The Three-Hour Summer

June 25, 2026

The Game It Rained Forever

We were in a hurry to make the first pitch for the White Sox game against the Cleveland Guardians on Chicago’s South Side on Wednesday afternoon, excited to see our resurgent Sox in a battle with their top challengers for first place in the American League Central Division.

The Sox had taken the first two games of the series in typical 2026 White Sox fashion with a little luck, a little pluck, and some late inning heroics, and so we had our greedy, beady eyes on a possible sweep.

But, as a gentleman selling hats near the exit of the train told us as we rushed to the ballpark’s entrance, the game was already in a rain delay even before it started and he was right. (he certainly sounded sincere). Once inside, we saw that the tarp was stretched over the infield even though the rain, while steady, was not in the least bit bothersome.

It was the kind of rain Carlton Fisk would have laughed at, and Nellie Fox never even would have noticed. I mean, come on, world, just ask Noah, a little rain don’t hurt nothin’.

But still the game refused to begin and so we ate a lot of food and walked laps around Rate Field, endless laps, burning off our ballpark food, talking to strangers, avoiding the souvenir stand (we went in, yes, but did not succumb to the temptation to add to our already monstrous collection of White Sox caps, t-shirts, bobbleheads, and game-used sunflower seeds. Just how much money does a major league team make during a rain delay? With nothing to do, everyone just keeps eating and drinking and drinking and eating and buying ponchos and eating and drinking.)

Alas, after about two hours, the scoreboard said the game would start at 3:50 which was really about the time the game, which had a 1:10 scheduled start, should have been wrapping up. So a (relatively) short time later Roger Bossard’s crew rolled up the tarp, the national anthem was sung and the crowd, which appeared to be about a healthy 20,000, but was now cut in half, found their seats as the first pitch was thrown out by former Bulls star Horace Grant.

Why Horace Grant? Why the hell not? The game was actually being played between rounds one and two of the NBA Draft and since Jerry Reinsdorf owns both the Bulls and the White Sox it all makes some kind of marketing sense. And by the way, we are both happy and disgusted with the Bulls draft. They got a few good players and traded for a fella from Marquette, but who sells their extra draft picks instead of, you know, trying to get a few more good basketball players? The Bulls do, of course.

The Sox and Guardians could not muster much offense as the Sox played to recent form, which is good pitching, good at-bats, but not a lot of runs on the board. Fast-forward to the bottom of the ninth and the Sox trailed 3-1, with two outs, then got a solo home run from promising rookie Braden Montgomery and the crowd went wild.

The next batter? Randal Grichuk, who also launched one into the seats to tie things up, 3-3 and we the soggy, the tired, and the devout absolutely lost our collective shit. This is a team of destiny, religion, wicked resiliency and devilish charm.

But, the scoring ended there, as, three batters later, Miguel Vargas’ deep fly ball to centerfield ran out of gas (it certainly didn’t have much solar power) and we moved to the tenth. Cleveland pushed a run across and then, in the bottom half, despite loading the bases, the White Sox could not score and it all ended with a thud (and thunder claps in the distance.)

Guardians 4, White Sox 3.

The Sox are now 41-38 and in a dead-tie with Cleveland for first place and hopefully an exciting pennant race unfolds for the rest of the summer. But think of what the White Sox have done already. Forty-one victories. That’s the exact number of wins the Sox had in 2024.

All of 2024.

The White Sox are back. Wet, tired, gutsy, and afraid of nothing. Except, maybe a little bit of rain.

It was a monsoon on the way home. The baseball Gods, and the Sox’ grounds crew, managed it all perfectly. There was a three-hour window of sunshine all day long and that was when they got the game in.

Now if only those same forces can heal up Munetaka Murakami, cure some bullpen jitters and maybe fight through a few raindrops.

The White Sox announced during the game that everyone in attendance would get a free voucher for another game just for being such good sports. For the next game we kind of hope it rains. It doesn’t necessarily produce victories, but it does grow memories.