LUDIC LOG

Today was the home opener for the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. I hereby apologize for the dullness of this entry to anyone who is not a White Sox fan, which is to say, pretty much everyone on the planet -- even the part of the planet containing Chicago.

It was not a great day for baseball. The meteorological forecast said "partly cloudy, upper 60s", which is weatherman code for "impenetrably cloudy, upper 40s", and a pathetic little I-think-I-can't breeze blew every which way, too timid to effect game play but just determined enough to make us a lot colder up in the nosebleed seats. However, an ominous threat of rain was never actualized, so the game was played, and that's all that counts.

The renovations to White Sox Park are way behind schedule -- the torpid economy and the perennial second-class-citizens-of-the-Second-City status of the Sox have prevented the selling of naming rights to some hypertrophied corporation, and as a result, big redecorating money hasn't been forthcoming -- but what has been done is, to my surprise, very nice. The new batter's eye is in; the top of it has been filled in and converted to a little open-air picnic area with new concessions, and the facade is now a lovely forest green terrace with actual living greenery here and there. It's not the Redwood National Forest, but it's a huge improvement on the huge, characterless black void that was there before. New Sox-through-history paintings have been put up all over the park, covering up the depressing gray concrete expanses, and unlike the previous murals, some of these are in color. On all public signs, the shopworn Times New Roman white-on-a-blue-background has been replaced by a very tasteful old-school font, and the restrooms (there's more of them now, as some of the old seating areas have been removed) have cool little baseball player graphics over them. Best of all, in the main concourse, the totalitarian gray concrete has been replaced completely with warm earth-tone brick, and all the concession areas no longer bear rote, generic signage like "Concourse Grill" or "Desserts", but rather have neat little names referring to great Sox players -- the Chico Carrasquel Grill, Luzinski's Rooftop Cafe, etc. All in all, management finally seems to have gotten it into their heads that the park should look like a building where actual human beings come to have a good time, and that maybe, just maybe, it should have some connotation of the 101-year history of the franchise. I'm sure a lot of this human-scale engineering and design comes because we're getting the All-Star Game next year, but I'll take it no matter how mercenary the rationale.

Amenity-wise, they've shunted some parking to the other side of Archer, making the approach to the park seem a little less desolate; prices have come down on some concessions and quantity has gone up; and they've amazingly added even more variety in the concessions on the main concourse: there's now a gyros stall, two elotes stands, a second Beers of the World booth, and best of all, a total replacement of the inedible, sauceless Old Roman Pizza with the much better Connie's. I repeat: if there's a ballpark in America with more and better food than White Sox Park, I have yet to go there.

The top layers of the upper deck haven't been sheared off yet as promised (lack of funds), so sitting up there still lends a Tenzing Norgay flavor to the whole experience and still makes the place look like a big blue ashtray when approached from the freeway. New security measures have resulted in longer lines and a rather baffling procedural mess once you enter the park. And the exit ramps are still awful and make you feel like you're lost in a parking garage after the game is over. So all is not entirely well. But improvements are genuinely being made, which is more than I can say for the last 10 years of existence of New Comiskey Park.

Oh, the game! It was delightful. Aside from the proximity of a pack of extremely loud drunken hooligans and the inevitable tedious displays of patriotism (NOTE: you do not have to stand or take your hat off for "God Bless America". It is NOT the national anthem.), it was a corking good time. Mark Buehrle, the lefty phenom, pitched incredibly for us, giving up only 2 hits through 7 innings; our bullpen pleasingly failed to fall apart, as it has tended to do of late; and the Sox offense wasn't a real artillery barrage, but it yielded 3 solid and exciting home runs (from Ray Durham, Jose Valentin and Sandy Alomar) which were more than enough to carry the day for a 5-2 White Sox win. And, my dear friends, a win on Opening Day at White Sox Park is the best I ever wish for.