 2 or 3 Christmas Bliss at home, I was due to go to bed, but got everything for sober MSS to inspect before I left. Left the house at 10:30 am too, only a half hour later than I wanted to leave.
The Twitter was all a buzz as #WallyMoney was drinking while waiting for a train. Upon arrival, I got my key and some bad news, Hilton Chicago closed their VIP lounge which kept us fed for breakfast, and a few free pops during the day. Plus for the past few years we’ve been privy to meeting up with ’83 ROY Ron Kittle and my favorite player of all time Harold Baines to eat breakfast. Easily one of the highlights of years past. But then again, Wally was drinking like a crazy person so I knew we were in for a good time!
2 years ago there was a mild disaster when we left the opening ceremonies, so the Sox were taking NO chances. They had us line up, then moved to the ballroom with huge cattle call lanes, to wait in line more. Sounds boring huh? It is, but you get to chat with people! Or make your brand ambassador work.
Yes, those are super limited cards SIGNED by #WallyMoney. Yes, there is even 2 special edition releases signed in SILVER. I took a pic with Yoan Moncada (who is just nice as fuck) with the 10 of 10 on Sunday, and forgot to give it to the man! What a dick I am!
After the talking had slowed down, our savior (Aloha Mr.Hand), showed up bearing gifts…..
I drank that beer like it owed me money. Interesting fact about SoxFest, I don’t drink much. If you drink a lot, you gotta piss, if you piss you ain’t in line, if you ain’t in line you get fucked. Any questions? You can even bring in your own, such a waste of an opportunity by myself to get all hammered for a low low price.
But anyways, cheers to you readers as y’all stopped me about 97 times on Friday to talk shop and beg for a Baderbrau drink token. It really puts a pep in my step to know that we have that many fans and like our stuff. Thank you, thank you.
Upon our arrival to the former holding room, we were penned up like the cattle we are in the order we arrived. It was really smooth. And #WallyMoney was well on his way to getting Friday night drunk! He even met some of his latino buddies and shared his “happy juice” with them so everyone was getting loud!
Upon the completion of the opening ceremony, it was a mad rush to Yoan Moncada. Which we made. SoxFest had begun! Friday night is a great night to score a bunch of autographs while not standing in line. The players aren’t pissed off yet (see Michael Kopech, more on that later) and they are basking in the glow of everyone kissing their asses. I got a bunch off my list that night and packed my bag to head to Baderbrau.
Friday (#Friyay) – Sox Fest 2018 AFTER PARTY at Baderbrau
The MAIN EVENT!!! The brain child of a collaboration between the 108ers and the Sox Machine! The 108ers have been friendly with Josh Nelson from Sox Machine for about a year now, via twitter and hanging out at the ballpark and outside of the ballpark together. He and his girlfriend Kim are awesome!! Josh suggested an EVENT to get fans together on one night of Sox Fest. We ended up settling on Friday #Friyay night.
It was obvious from GO that the venue would be Baderbrau, terrific beers, great food, excellent service and the 108ers partner with Baderbrau on many events during the White Sox season. Baderbrau is also the sponsor of the #SundaySoak, if you haven’t gotten in on the SundaySoak yet, then shame on YOU!!! We’ll be doing 20 of them in calendar year 2018, so be ready to ingest plenty of dad bods in hot tubs over the course of the year. We also have some other “events” already on the calendar with our partners over at Baderbrau that we think you’ll enjoy, you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out about them as time goes on.
