With all the young talent on the way, the time is ripe for White Sox fans young and old to get behind the team’s young players. Ricky’s Boys will develop, mature and have their careers in front of our eyes, and fans can make a have a role in them.
It took me nearly two years. In 2017, after watching Carson Fulmer make a start with the White Sox against the San Francisco Giants and dominate them, it hit me. I found myself rooting for him. Not just wanting him to do well as a Sox pitcher, but rooting for him personally.
I haven’t had a favorite player since Dan Pasqua played for the White Sox, joining from the New York Yankees in 1987 in the trade for Richard Dotson. Having a favorite player doesn’t always happen and isn’t automatic. But sometimes, someone just grabs you and that’s it.
Most kids select the best player on a team or league because, well, who would pick anyone else. In their youthful minds, they want to be the best so why not align to the best? I have a dear friend who grew up in Louisiana but has a favorite MLB team in the Cincinnati Reds, a favorite NFL team in the Minnesota Vikings, and a favorite NBA team in the Philadelphia 76ers. Think he might have come of age as a young sports fan in 1976?
My second favorite player is Nicky Delmonico because that guy has a Shoeless Joe swing from the left side and a great personality, but he’s not Fulmer. Fulmer is my guy. My family watched this happen as we would watch White Sox games together out in Seattle thanks to the MLB package on Comcast Xfinity. It’s like having a crush as a young person. You can’t explain it, it just happens.
Then as I watched the 2018 season played out and all the rancor and vitriol Sox fans threw at him, along with Lucas Giolito, Adam Engel, Yoan Moncada and the host of other amazing young talents the Sox were bringing up, it got personal for me. I can talk bad about my brother, but you can’t talk bad about my brother. And so it was on. I had a favorite player again, and his name is Carson Fulmer.