The giveaway to the first 20,000 fans at the Chicago White Sox’s home opener at The Rate on Thursday is a blanket to celebrate the team’s 125th season. And it just might come in handy.
Conditions vary during season openers at the ballpark. Here’s what to expect Thursday, plus the warmest and coldest home openers for the White Sox.
What’s the forecast for opening day at The Rate on March 27?
Highs will be in the low to mid-50s, with rain possible Thursday morning — especially south of I-80. Weather turns breezy and cloudy by first pitch at 3 p.m. Bring a poncho just in case!
More showers and thunderstorms could arrive Thursday night with lows in the 40s, according to the National Weather Service’s Chicago office.
What’s normal for March 27 in Chicago?
The normal high is 51 degrees, with a low of 34. A trace of rain is usually observed, too.
Does cold weather matter for a White Sox home opener?
Spoiler: It probably makes a bigger difference for fans.
Since 1989 — when box scores for Major League Baseball games began to include weather conditions at the ballpark at the time of first pitch — the White Sox are 19-17 in their home openers.
The sun — and pitcher Garrett Crochet — shined in the Chicago White Sox’s first home game of the 2024 season.
But the Sox couldn’t get anything going offensively in a 1-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers in front of 33,420 fans at Guaranteed Rate Field on March 28, 2024.
The sky — and the scoreboard — spoiled the White Sox’s first home game of the 2023 season.
White Sox starter Michael Kopech yells after Giants third baseman David Villar homered for the fourth run in the fifth inning Monday, April 3, 2023, at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The game time was moved up due to rain and the San Francisco Giants beat the Sox 12-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
In 2022, fans had much to celebrate.
The opening ceremony for the White Sox home opener at Guaranteed Rate Field on April 12, 2022.
With a mix of music blasting through speakers, smoke from barbecues, plenty of cold beers and perfect baseball weather, the return of tailgating was just one of many things Chicago White Sox fans had to celebrate during their 3-2 victory during the home opener against the Seattle Mariners at Guaranteed Rate Field.
In 2021, it rained.
Fans wait out a rain delay before the Chicago White Sox home opener against the Kansas City Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field on April 8, 2021.
A rain delay on opening day at Guaranteed Rate Field meant White Sox fans had to wait a little more than two hours before observing their home-opener traditions: booing Illinois politicians — Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot in this case — and cheering for longtime head groundskeeper Roger “Sodfather” Bossard.
The temperature at first pitch (5:22 p.m.) was 58 degrees with 2 mph winds from the south and southeast, per Tribune columnist and baseball writer Paul Sullivan.
The weather didn’t seem to deter the home team. Lance Lynn threw a five-hit shutout and the Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals 6-0 in front of 8,207 fans.
The extremes
The White Sox experienced extreme weather at home games seven years apart, almost to the day.
COLDEST: 37 degrees (April 4, 2003)
The first White Sox game to be played inside the freshly renamed U.S. Cellular Field had the ingredients for a memorable home opener. More than 40,000 fans were expected to watch the Sox face the Detroit Tigers. A massive video screen in center field, nearly twice the size of the previous one, was among offseason improvements made to the stadium in anticipation of hosting the MLB All-Star Game on July 15, 2003 — 70 years after the first one took place at Comiskey Park, the idea of Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward. And the governor was scheduled to throw out the first pitch.
Instead of arriving to cheers from the home crowd, however, the winless team took the field to boos.
“If you don’t execute or perform, then I don’t necessarily take it that personally because it’s about the performance. If my performance is not good, then they should boo,” Sox manager Jerry Manuel said.
And the first pitch? It was thrown by then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — also booed by fans — who “bounced” it.
When 22 mph winds and a two-hour rain delay arrived shortly thereafter, both the players and the fans were left with, well, wet socks. It was only when the grounds crew peeled back the tarp at 4:29 p.m. that fans cheered.
“The man most worthy of applause was groundskeeper Roger Bossard, whose field survived the Great Opening Day Flood of ’03,” Tribune reporter Teddy Greenstein wrote.
Right fielder Magglio Ordonez singled home infielder Jose Valentin in the first inning. And third baseman Joe Crede ripped a two-run homer an inning later. The Sox were up 4-0.
“With the wind here, you never know how it will carry. I want to say the wind had a little help with that,” Crede said.
Sox right-hander Esteban Loaiza took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, later telling reporters the cold, wet weather was a shock compared with the warmth at spring training: “It was really hard to adjust after coming from the heat in Tucson.” He was pulled in the seventh inning after walking Carlos Pena with two outs.
Closer Billy Koch — who was also booed by fans for bombing his first save opportunity in a Sox uniform the day before — struck out the side in the ninth to give the Sox their first win of the season, 5-2.
WARMEST: 75 degrees (April 5, 2010)
The next day’s Tribune summed up the White Sox’s 6-0 shutout of the Cleveland Indians, well, perfectly — “For openers, it was just about perfect.”
The weather was gorgeous, Mark Buehrle pitched three-hit ball over seven innings and first baseman Paul Konerko hit a two-run homer before a sellout crowd of 38,935 at U.S. Cellular Field. Right fielder Alex Rios added a solo homer and ended the game with a diving catch.
Buehrle — fresh off his first career Gold Glove Award — was starting his 10th full season and his club-record eighth home opener. In addition to his impressive 95-pitch outing, the left-hander also turned in a spectacular play in the field.
“The kick-save, collision-avoiding, between-the-legs flip to Paul Konerko that dumbfounded (Lou) Marson — the best fielding play I’ve ever seen — proved how much he loves his work,” Tribune reporter Phil Rogers wrote.
Sources: National Weather Service Chicago; Tribune archives and reporting
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