I had written a few weeks ago that the White Sox had turned the corner with their home series victory over the Yankees. However, both the Red Sox and Blue Jays quickly proved me wrong. Then, they continued to play poor baseball, dropping the first game (Friday) of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays and were stuck on a four-game losing streak. An old radio friend and I were enjoying our annual ball park trek to see our beloved Sox on Sunday, hoping to finally claim a victory. We watched them helplessly lose last year and several times in Chicago back at the turn of the century, thinking there was some kind of curse preventing us from seeing them win while together. He proved that it wasn’t him (just us), by going with his wife on Saturday to watch them snap the current losing streak with a game two victory.

My son, a lifelong Cubs fan, joined us for the trip into St. Petersburg and Tropicana Stadium. The two of us old guys had our throwback jerseys on in anticipation of perhaps breaking the curse. On the way into the park, I was surprisingly accused by a young woman of grabbing her butt. I assured her that it was accidental, since she had cut in front of my awkward arm swing while the back of my hand grazed her behind. She looked incensed but I was there for baseball not groping other fans. I apologized for being so forward, and tried to keep my wandering hands to myself for the rest of the day. 

The guy right in front of me grabbed a baseball while I was still sitting on my hands. It was as close to getting a game-used souvenir that I’ve ever come, but my hands did not react. I sat there envying his girlfriend who shed a few tears of joy when he presented her with the ball. It reminded me of being a teddy bear hero at the state fair.

The game looked promising after the Sox scored six runs in the first two innings, but the Rays eventually scored five and had us on the edge of our seats with Liam Hendricks on for the save. Yasmani Grandal was out of position with the numerous Sox injuries and failed to make a critical play at first base. It nearly caused the curse to continue, but fortunately did not become a deciding factor. Bad Hands!