We drive downtown to McCormick Place South for FanFest. The walk from the parking lot takes almost 20 minutes. It's a HUGE hall, and it's full of baseball stuff. It's Not like SoxFest, with local vendors selling, well, "junk" and a few seminars and autographs. No, this is Baseball. This is Mecca. My Mecca.

We stop at Home Town Heroes. It's a huge display area, just on the history of the White Sox, our own "legends" (OK, "Fan Favorites"), and a little history of the All-Star game at Comiskey. After all, the game originated there.

Next door was a large display on the Negro Leagues - uniforms in lockers, photographs, history. We were upset that we didn't see anything on Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe.

When we left that exhibit, we noticed some mascots working their way through the crowd with a sign about a Mascot Home Run derby at 10. Well, we had to check this out.

They had built a small ball field in the middle of McCormick Place, "The Diamond". It was used for clinics and seminars. Now, it was used for the Century 21 Mascot Home Run Derby. Baseball mascots are a bit unfamiliar to us fans in Chicago. Sure, the Sox had some decades ago, but this is Chicago - you don't have mascots for baseball. Well, at least Major League baseball. A few were a bit "weak" as mascots go, but we fell in love with The Bird
from the Orioles and Lou Seal from the Giants. Anyway, the winner (Junction Jack from the Astros, now a two-time winner) won a dream clubhouse for a kid. (Sort of like a tiny version of the actual Home Run Derby where the winner wins a house for a fan.) It was an absolute blast watching this.

Off to more exhibits. THe National Baseball Hall Of Fame had items that weren't at the Baseball As America exhibit at the Field Museum. The items were a bit skewed toward chicago, but still was a nice representation of items that they have.

Next door was an exhibit by Major League Baseball that had all of the trophies and awards that they will be giving out this year, like the actual 2003 World Series Trophy, MVP Trophy, All-Star MVP trophy, Golden Glove, Silver Slugger... you name it, it was there.

There was an area where you can call famous plays of the game and get your own videotape copy. There was a place to get your very own baseball card made, in your favorite uniform, with your own stats.

We had to take a break, and fortunately there was a food area right when we needed it. (That's were I decided to call-in and Audblog for you).

We walked through the Cyber Game area, filled with baseball video games by all the manufacturers on different platforms. Lots of action there.

Then there was something that I never was exposed to when I was growing up - Card Flipping. Fleer had a place where you can have Card Flipping contests to win cards and T-Shirts. It was foreign to me - was this something that was done between kids to trade cards by winning them?

There was a Legends autograph signing are that not only had MLB legends (and local legends) but Negro league and women's baseball as well.

The other side of the hall were the interactive exhibits. The batting cages were busy. The video batting cages were REALLY busy. You can go into the cage and pick the pitcher you want to pitch to you. A video was played of the appropriate pitcher as viewed from the batter. There was a small hole cut in the screen right at the pitcher's release point where the ball would be delivered to the batter. We watched a 20-something step in and pick Greg Maddox. The kid steps in and Maddox appears on the video. He goes into his wind-up and WHAP the ball hits the back of the cage. It froze the kid who was startled and tried to shake it off. I don't think he was able to hit any of his pitches. The combination of the video and the ball delivery is VERY convincing. There was also a video pitching cage as well, where you can pitch to your favorite batter. That was very busy as well, with wait time of over an hour.

It was time to hit the store - Carol owed me a shirt, so we just had to stop. It was difficult to get out of that place without buying something. We were not successful - many things were bought.

But it was just outside the store where I found the thing I have wanted all my life. Louisville Slugger was making bats with your name on it! I had to have one! They laser-etch your name in there in front of you, and then a guy who is a fourth generation bat maker adds the paint to bring the name out. It was sooooo cool! My name on my bat. Wow.

We then walked through the vendor area. Again, a higher quality of stuff than I've seen at SoxFest. After all, these are people from around the country, not from just around the area.

It was time to go to Janie & Gary's house for a barbecue. I took one look around before we left. As I did, I realized something - I felt... different.

It wasn't until much later that I realized what it was.

I was happy. Happy. I haven't felt like that in a very long time. Baseball does something to me. It's in my bones, it's in my heart, it's in my life.

It is my life and I was happy.