The man in the yellow jacket has made more than one White Sox fan curious.
He’s the fixture behind home plate for most games at U.S. Cellular Field. Older gentleman. Gray hair. Sweetest seats in the ballpark. Looks to be having a nice time.
(Brett Roseman/SouthtownStar)
Then there’s the jacket. The banana yellow NASCAR jacket with smiling peanut M&M characters wearing white gloves. The jacket is so loud, it screams.
Its owner is George Jacobs, whose story has been told in bits and pieces over the years.
The 61-year-old Hinsdale man is founder of Windy City Limousine. He’s the proud father of two young girls. He’s one of the best bridge players on the planet. He’s also an international leader in Gamblers Anonymous — his license plate reads “NO BET.” And as hard as it might be to believe, he does not take one penny from the company that makes M&Ms.
So maybe it’s more accurate to say that the most infamous jacket on the South Side owns George Jacobs.
“It’s become bigger than life,” Jacobs said at his west suburban Franklin Park office, tickets to that night’s Sox game sitting on his desk, the aforementioned jacket draped over a chair at a conference table.
“I get stopped all the time,” he continued. “People ask for photographs at the game. If I wear it anywhere else, they say, ‘Hey, you’re the guy from the White Sox!”
The marriage between a garish jacket and the best seat in the house at the Cell was, according to Jacobs, “one of the greatest flukes of all time.”
Seven years ago on his birthday, his wife, Stacy, bought one of those fantasy packages for regular Joes to drive some laps at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet. The canvas M&M jacket was part of the gift. Its legend took root once the White Sox reconfigured U.S. Cellular Field after the 2004 season.
The seats behind home plate were going, replaced with a ritzy new area called the “Scout Seats.” Jacobs, a longtime season ticket holder with the Sox, Bulls and Bears, called to find out more.
“I like tickets,” he confessed. “I like great tickets to big events.”
He was stunned to find out the people who were sitting behind home plate balked at paying the extra money and relinquished their seats.
“I asked the team if I could come down there and physically see for myself if these seats were behind home plate,” Jacobs recalled. “I went down to the park. They showed me where the seats were. They are the only seats right behind the catcher. I just stepped up to the plate, as it were.”
He snatched four seats at $200 per ticket. A steep price, but for the last five seasons, he’s been closer to home plate than the pitcher. He can see the spin on curveballs and hear the chatter between the players. When Jacobs delicately, ahem, offers the umpire his opinion on balls and strikes, he’s not wasting his breath.
Jacobs said his wife accompanies him to about 90 percent of the games. He treats clients, friends and relatives to the other seats. For out-of-town guests, there is no better display of hospitality.
“To sit there will change your life. For most people, it is the greatest sporting experience of their lives,” Jacobs said. “When we complain about a strike call, we’re usually right on.”
Because Jacobs has insisted on wearing the jacket to almost every game, it has become part of the stadium wallpaper. And that has meant a lot of interest in him and his limo business.
The team’s radio play-by-play man, St. Rita High School’s own Ed Farmer, frequently mentions Jacobs on the air. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski has done time as Windy City Limousine’s official spokesman.
“I believe in guerrilla marketing,” Jacobs said. “Whatever gets peoples’ attention is what’s most important.”
Just once, during an April 20 game against the Tampa Bay Rays, did Jacobs get caught up in the action. While attempting to catch a high foul behind the backstop, he tangled through the screen with Rays catcher Dioner Navarro. His concentration broken, Navarro dropped the ball.
“We may have belly bumped or something,” Jacobs said. “I wasn’t trying to interfere with him. I know better than that. But the catcher wasn’t the least bit upset. When he looked at me to smile, he had two gold front teeth.”
The team and Jacobs recently negotiated a five-year agreement for him to keep the four seats at $260 per ticket through 2014.
Away from the ballpark, Jacobs runs a fleet of 140 vehicles during the day.
He’s won several national bridge championships. His kids are a big part of his life.
But his biggest passion might be helping problem gamblers. In 1974, broke, without friends and thoughts of suicide running through his head, Jacobs turned to Gamblers Anonymous. He’s is past chairman of the
organization’s international board.
“We don’t have any axe to grind,” he said. “We just try to help people who need help.”
Next week, he celebrates the 36th anniversary since his last bet.
But as of right now, the Sox and Jacobs are in the middle of a long home stand.
“My wife is taking a class tonight,” he said. “It’s boys night tonight.”
The jacket will be going with them.
– STM
