A Cubs fan finds hope in Sox' success
Friday, October 28, 2005 at 10:36PM After eighty-eight years, Chicago has a baseball champion.
That’s a long time to wait.
You’d think it would cause euphoria – and perhaps in some neighborhoods it did (although probably only those that are geographically south of Chicago’s Loop). As I understand it, there were spontaneous (and in some cases not-so-spontaneous) eruptions of joy in the city and beyond.
Not in my neighborhood, on the northern border of Chicago. All was quiet on Wednesday night up here. Not a creature was stirring, certainly not a Cubs fan.
No, I awoke Thursday feeling refreshed. No hangover. A solid eight hours of sleep.
Am I happy for the White Sox?
I get that question a lot.
Should I be happy for them? I don’t know how to answer that one. To me, they’re just any other baseball team – one that’s not my team.
Yes, the Cubs and the Sox share the same city. But to me, they’re worlds apart.
I am happy for my friends who are Sox fans. They’d suffered enough.
Other than sharing the same city, that’s the one thing Cubs and Sox fans shared until this year: losing. The two Chicago baseball teams had gone longer than any other teams in baseball without winning a World Series: a combined 185 years.
Last year, when the Boston Red Sox fought off the supposed “Curse of the Bambino” to ride to World Series glory, the media made much ado about how long their poor fans had suffered without a championship. But the Beantown fans didn’t have to wait as long as the fans from the South Side of Chicago.
Futility, it is called. And no baseball city has known futility better than Chicago.
In four magical nights, though, the White Sox swept aside not only the Houston Astros but also the notion that losing and baseball necessarily go hand-in-hand in the Windy City. That's a positive step forward for Chicago baseball.
For the past couple decades, the South Side baseball fans have suffered not only from not winning. But they also had to live in the shadow of that North Side team.
There’s little doubt that the South Side baseball fans have been afflicted with an inferiority complex. Although Chicago is technically a two-baseball team town, in recent years it hasn’t seemed that way. All of the attention has been poured on those so-called loveable losers, the endearing Cubbies.
Some Sox fans might hate the Cubs and vise versa. What I hate is the term loveable losers. If it isn't an oxymoron, it should be. Some people actually seem to believe that there are Cubs fans who revel in losing. I don't get that theory. Sure, there may be some masochists our there who like the thought of rolling in cow dung, but those are some truly sick people.
On the other side, many Sox fans grew to resent their North Side counterparts over the years. It's hard for me to understand how one loser can be jealous of another, but that's basically what happened.
How did it happen? I guess it can be traced to the image of the Sox being the ugly step-sister to the pretty and likeable Cubs. But it wasn't always this way. And it didn't have to be this way.
To understand the Sox’ decline in Chicago the White Sox need to look in the mirror.
The Sox’ team owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, over the course of the last decade put on a textbook course on how to lose a fan base.
First, in 1988, Reinsdorf threatened to move the Sox to Florida, a tactic to gain momentum for a new ballpark.
Second, in 1992, the Sox traded its most promising (although at the time raw and inconsistent) slugger, Sammy Sosa, to their cross-town rivals for the aging, breaking-down George Bell. Six years later, of course, Sosa and Mark McGuire would captivate a nation in a home run battle for the ages that would revive a sport damaged by strike (more on that coming). Although Sosa’s legacy would end up crippled by a corked-bat controversy and rumors of steroid use, he single-handedly brought the Cubs franchise back to life. Fans started coming through the turnstiles just to see Sosa and didn’t stop even after he got run out of town
Third, in 1994, Reinsdorf became the catalyst behind the1994-95 baseball strike. Ironically, the White Sox were in first place in the strike-shortened 1994 season – a year that many considered the Sox to be legitimate contenders. After the strike, Reinsdorf broke up the team and began a rebuilding effort that bore little fruit until … well, until the 2005 season.
So Chicago became a Cubs town largely because the Sox’ brain trust (and I use that term loosely) did everything in its power to turn off its fan base.
Perhaps winning will bring the fans back to the South Side and make this once again a true two-baseball team town. That, in my view as a Cubs fan, would be the second best thing that could happen as a result of the Sox’ success in 2005.
The best thing that could come of the Sox winning the World Series, from my perspective as a Cubs fan, would be that winning finally becomes contagious in Chicago baseball. Few things would make me happier than to have the Cubs shake that image of loveable losers.
In the last two years, the baseball gods seem to have tried to make amends for past wrongs. Before last year, the Red Sox hadn’t won it all since 1918. Before this year, the White Sox hadn’t held the trophy since 1917.
Two down. One to go.
Cubs’ players haven’t worn World Series rings since 1908. By all historical rights, next year really, truly should be the Cubs’ year.
And that’s why this Cubs fan was quietly rooting for that other Chicago team.
Congratulations, White Sox!
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