The 2023 baseball season is underway and there have been some changes at Guaranteed Rate Field. Let’s start outside the stadium, where some nice, and long overdue, landscaping has been put in place.
The area surrounding the home plate from old Comiskey Park in parking lot B has been surrounded by artificial turf and blocked off from the rest of the parking lot. In addition, strips of trees and vegetation has been planted across the divider between the lot and Gate 5. While the reduced room in the lot makes it harder for me to park there, this is an overall net positive.
Inside the park, Miller Lite continues its takeover of right field. After replacing Goose Island and rechristening the area behind the right field as Lite Landing last year, they have added additional branding above the out of town scoreboard on the scaffolding.
The upper deck gets two new clubs, the High Life Sky Lounge down the left field line and the Blue Moon Balcony along the right field line. Both give upper deck patrons a place to stand and watch the game while imbibing in their beverage of choice.
Just a week into the 2023 season, the White Sox have pulled the plug on the Jose Ruiz experiment, designating the right-hander for assignment prior to today’s game. Ruiz, who pitched well for Venezuela this spring in the World Baseball Classic, has had a bad start to the year, giving up nine earned runs in less than four innings pitched, leading to an ERA of 22.09.
Leury Garcia, the longest tenured member of the White Sox, was released today after being beaten out for the opening day roster. Garcia, who has spent portions of ten seasons on the south side, had a disappointing, injury filled 2022 and seemed to still be limited, both offensively and defensively, by the lingering impacts of those injuries this spring.
For the fifth straight season, the Cubs are using digital tickets through the MLB Ballpark app, which were uploaded yesterday. This was a much more exciting day back when physical tickets were delivered, getting a big, fancy box filled with tickets and extras in the mail.