Posted on 10/23/2005 9:55:48 PM PDT by Nachum
Arnold Fege's office at the Public Education Network is adorned with a picture of old Comiskey Park. He drives a car into work from Virginia every day adorned with a Sox sticker and license plate.
"I do whatever I can to try to identify myself as one of those South Side renegades," he says. "But it's tough. This is the first time I've received any recognition since 1959."
Teams like the Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox are known to have far-reaching fan bases. Finding like-minded White Sox fans in Washington has been difficult. But with the team reaching its first World Series in 46 years, fans away from Chicago are getting their chance to prove there is a White Sox Nation.
"This is a big moment for us," said Fege, a native Chicagoan who moved to Washington as a lobbyist in 1980. "The [Washington] Post hardly every even carries a box score or recognizes the White Sox are alive. And on cable, if it's not the Cubs, it's Boston or New York."
As a Midwesterner, Fege says he would have preferred to play the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. But his political leanings give him an even greater rooting interest in facing the Houston Astros.
"Being an Irish Democrat, there's nothing like sticking it to Texas," he says.
Tom Kotarac is a lifelong White Sox fan and a legislative assistant to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat whose district includes part of the South Side.
"When the Cubs played the Marlins [in the 2003 National League Championship Series], I would go places where most people were disinterested and yell out, `Go Fish!'" he says. "There's only one team from Chicago that plays real baseball. But if people up here find out you're a White Sox fan, they look at you like you're an alien."
Kotarac says he'll find other White Sox fans to watch the first few World Series games at a Washington sports bar. When--not if, he says--a Sox championship is imminent, he may go back to Chicago to celebrate.
Likewise, Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Washington's Temple Micah hopes to return to Chicago to enjoy the atmosphere.
"I told my sister, I'll be 98 if they go another 46 years before they get into another World Series," Zemel says. "I'll enjoy that one from my rocking chair."
Zemel says he checks the Tribune and fan Web sites "about every five seconds" to keep up with all the news. If he can't get a ticket, he says, he'll watch the games from home.
Zemel has woven his love for the Sox into his temple duties. Every Sunday at religious school he wears one of two Sox jerseys the staff gave him.
"The kids at Temple Micah think, `Do you have to be a White Sox fan to be a rabbi?'" he says
Great game! I loved watching tonight. I'm really a cubs fan, but this is great too.
Thanks for the post.
Just about as exciting as you get. A lead stealing Grand Slam, followed by a game tying double by the Astro's.
And finaly? A little boys dream of a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th, by the most unlikely game saver. . . . . . .for the second time in the post season, but I think pods has a special place right now, cuz. . . .
Well MAN!?!?! It's the World Flogging SERIES!!!
Go Sox
Heart warming for sure. (Tearing)
I wish baseball was a popular as it was when I was a kid. Those were the days. LOL My kids kept coming in to tell me to quiet down (school day tomorrw) because I kept yelling Go Sox GO!
To me Baseball is still AMERICAN PIE!
It would be so cool to be in Chicago tonight. I can hardly wait til the next game.
Sleep well fan!
This is the ex-Brewers series.
Garner, the unlikely manager and Podsednik, the unlikely hero.
I knew something was rotten in Denmark.
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