Fortunately, I didn’t bring a backpack with me to the game. Of course I don’t actually own one, which greatly reduced the chance that I would bring and have to check it (Rate Field policy), and pay for doing so, in the parking lot, which I didn’t park in, having taken the subway.

At the gate, I did show my mettle, but no metal, in allowing myself to be scanned eight or nine times, and have my hand stamped with some invisible code that may or may not ever wash off — how will I know?

As to the game itself, in the immortal words of Maxwell Smart, I “missed it by that much.” In this case the “it” was the return from the injured list of slugger Munetaka Murakami, who will be back in the White Sox lineup on July 10th, and not a moment too soon, as the Sox have scored a total of two runs in their last three games..

On the other hand, I had the good fortune to see the game from a luxury suite almost exactly behind home plate, so win, lose, who cares, pass me another piece of the decadent chocolate cake, with the eggless chocolate chip cookie dough sidecar.

Right before the first pitch, they opened the windows to the suite, allowing for the possibility of a foul ball making its way to us, which it didn’t, but we had the feel of being outside while still enjoying the benefits of the air conditioning, and, did I mention the chocolate chip cookies?