Will The Real Sox Fans Please Stand Up
The baseball playoffs have arrived and the Chicago White Sox have found their way into them. Of course this has brought out the worst in Sox nation. It seems to me that if your team makes the playoff’s you should be happy with that and move on from all this Cub’s-Sox nonsense. Sadly, some Sox fans just cannot resist acting like spite-filled fools when it comes to the Cubs.
You know I realize that the nonsense occurs on both sides of town but I ask you, go to a Game at Wrigley and count the Sox suck shirts. You may see a handful. Now, go to the Cell and count the anti-Cubs shirts. Maybe it’s just me but there is a lot more anti Cub shirts there. You see the Sox fans are obsessed with their perceived lack of respect. I’ve heard more bitching and moaning this year about the lack of media coverage and if this was the Cubs in the playoffs the city would be going ape shit. Well, all I can say is you are right.
Chicago is always going to be a Cubs town. Get over it. Maybe if you could draw some fans for a September game while you are in the middle of a pennant race you might actually register some media respect. Instead you draw 28,000 for mid-September games and well there is just no excuse for that.
You see, the Cubs are the happening team and Jerry Reinsdorf has only himself to blame for this. When he bought the team he bought it from the much-loved Sox owner Bill Veeck. His first order of business was to fire Harry Carry. So, when Harry went to the Cubs he brought everything that comes with him to the North side. His second huge mistake was putting the Sox on cable before cable was ready for them. In 1982, when he made the inexplicable decision to force Sox fans to purchase cable to see the team, cable was not available in the city of Chicago.
So, a whole potential generation of Sox fans had no way to watch the team. So, needing a baseball fix they tuned into the Cubs and Harry on WGN. Thus, the Cubs who back in the early 80’s were lucky to draw 10,000 let alone 40,000 became the number one team in this city over a period of time. For some reason the anger and jealousy that the Sox fans have over this is completely mis-placed.
Instead of being angry at the ownership they choose to hate the Cubs, because they can’t think of anything better. The Cubs have never been the issue for the Sox. As a Cub fan let me tell you in 2003 when we made the playoffs the White Sox were the farthest thought from my or most Cub fans minds. However, I will guarantee you if you head out to the Cell today it will be a mixture of a celebration of their team and a chance to knock the Cubs. The fact that they are not playing the Cubs will be of little consequence to these fools.
Sox fans will never get it and it is sad. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being the second team in this city. Instead of having an inferiority complex about it, if they embrassed it, they might actually start to realize it has advantages. Getting a ticket to Wrigley is a pain in the ass, while getting a ticket to a Sox game is never a problem. (Unless they are playing the Cubs.) You have parking and your park is not nearly as bad as the media makes it out to be. You can tailgate and once inside the park the food is better than Wrigley’s. So, I say enjoy your team and stop being so bitter when it comes to the Cubs. You are in the playoffs and you got real lucky in that you drew a weak Red Sox team. I said all along to all my Sox friends that a White Sox – Red Sox matchup was your best bet to reaching the ALCS. Enjoy this because let me tell you the playoff’s don’t come around often and when you get there you better enjoy it, because it may be awhile before you get there again.
For what it is worth here are my half assed predictions.
Red Sox over White Sox in 4
Angels over Yankees in 5
Astros over Braves in 5
Card's over Padres in 4
Angels over Red Sox in 7
Astors over Card's in 6
Angles over Astros in 7.
posted by 10withmop at 9:11 AM
8 Comments:
I didn't read the whole thing but just want to comment that Sox town vs. Cubs town is cyclical.
I don't wear a Cubs Suck shirt to White Sox games because I really don't care what the Cubs do. It would be one thing if the Sox and Cubs were in the same division or even league but they aren't so I only care what the Cubs do 6 times a year: when they play the Sox.
Of course, in order to not have to endure the razzing from friends that are Cubs fans I am always glad when the Sox have a better record.
My dream would be this:
Sox win World Series this year
Cubs win it next year (for my grandfather)
Sox win it in 2007 to shut up all my Cubs fan friends. The caveat though is I would love to see how the Cubs market "100 Years of losing" in 2008 because you know they would.
If the Sox win it this year, you won't hear me throw it into the face of Cubs fans. I'll be too happy from the victory to do that.
I was in Vegas last weeek. At the airport I saw a guy wearing a Sox shirt and went up to him to wish him luck in making the playoffs. I told him I'm originally from Chicago but I am a Cub fan but wanted to wish his team good fortune and no hard feelings. He immediately started giving me shit about the Cubs. Wrigley Field sucks, bunch of yuppies etc. I am more convinced than ever that Sox fans will never have class......I hope their plane crashes.
There is a great book by Joe Queenan called True Believers. Joe is from Philadelphia and is not a fan of either the Cubs or Sox. In the book he tells of meeting some White Sox fans while on vacation in China. He than made the same mistake as you by mentioning the Cubs.
