My old laboratory staff did many nice things for me when I retired. One of the most thoughtful presents from those gifted laboratorians was a commemorative brick to be placed outside Guaranteed Rate Field, a brick with my name on it. For those of you not from The City of Broad shoulders, GFR is the current name of the home stadium of my beloved Chicago White Sox.

Though the Cubs get all the national media attention, the Sox are here too, and I have been a Sox fan since 1961. Since then we have won exactly as many World Series Titles (one) as our better-publicized crosstown rivals. Even though memories of that one title have blurred through the mists of the many disappointing seasons since the 2005 victory parade, I was still excited to have my name on a brick in the commemorative plaza.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the Sox were playing a rare midweek day game, and my friend Ira and I had bought tickets weeks ago (midweek baseball, a retirement benefit.) So with Ira driving and me navigating, we fought Chicago’s insane construction traffic and made our way to the South Side.

We got to the ballpark a good 45 minutes before game time and found the spot where commemorative bricks were laid; a plaza just outside of the stadium. Ira and I scurried over the many bricks, looking for mine, but quickly realized we would never find it without a road map.

I flagged down a Customer Relations person, who directed me to an online app that would help me locate my personal brick. This proved to be one more stumbling block in my quest. For the app to tell me in which section of the plaza I could find my brick, it required that I enter not my name, but the name of the person who had ordered the brick.

When the lab told me about the gift, and presented me with a replica (see pic above), I didn’t think to say, “Hey, this is great! Who paid for it?” So I was stumped. I didn’t know who to enter into the locator app.

I spent the next ten minutes keying in the names of everyone from the lab–my pathology associates, the techs, the lab assistants, and the administrative team. With each name, the app replied that it had no record of a brick purchased by that person. Getting frustrated, and with the first pitch rapidly approaching, I gave the lab a call.

After a warm phone welcome, my question was passed around to a person or two. I got my answer when Marcella told me she was the person who placed the order.

“Hmm,” I said. “I know I tried your name in the app, but it still won’t find my brick.”

“Maybe that’s because when I bought it they said it could take a few months for it to be installed,” Marcella told me. “I am still waiting for an email to let me know it was laid.”

No brick yet! What a disappointment. And, oh yeah, the White Sox lost. But on a bright sunny day, you can’t beat fun at the old ballpark!

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