I’m only going to say this once. Never go to a program where Tom Shaer is the emcee. Wait. I better repeat that. Never go to a program where Tom Shaer is the emcee.

I went to see the panel of former White Sox players, who turned out to be Donn Pall, Ron Kittle and Jack McDowell. By the time they were seated, we were over an hour in and I couldn’t take it any more. Thankfully, it was a nice night for a walk.

To be fair, Nancy Faust was there before the program started, playing the organ with her usual aplomb, to the great delight of everyone.

Faust also was featured in the 20-minute clip from the documentary Last Comiskey, which was a fun watch, particularly the part about Dave Stewart’s jock strap. I need to go to YouTube now and watch the whole film.

According to Shaer (when he wasn’t being a cloying, stand-up comedian wannabe windbag, or telling us a half dozen times that he hates to use notes, while referring to his notes), Faust, creator of the walk-up song, played her first one for Dick Allen in 1972, namely Jesus Christ Superstar.

Shaer spent an eternity introducing practically everyone in the audience, ranging from former sportswriters to former team administrative personnel to random people he knew. He skipped me, even though I co-created, produced and appeared on both episodes of a failed local cable tv sports talk show a million years ago. He must have missed it.