Welcome Back, Baseball

Here's a nice collection of photos that can be found on the Tribune's website showing the park staff getting ready for Opening Day. There's plenty of good ones, but 14 and 15 show some of the work that's been going on at Gate 5 and picture 22 is a nice one of the new scoreboard in left field.

First Place!

De-fault! De-fault! The two sweetest words in the English language! With today's postponement and losses by Cleveland, Minnesota, and Detroit, the White Sox and Royals are tied for first in the American League Central with a lofty 0-0 record. Now all that remains is to maintain for the next 181 days.

Despite being flanked by two Metra tracks, there has been a mystifying lack of Metra service to U.S. Cellular Field, but hopefully that's about to end. Metra, IIT, and U.S. Representative Bobby Rush are tentatively planning on breaking ground on a new 35th Street Station on the Rock Island District Line that runs just to the east of the Dan Ryan Expressway. The new station will be located at the corner of 35th and Federal St., on land donated from IIT and, if all goes well, South Suburban customers may finally be able to take the Metra to and fro Sox games as early as late 2010.

The Rock Island District, for those unaware, runs between Joliet and the LaSalle Station Downtown. The line serves South Side neighborhoods like Beverly, Morgan Park, and Washington Heights and suburban towns like Midlothian, Oak Forest, Tinley Park, and New Lenox.

Finally, buried on the New York Times' website is a blog from Tyler Kepner, their baseball writer. Normally I don't even bother reading Kepner's writings, but when you pick the Royals to win the A.L. Central, I feel I must bring it up.

White Sox Now 5th Most Expensive Ticket in Baseball

Team Marketing Report (TMR) released its annual analysis of the average cost of attending a baseball game for the upcoming 2009 season (Warning to those of you with a slow connection, this link is for a 2-page PDF file). The White Sox, with an average ticket price of $32.28, are the fifth-most expensive team to catch live in the Majors, up 6.6% from 2008 and about $5.50 more expensive than the league average. The Sox also claim the league's fifth most expensive Fan Cost Index (FCI), a rudementary tool designed to determine how expensive it is for a family of 4 to go to a game. The FCI adds up prices of tickets, parking, 2 beers, 4 pops, 4 hot dogs, 2 game programs, and 2 baseball hats. While the FCI has been criticized in the past (who really buys 1 hat at a ballgame, let alone 2?) it's still a decent ballpark figure (no pun intended) for the total cost of attending a Major League Baseball game. The Sox's FCI for 2009 is 224.11 up 4.4% over 2008.

If there's one nugget of good news from this report its that the Sox are still a bargain compared to their North Side neighbors. The Cubs average ticket price is $47.75 (47.9% higher than the Sox's) and their FCI is an even $305, 36.1% greater than the Sox's.

Tribune Reveals New Ballpark Amenities, Food Choices

You definitely know a new season is just around the corner when we finally get a sneak peek at the new features and (more importantly) food items that will be at U.S. Cellular Field this year.

The highlight of the new food items has to be the Build Your Own Burrito/Nacho carts. For $7-$8, you can pick between beef or chicken and then load up with a bevy of toppings. The carts will be deployed in both the Upper and Lower bowls of the park, so fear not 500-level ticket holders. The Sox will also open a Wine Bar in the Lower Level this year, with a glass going for $7.50-$9.50. Lastly, luxury box patrons will also be able to order a mega 2-foot, 2-lb meatball sandwich, but unfortunately, those will not be available to the general public. I'm also looking forward to the Taste of the Ballpark special that will be available in the Upper Deck. $7.50 for a hot dog, pop, small nacho, and bag of popcorn is an awfully good deal... Pending the hot dog doesn't turn out to be a cocktail weine and there's more than 1 chip with the nachos.

On the less edible side of things, the highlight of this offseason's round of renovations is the new Out of Town scoreboard above the concourse in right field. You of course remember the old, slow board. Yes, it was antiquated and yes, the board was generally at least an inning behind in out-of-town scores (which was utterly ridiculous now that you can just check the scores your own if you have an iPhone, Blackberry, or some other web browser on your cell phone), but the old board did have some charm and it was one of the last features of the park that had lasted since it opened in 1991. That said, the new board does look very, very nice.