Pure Joy Is A White Sox Home Opener Win Served With A Rainbow Cone

CHICAGO — Rain. Snow. Vomit. Over the years, I've been through the worst conditions that a White Sox home opener can muster. That's why I generally avoid my favorite team's first game in April.

But this year, Cousin Taters scored an extra ticket. "Come on up!" he texted.

I put on my 1981 Kevin Hickey Sox jersey and headed north for the first full-capacity Opening Day at Sox Park since the coronavirus crisis ruined everything.

"You should meet me there," I texted White Sox star Tim Anderson's biggest fan.

"They have Rainbow Cones this season," I mentioned, to sweeten the temptation.

"You've got to get out and have fun while you can," she said, explaining her rationalization for ditching the last hour of work on Tuesday. "What if they shut everything down again, and I didn't get to see my Timmy play on Opening Day?"

Perhaps she might recover from such a tragedy. And that settled it.

She left work early to join more than 36,000 Sox fans, about three Seattle Mariners supporters and Cubs superfan, Ronnie "Woo-Woo" Wickers, and me at the game.

Between innings, we hunted for Original Rainbow Cones, the South Side-born, ice cream treat — chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House (that’s New York vanilla with cherries and walnuts), pistachio and orange sherbet — added to the menu at Sox Park this season.

Near section 157, Miracle Jones and Shavon Jackson sliced the five flavors into cones just for us.

What seemed like minutes later, Sox superstar center fielder Luis Robert hit a homer.

"MVP. MVP," the crowd roared.

We weren't soaked by rain or dusted with snow.

I did see a middle-aged man urinate in a crowded bathroom sink during the ninth inning.

But no one vomited in our vicinity.

And the Sox beat the Mariners 3-2.

It was pure joy.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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