The White Sox came up short Thursday as their season ended with a loss to Oakland. But it was still a memorable year.

All season long, a fan in the south suburbs has scored all 63 games – and then illustrated the scorecards with original artwork.

TRANSCRIPT

Carl Skanberg, Sox fan and illustrator: I became unemployed in March, so I had some free time and I decided to throw a little bit extra into a creative project. I’ve always been a huge baseball fan and a big scorebook guy, and I decided to score every game. 

And then illustrate it out, the big plays, the big action – just describe the games in illustrations.

Marc Vitali: Carl Skanberg is a lifelong Sox fan and a self-taught artist.

Skanberg: So I sketch it all out in pencil as I’m watching the game. And I’m drawing them quick, so I don’t get too crazy in the details or focus too much on a player. I really try to get more the overall look of a swing, or the overall look of a play, or really capture the pitching motion or something like that.

And then after the game’s over I sit down and flesh it out with the ink and finalize everything. 

Vitali: Skanberg works in many graphic styles, from realistic portraiture – to cartoons. You might say he has a good change-up.

Skanberg: I was an editorial cartoonist for the [Daily] Southtown for seven years, so I did a lot of cartoons that were editorializing the team and sometimes not so kind to them. So it was nice of them to invite me to do some things for the team in the last couple years. 

Vitali: The team enlisted him to illustrate some big games a couple of years ago, but this latest project was done for the love of the game.

One of his favorite games of the year? That’s a no-no brainer.

Skanberg: The no-hitter was great. That was a fun one to illustrate for sure. I really like the way [Lucas] Giolito come into his own and turned his career around, and became an ace on the Sox. And it’s really fun to watch him and the rest of the team. 

Jose Abreu is one of the all-time great Sox at this point. He’s had a great year. Tim Anderson on the field, I love watching him field balls, just the steps, it’s almost like a ballet when he’s doing a pirouette.

It gets repetitive because you’re drawing the same player over and over, but I like to draw [Dallas]  Keuchel’s beard is fun.

Vitali: Skanberg has documented a baseball season unlike any other, but mainly he’s just excited about his team.

Skanberg: When the season was starting I was like, this is gonna be an eventful year because there’s a bunch of rookies starting, debuting this year so, I felt I wanted to document that as well so, just seemed like a good year to do it this year. A lot of big players, new guys coming up, young kids. It’s an exciting team. 

Vitali: He’s taking it one game at a time.

Skanberg:  They have 12 more to win for a championship. It’d be nice if they keep it to 12, I don’t want to draw a lot of losses.