Anywho, when this event was dreamed up, we thought 20-25 attendees would be pretty sweet. In fact, the 108ers literally started thinking through who we have made friends with during the last couple of years at the ballpark and outside, great White Sox fans who share our passion for the team and for great Baderbrau beer. We went down the list and sent DM’s to many of you folks to ensure that you would show and a majority of you made it, which was fucking awesome!! That group includes but isn’t limited to Michelle (@dirrty862) and crew @AJEarley4, @jigsawtim22, Steve (@chisox2727), ClassyTom (@classytom24), Sox-Side Pride (@pitsshady), El Chapo, Sleepy Harold (@Sleepy_Harold_), @DoogieDallas (sorry we couldn’t get Siera Santos to show), Short Tie Guy, Mike (@stangski83) and his better half, Simeon (@simpossible who curiously has the same occupation as one BeefLoaf), Scott from Cali (@scottgarcia35) and his lovely wife, @crappyoats (who had a BIG weekend), @_thecraw and his awesome family in from Iowa, Zach (@zsherwood), Keir (@kdgg09), @ColinJOtt, and so many others! If we missed you, we apologize, you know, boozing and such, but we had a great time hanging with everyone!!!!
The 108ers put together a periscope video and blog post to announce the event, Josh got an Eventbrite going to track the number of people and we were off……..our dream child of 20-25 people turned into ~75 people (I did a head count of 70 during the Round Table and I know for certain that our buddy from the UK Nick Clarke @nclarke1899 and his friend had already left prior to that), including Baderbrau giving us a private room and staff to attend to this event. We were thrilled!!! Baderbrau also provided the crowd with 15% off of EVERYTHING!!! Lastly they gave the 108ers drink chips to pass out to people both at the event and for MySoxSummer (Mayor of the 108) to hand out during SoxFest all weekend.
The crowd that showed was a veritable Who’s Who? from White Sox twitter. Tons of folks were meeting for the first time and really hitting it off. Which was exceptionally cool in our humble opinions. Mike Musary @muzzkill7 even brought beer pong and kept the games going all throughout the night (except for when the Roundtable discussion was going on). The beer was flowing, the food was terrific and people were having a great time!!
Once everyone had a couple two, tree drinks in them, and really started to get lathered up, Josh Nelson gathered a member of each of the assembled indies (that stands for Independent for those not in the biz) for a little RoundTable discussion. The crew was…Josh Nelson (SoxMachine) Host, Jim Margulis (SoxMachine), Jonnie Nonnie (SoxOn35th), Patrick Flowers (LoopSports), Chorizy-E (Section108) and The People’s Champ (SpoCoRadio). The RoundTable was two parts, Part 1, was questions from the Host, Josh Nelson, Part 2, was questions from the audience, with a twist, if your audience question was deemed GOOD by Host Josh Nelson, then MySoxSummer would provide you with a drink chip for a free pint at Baderbrau.
Some highlights of the RoundTable…..Josh Nelson was AWESOME!!! As good as he is hosting his podcast, he was that much better with a live crowd and panel to work with. He really got the panel going and definitely vibed well with the live crowd. An especially fun portion of the panel was Jim Margulis’ overt mancrush on Nicky “Steaks” Delmonico, Jim also lead the crowd in a chant of “Tito!…Polo!….Tito!…Polo!….Tito!…Polo!” The Champ, friend of the 108 and fire-breathing co-host of SpoCo Radio got the crowd fired up with his BOLD prediction that Eloy Jimenez will be in Chicago by June and smack 20 dongs for the Pale Hose. Patrick Flowers from the Loop Sports ALSO gave a similar projection for the former Cubs farmhand. The crowd really enjoyed dreaming on Eloy. Jonnie Nonnie from Sox@35th shocked the crowd by saying he thinks Charlie Tilson will be the stand out prospect that contributes to the big league club this year. But our own Chorizy-E absolutely stole the show…..sometimes us 108ers drink a little too much and forget to do vital things, like Periscope the RoundTable, so because booze, we have a breakdown of some of the key Chorizy-Eisms from the talk.