These idiots than went on a diatribe against them and Joe at that point summarized the Chicago White Sox have the worst and most bitter fans in all of sports. To top that SI did a survey with MLB players and in it they named Sox fans the worst in baseball.
It gets to the point where you have to say get over it already. Of course in you open your Sun-Times to page 6 today you see the lovely young lady with a sign comparing the attendance of Wrigley and The Cell. Sox fans will never be happy because as much as they hate to admit it, the Cubs are the number one team in this city and they always will be no matter how far the playoff's.
I was at the game tonight having left my house way out by the Fox River after reading the start of Nick's post; hence, I was on the outlook for anti-Cubs shirts. I saw THREE. I walked around the entire concourse several times. I also didn't hear any anit-cubs chants or for that matter any anti-red sox stuff either (except for the cusses and boos directed for David Wells who stole $8,000,000 from us).
The Sox fans that you guys describe are the vocal minority.
Not that I am trying to turn the tables but all I read from you two are how horrible White Sox fans are. Can't you two let it go?
Let us enjoy what can be a magical year. We hve 9 wins left to win the World Series and we are quite happy about it. I nervously sat during the first half of the game thinking that we were going to lose unless we could just string some hits together off of el Fatso.
After the last out, I stood there and took in the entire scene. High fives (the knuckle hit hasn't made it's way to us Cro-Magnons on the South Side) everywhere. People dancing. Hoots and Hollers. It was a great feeling. Very similar to the Bears beating the Rams in the NFC title game when we cheered the snow yet somehow different.
My point being, let us enjoy this and don't bash us because a number of us don't like the Cubs. Get over it. My dad tells me that most Bears fans also didn't like the Chicago Cardinals way back when as well.
You know if I wasn't being razzed at work and in the paper or on talk radio daily than maybe I would let it go.
I will never forget sitting at a bar in 2003 when the Cubs were blowing the NLCS and seeing high fives and glee by the Sox fans in the bar. So, if they would not let me enjoy my playoffs why should I let them enjoy theirs?
I am not actively going out and rooting against the White Sox. I am however, not going to cry if they lose. Yes, the idiots are in the minority. I understand that. However, did you look in yesterdays Sun Time and see that "lady" with that sign about the attendance at Wrigley?
I am telling you walk in my shoes for thirty years having to deal with all the nonsense idiot Sox fans and tell me you would not be bitter.
Look, I have been a Cub fan since 1958 and have taken more shit from Sox fans than I care to remember. Way back in 1959 when I was still living on the north side, I had a buddy who was a Sox fan. I tried to congratulate him on thier winning the pennant after a 40 year drought and all he could do was rip Ernie Banks. Can't play short as good as Aparicio etc..........Ya try to be nice but ya get crapped on by the cro magnums. I know all Sox fans aren't dopes but it is amazing how many dopes I have encountered over the years. Face it, most Sox fans are jealous of the Cubs cause they get all the press and are a nationally loved for losing. You have to admit, Cub fans are everywhere in the country. I can't same the same for Sox fans. I am not rooting against the pale hose, I am merely indifferent.
I have walked in your shoes for 30 years it's just a switch of teams. I take shit all the time from Cubs fans about the Sox. It goes both ways.
You know I was thinking that one of the reasons Sox fans always rip Wrigley Field is that Cubs fans always rip attendance at White Sox Park--it's just natural to stick up for yourself by attacking the other guy.
Believe me in 2003, all my Cubs fan friends were giving me shit and I know many a Cubs fans who were rooting for the red Sox in this last series.
GO WHITE SOX.
That being said, I will be at games 1 and if necessary games 6 and 7 of the ALCS.
Oh, come on. You live on the south side. You are in friendly territory. Try being a Cub fan on the south side and then we can talk. It’s not the same trust me.
It's funny my friend Chris who is a Sox fan was at the same game as you last week and he told me he saw over 30 anti-Cub shirts. My personal favorite being the one Cub fan performing an oral favor on the other Cub fan. (Nothing like showing your rooting interest with a little homophobia.)
With that said there is good and bad in both fans. Are there bad Cub fans? You bet, and all I am saying is that there is an inordinate amount of hatred involving the Cubs in most Sox fans where as I don't get the sense that most Cub fans give a shit one way or the other.
As a southsider I understand the whole defending our territory thing as I am always talking up the area to co-workers who have never crossed south of Madison. In my amateur psychological analysis, the Sox fan hatred of the Cubs steams from being perceived as second-class citizens. I guess if you feel secure in your own place and team then there is no need to bash the other. I guess I just want to say to all Sox fans, enjoy this and forget about the Cubs. Go ahead and win the World Series for all I care, it won't change the fact that Chicago is a Cubs town and it will be for the foreseeable future.
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