TO BE PUBLISHED!!! This championship is dedicated to...

[jeremydavid]

Dear 2005 Chicago White Sox,

Congrats. You guys have put together an awesome season and gave every SOX fan an amazing ride already. I am writing because I want you to know how much could be won in the playoffs. My grandpa is 80 years old and a life-long diehard SOX fan. He definately gives me an intresting persepective things. South side fans have not had anything to gloat about for his whole lifetime. Please give it all in the playoffs. This is all I ask....

sincerely, jeremydavid

[JB98]

My grandfather was 30 years in old in 1959. When the Sox lost that year, he probably thought there would be other chances to see the team make the World Series in his lifetime. Unfortunately, he died in 1997 and never got another opportunity. My father was six years old in '59. He also never got another chance. He died in 2003.

Even though I'm only 29, I'm going to make sure I enjoy this playoff run because you never know when it might be the last time you see something like this. For many of us, this is an opportunity to erase three or four generations of losing and frustration in our families. Let's hope that our time is now.

Seize the day, and Go Sox!!!

[DumpJerry]

My dad who passed away suddenly on Nov. 16 last year. He took me to my first Sox game around 1971, I took him to his last one last June. Big Sox fan all 78 years! This one is for you!

[Domeshot17]

to my grandma. She may not have been the biggest Sox Fan, or Baseball Fan. But when I was 3 years old, She would wear my dads Sox Hat and pitch to me in the backyard when she was in her 50's (and the unknowing kid I was I made her pick up her leg and wind up like Nolan Ryan). When I was young and had no money, she got us tickets, and she may not have known what was going on or ( as she always loved to joke) who was on first, but she knew I did, and I got to see the likes of Harold Baines Ozzie Guillen and The Big Hurt and Rockin Robin as youngsters. We layed her to rest on Valentines day 2004. I know where ever she is, she doesnt know who Tadahito Iguchi is, or Jose Contreras or Bobby Jenks, but I know it was just it was when I was a kid, she was happy seeing me this happy.

[DieTrying79]

I love this thread, thank you for starting it.

Grandpa Scotty, I hope you're watching up there. Life long fan, loathed the Cubs, and always loved going to games, even as an old man.

My mom told me a story tonite about how Grandpa took the wife and kids to Comiskey one weekend to sit in the press box area with the rest of the reporters and media (he started out as a young journalist in Joliet, and around the time of his retirement, he was a member of the senior staff at the Gary Post Tribune).

Too many generations of let downs...let's do this thing!

Thank you, White Sox, for some of the happiest moments of my life this season!

GO GO SOX!!

[voodoochile]

Dad wasn't a big sports fan, but he used to take me to baseball games as a kid. We went to both flubbie and Sox games - actually more flubbie games and I kind of grew up a flubs fan.

Still, I made it out and never looked back. Dad never questioned my change and he really didn't care, but he is a major part of the reason I am such a big sports fan today even if he wasn't. He died in January 1999 and I miss him immensely. He may not care who wins this coming series and I don't believe he's watching me or the games, but if he is somewhere out there, he's smiling because I'm smiling and I'm smiling because of the Sox.

Thanks Dad and of course... GO SOX!

[cbone]

For my Mom, She passed away last year. I wacthed about a million Sox games with her. I think she's looking down watching every pitch with me.

[SoxRulecubsdrool]

Mom, Dad and Brother!

My Mom was the last to go. Last fall of cancer. I was basically the one that took care of her every day. Stopping in 2-3-4 times a day. Even after the Sox collapsed at the end of the season, she would have the game on every day to the end. Even if it was a lopsided 9-2 score or something like that, she would keep it on.
Sorry you missed this Mom. At least from down here.
You probably got a better view from up there anyway.

[ode to veeck]

Ode's dad, who started taking him to Sox games and brewery tours with his grandpa and associated cronies from age 6 in 1962, passed away from colon cancer just about 4 years ago. Both dad and grandpa were lifelong southsiders and Sox fans.

Mrs. Ode's dad, who played for the Will County team and single A Sox back in the late 40s, is still alive and well, and celebrating the Sox clinching today. He still has a letter from Rogers Hornsby who was trying to recruit him for the Flubs. Unfortunately, Don had an injury his 1st season on the single A Sox and his dad used it as an excuse to drag him away from the game and put him to work permanently in the family grocery biz. He has been waiting his entire life (well over 70 years) for a Sox WS victory.

[The_Floridian]

To Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe.

[TommyJohn]

My grandfather Larson, whom I never knew, was the first person to come to
my mind, but I would be remiss not to mention others.

My father's Aunt Virginia, who was as passionate a White Sox fan as any who
ever lived. She was 7 years old in 1917 and died in 1988. My aunt tells the
story of how she was at a game with "aunt Virge" in the 1960's. Mickey
Mantle came to the plate. A rather big female Yankee fan stood up and
yelled for Mantle to hit a homer. Aunt Virge boomed in her Bea Arthur
voice "Siddown!" and topped it off with a name I won't repeat here.
Then there was the time she mentioned the Sox in a restaurant. A stranger
overheard her and said "the Sox? You have to root for the Cubs. The Cubs
are Chicago's team, Mary!" This started a loud argument during which she
yelled "shut up and eat your soup!" The stranger turned out to be Dizzy
Dean. When she found out and tried to apologize, he told her "you stick
with the Sox."

There is also my grandmother, who died in 2003. Today would have been
her 91st birthday. She was a huge Sox fan until they lost. Then she would
carry on about how it was "all fixed." She would often cite 1919 as proof.
She was in her glory in 1983. The day after Game 4 she rambled on and on
about how "Vegas" had decided who would win and who wouldn't. God, she
drove me crazy. Still, I know that if she were alive today, she would be
happy. Until the Sox lost the first game in the playoffs, that is. Then
everything would be back to being fixed again.

[tebman]

Wonderful thread. Thanks for starting it.

I think of my Dad, who died in 1969, but took me to Sox games as a kid and introduced me to the beauty of hard work, realisitic expectations, and loud ballpark noises. Also of my grandmother who listened to every game on the radio in the 1970s as her eyesight faded. We had glorious hot-stove arguments about the Sox in those years.

And of course, Bill Veeck. Someone else mentioned his name but it bears repeating. A guy who understood the magic of baseball and, most importantly, understood White Sox fans.

Here's to all of them -- beer drinkers, every one!

[Saracen]

My dad Brendan grew up a couple blocks from Comiskey. He wasn't a big sports fan, but used to tell us stories about how he & the neighborhood kids would climb fences on Comiskey's exterior, all the way up to the roof and sit up there to watch games in the 1940's. "If mom had known, she would have killed us."

And then a couple times a year, he'd take me to a ballgame at the old park. Those were the most fun times I ever had as a kid.

He died 3 years ago, down here in Dallas, but never lost the Southside in him. So here's to you Dad, hope you're looking down and enjoying.

[FoulTerritory]

To my Grandmother who passed away last month. She started the thread of Soxfandom in my family.

[CaptainBallz]

To Grandpa Joe who passed in 2001. Migrated his whole family, including my mother, from Ireland to the South Side in the 1960's. A loyal Sox fan every moment since.

Hopefully, this is the year we've been waiting for Grandpa!