- Welington Castillo will be the best hitter on the Sox this year
- James Shields will be the breakout player of the year (who cares that this would be more comeback player of the year, but whatever)
- Jaime Garcia will be the team’s best pitcher despite still being a free agent and what he predicted for James Shields
- Josh Donaldson would be traded to the Sox (possibly for Ryan Cordell‘s broken back) and sign a 3yr/$60M extension
- Seby Zavala will be the surprise player to contribute to the big league team
In case you can’t tell from the answers, he wasn’t 100% serious, but he’ll probably defend each statement to the death.
Fun was had by all, very last, last, last special thanks to our friends at Baderbrau, our bartender Ro was the joint, he kept everyone imbibing, big thanks to Nathan who got us all set up, we’ll also thank Eric, even though he didn’t do shit and was probably wise-cracking somewhere…..finally thanks to the BIG BOSSES Rob and Rocky, we appreciate you encouraging our hijinx.
Saturday – Sox Fest 2018
If you saw me at Baderbrau that Friday night, you saw me literally eat a FULL Mac & Cheese waffle in about 47 seconds. All the while pounding IPL’s. I hadn’t eaten anything that day besides some breakfast and a turkey sandwich that Bobbles Jim nicely brought with him so we all wouldn’t starve. I remember thinking that it was 11 pm I needed to get my ass out of there to get home to get to bed. So of course I offered to buy #AlohaMr.Hand a drink, and then he turned the tables on me and bought me a drink, so I had to stay for that last beer. Upon completion of said beer, I put my jacket on (and as he tends to do) BeefLoaf made a loud comment about leaving together but I was in such a rush. SO OF COURSE I HAD TO HAVE ANOTHER BEER, cause why sit there and NOT drink? Anyways, when we finally got into an Lyft, it was 10 to 1. FUCK.
When I got home, I set my alarm for 5 am, and the damn phone broke my heart by telling me that I was gonna get 3 and a half hours of sleep before I had to get up again. Ugh. Classic SoxFest. So 3 hours later, I took a shower, got a Lyft and headed back. I was greeted at the room by #WallyMoney in a towel and I got my backpack set with shit I needed for that day.
Our good friend #TeacherA saved us some seats (solid move) and the plan was set to go right for Jose Abreu. Later, I was bummed that I didn’t get Thomas as he was signing his HOF inscription, but that is the way the cookie crumbles. Saturday was a great day as well, I am sure I saw a bunch of people, talked to a bunch of people, but I was sleep walking through the day. So if I held court with you in earshot, and what I said didn’t make any sense, blame Beefloaf.
I did get to meet up with #FarmerMatt and his family and shared several beers with him. It was a blast, which would have been my highlight had I not made it home before my daughter awoke from her 5pm to 7pm “nap” we read tons of books and had lots of snuggles. I was in bed by 10pm and was ready to go again for Sunday.
Sunday – Sox Fest 2018
Oddly, getting more sleep made me MORE tired. How does it work like that? The day’s plan had a 9am signing with Yoan Moncada but as true junkies with the MVP pass, we doubled up and hit Kopech and Lopez. Shit went down at Kopech, but I have a stand alone blog that will talk about that aspect, but Lopez was looking fresh.
Sunday seems to be an easy going day, with lots of good-byes and see ya opening day lines, all the while squeezing in the last ounce of baseball that we can before we get a couple more months of snow. For my man #HomeTownJon, I even stood in line for HOFer Carlton Fisk. Fisk has really settled down over the years, he is actually fun to be around. But no one is as fun as @nakedbiker 1983 ROY Ron Kittle. On Saturday night (between cigars I am guessing) the chairman gave Ron some new bling. A brand new 2005 World Series ring. In true Kittle fashion, he downplayed it, and showed it off the only way he can…
All in all, SoxFest is a fun time for 1 weekend a year. I can only handle it for 3 days and never think about lines till that first bobblehead day. This is my haul, it was fun, and I think I’ll be back next year too. Maybe with Little Miss Shortstop, maybe not. I am guessing not. LOL.
– Your Friends at Section 108
About The Author
mysoxsummer
108 OG / The Face Of The 108 / #108ING / #SoChoice