With a mix of music blasting through speakers, smoke from barbecues, plenty of cold beers and perfect baseball weather, the return of tailgating was just one of many things Chicago White Sox fans had to celebrate at Tuesday’s home opener at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“Today I’m celebrating being cancer-free!” said Kim Crouse, 36, a South Sider and White Sox fan for as long as she can remember.
Crouse was tailgating in Lot B with her cousin Khrystina Kulbida, 29, and her friends, Amy, 45, and Charlie Riske, 43. They were eating burgers, grilled potato packets and drinking beer.
“I wasn’t able to make it out to many games last year because I was undergoing treatment and you can’t be in the sun when you’re having chemo,” said Crouse, who said she still has 10 more rounds of radiation treatments to go.
Amy Riske, a former co-worker of Crouse, said she has been to every home opener with her husband since 2003. They began dating in 2001, and Charlie — a big fan of Hall of Famer Frank Thomas growing up — convinced her to switch from the Atlanta Braves to the White Sox. “He was totally worth changing teams,” she said.
Charlie Riske’s expectations for this season? “Undefeated,” he said without any hesitation. Crouse “want(s) them to go further into the playoffs.”
Kulbida — who was also born and raised on the South Side — “just want(s) them to stay healthy.”
Bernie DiMeo’s reason for celebration was a big one too: This was his 50th White Sox home opener in a row. “Hard to believe, but true,” he said.
It all began in college, said DiMeo, 73, of Rogers Park. At Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, he and his roommate, Rich Turek, 74, who was at Tuesday’s game with DiMeo tailgating in Lot A, were huge White Sox fans and began a competition to see who could go to the most home openers.
Turek began going to home openers in 1971 and DiMeo couldn’t go that year because he had classes. Their first home opener together was in 1972. However, after graduation, Turek landed a job that required business trips, and he broke his streak.
Turek said he has been to 40-something games but not in a row.
DiMeo fell in love with the White Sox as a child because of his father and uncle. “My uncle lived upstairs from us and (my dad and I) would watch all the games together and that’s how I became a Sox fan,” he said.
His son, Dan DiMeo, 34, made him a trophy for his 50th home opener and a patch inspired by the team’s 50th anniversary All-Star game in 1983.
“The first thing I wore when I was born was probably a White Sox onesie or something like that,” Dan DiMeo said.
“Absolutely,” Bernie DiMeo replied.
“I had a cap and a baseball in my crib and in the hospital from the first day. My first game was in the old Comiskey Park when I was 1 month old.”
During that first visit, Bernie DiMeo said he handed his newborn son to Greg Walker — a White Sox first baseman — who was more scared to catch a baby than a baseball.
In the past five decades, Bernie DiMeo said his favorite seasons were 2005 when they won the World Series because “we never saw it coming,” and 1983 because “they won the division by like 20 games and we could see it coming.”
But as far as memories go, he said, there are so many.
His favorite opening day? Just like the Riskes, the 2006 home opener when they were able to raise the World Series flag.
Bernie DiMeo is couching his expectations for this season.
“If you would have asked me a week ago, I would have said all the way,” he said. “But I am worried about these injuries; they keep piling up and every day we have more injuries. Top two pitchers are out, third base was out, top relievers out, right fielder is out … I think I may have to loosen up my arm and call Jerry Reinsdorf to see if I can pitch.”
Teddy Biancotti, 28, from Crown Point, Indiana, also tries to go to any opening game he can.
“The games are good but tailgating is where we have more fun,” he said. “I like the freedom and the cheaper beer,” said the lifelong White Sox fan who was wearing a team jersey, U.S. flag-themed glasses, and a Budweiser cowboy hat.
“(Tailgating is superior) because you get to spend time with your family and not worry about missing anything,” his fiancee, McKenzie Sallee, 27, said.
His love for the team was also generational, passed from his granddad and dad, who were also at the tailgate in Lot B. They were eating tacos, cheese crackers, shrimp, chicken wings, veggies, cookies, brownies, “beer, beer, beer… and jello shots.”
They traveled early in the morning from Indiana, but Sallee assured that if she posted an Instagram with her fiance at the Sox game, someone in her family would comment “Go Cubs!”
In between the cars’ tailgates, there were plenty of games to entertain the little ones as well as adults.
Tifanny Pillot’s family, a group of about a dozen, had the biggest game collection in Lot D: Besides the popular cornhole, they had tick-tack-toe and connect four.
Pillot, 32, said she has been a Sox fan all of her life “like any South Sider should be,” and this was her first home opener.
“Unfortunately, there’s a bit of rivalry with the Cubs and Sox in the family,” she said. But this Tuesday the family Pillot was at peace thanks to the power of tailgating games, hot dogs, burgers, pizza, veggie trays and alcoholic beverages.
Also in Lot D, the Family Gómez flooded a third of a parking row with salsa music and the aromas of chicken wings, ribs, sausages, Mexican arracheras and peppers on their grill.
This was José Gómez’s first home-opening tailgate, but he said he spent many others working in the kitchens of the ballpark as a cook from 1981 until 2019.
Gómez, 69, from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, said he cooked for ballplayers, reporters and team owners. “I am a big White Sox fan, and I’m also a big fan that they support me financially because they give me my retirement pension.”
Beatriz Gómez, 73, also from Puerto Rico, met José in Chicago thanks to family while he was working for the White Sox.
“Even though baseball is the biggest thing in Puerto Rico, I was never a ball fan until I met him and then I was able to bring our family to the stadium and do tailgates,” said Beatriz Gómez, a Vega Baja native who has lived in Chicago since 1964.
“And I would see them from that window while I was working,” José Gómez said pointing to a lateral window of the stadium and bursting into laughter.
He said opening days from the inside of the stadium were always special. “Everybody was nervous because there was a lot of pressure, but it was very nice working that day and feeling everybody’s rush.”
“Also, Magglio Ordóñez once saved me from being fired,” he remembered laughing. “I brought once my son to work when he was around 7 and he began playing in the field with the players. One of the coaches almost got him, but Ordóñez saved him from being caught.”
In 2005, he had to work during the final World Series game in Houston. Beatriz Gómez traveled for those games with her husband and she sighed as he recounted that memory.
“The last day there was a ton of food,” he said. “And the third game was super long, it lasted six hours until 1 a.m.”
“I enjoy my retirement, but I would love to be working. I really liked my job here,” José Goméz said. “¡Arriba los White Sox!”
The family’s expectations for this season? “High,” answered both in unison.
For starters, Tuesday’s opener met fans’ expectations and gave them one more reason to celebrate as the Sox beat the Mariners 3-2.
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