A 6th grader at a Catholic school in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood was gifted free tickets to the see the White Sox play Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday after an interview where he professed his love for the team to NBC Chicago went viral.
Donny Vilimas, a 6th grader at Bridgeport Catholic Academy in the city’s Bridgeport neighborhood, spoke with NBC Chicago’s Vi Nguyen on Wednesday before Game 3 and was overcome with emotion when talking about the White Sox.
“This might be their chance, this might be their lucky year, like in 2005,” Vilimas said in the clip that quickly went viral.
Fighting back tears, Vilimas told Nguyen “this just matters a lot to me. The White Sox are my team.”
Vilimas went to Game 3 with his parents and brother, and after his interview with NBC Chicago’s, the team reached out to his family to gift them tickets to Game 4.
“I feel great, everyone’s been talking to me,” Vilimas said the day after the video went viral. “I’ve had the best day at school in a long time.”
The 6th grader won’t just be attending the game, however, he’ll also be calling out “Play Ball!” at the start of the game.
“I’ve already had the first best experience of my life at the first game and I’m gonna have it again,” Vilimas told NBC Chicago on Thursday before Game 4. “This just — the best day of my life.”
“This is real special — I’m gonna cry now — getting to go with my sons to a lot of the games, it means a lot to me,” his father, Eric Vilimas, said. “Hopefully build some memories we can keep forever.”
If the Sox take home a win against the Guardians on Thursday, they’ll take on the Tampa Bay Rays for a spot in the World Series.
Changes were made to the White Sox lineup heading into Game 4 after they set an MLB record with 19 strikeouts in a nine-inning postseason game the day prior, breaking a record that had been set in 2020 by the New York Yankees.
“The Sox are just the most important team right now to me, they’re the only team I care about, they’re the only team I root for,” Vilimas said in a follow-up interview Thursday morning. “If they lose, then I have no heart for baseball.”
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