Ellen Kroin was nowhere near a synagogue when Yom Kippur started at sundown Oct. 12. Instead the Weinberg freshman was at U.S. Cellular Field watching the White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Her parents were not thrilled.

“Five years of Hebrew school and you went to a Sox game?” the Weinberg freshman remembers them asking her. But it worked out, she said, because she fasted, abstaining from peanuts and Cracker Jacks that night.

This season Kroin has been to at least 24 games. She flew to New York City to watch the Sox play the Yankees and was at Game 2 of the World Series Sunday night, which the Sox won 7-6.

The team’s success this season has made being a fan even more rewarding for Kroin, who has been a hard-core White Sox fan for the past three years. She is one of 87 members of the facebook group “The White Sox are Awesome and the Cubs are Terrible,” and is arguably among the most dedicated sox fans at Northwestern.

“This is so exciting,” Kroin said Saturday night, watching the game against the Houston Astros from her dorm. Wearing a black White Sox baseball cap and a vintage Sox T-shirt, Kroin clapped for her team when they did well and cursed when the Houston Astros scored. Kroin had her chemistry book open at her desk, but she never looked at it.

During commercial breaks, she showed off her Sox gear: four T-shirts, two jerseys, one sweatshirt, one jumpsuit, one tank top, a change holder, a pencil holder, a bobble-head doll, a flask, a team photo and a miniature wooden baseball bat.

She pulled dozens of newspapers out from under her bed. Kroin has been collecting the sports section of the Chicago Tribune since the White Sox made it to the playoffs.

Her roommate, McCormick freshman Ali Gitomer, called it a “healthy obsession.”

Kroin’s obsession started three years ago when she really began to follow the White Sox, in part because a good friend of hers was a fan. Her family isn’t into baseball, and even if they were, they would most likely be Cubs fans, she said. Kroin is from Northbrook, Ill., and she got used to defending her team in high school.

She has to do the same at Northwestern. Gitomer said Cubs fans raided their room and stole some of Kroin’s Sox paraphernalia. The two roommates got it back.

The rivalry with Cubs fans is a friendly one, Kroin said, and she has fun encouraging it. She went so far as to wear a Florida Marlins’ T-shirt when they beat the Cubs in 2003.

But she is not a White Sox fan just to be different. Kroin said she believes White Sox fans are more sincere, and complains that games at Wrigley Field feel too much like social events.

Ultimately Kroin, who is on the premedical track, said she hopes to study sports medicine and work for the White Sox. She said free tickets to the games would be a huge perk.

Right now she still has to fight for seats like anyone else. She was able to go to Game 2 of the World Series thanks to a friend from home who offered her a ticket. But Kroin didn’t have as much luck trying to get tickets to Game 1.

“I had my computer going, my roommate’s computer going, my dad’s computer at work going, and a few of my other friends all trying to buy tickets,” Kroin said. “It didn’t work. They sold out in 18 minutes.”

When asked about her commitment to the team, Kroin explained: “Once I like something, I’ll make an effort to really like it.”

Reach Erin Stock at [email protected].