In Chicago we have the good fortune to have two home teams, one located on the north side and the other south. Many fans claim to bleed in the color of the team based on their geographical location and their tradition. In years past, two fandoms played for bragging rights...My team is better than your team, my team finished higher, my team went to the world series, (this is a sports version of "My dad can beat up your dad" from our childhood. We grew out of that but the sports version of the taunt is alive and well in the less mature.)
I admit that a rivalry based on boundaries adds some color to a long season but it's also stupid. As a child, when you're looking to define yourself by trying to associate with the things you consider the most grand, it is understandable to taunt with "We have a better car," "Our yard is bigger than yours," "My mom cooks better than yours." We eventually mature and grow and come to realize that this type of braggadocio rings silly and hollow. That it's meaningless and doesn't matter and is child's play.
That lesson isn't as easily learned for sports fans in a city all of us share. The deep division and philosophy that divides the Cub fan from the Sox fan is less understandable and just as childish.
I was born and bred a Cubs fan. I was part of a neighborhood cabal that made the life of our block's lone Sox fan misery. That poor kid is probably still getting therapy today based on the treatment he received from north side Cub territory. Just because we were kids doesn't make the taunting right, but it does make it more understandable. Kids are a tough crowd.
But that was then and this is now. I can take real baseball pleasure in watching the amazing Chris Sale flummox teams from other cities in the name of Chicago and the White Sox. Adam Eaton cutting down the opposition at the plate with a laser beam relay out of right field earns my applause and admiration and at the end of the night if the Sox wind up in the victory column, it is a satisfying experience. It says "Chicago" on those road jerseys and that's where I'm from. That's the city I root for and I cannot ever imagine rooting for another city to beat one of our own. It seems like a civic slap in the face. Why would you do it? Why would you root against a team wearing different colors and playing on another side of your town if you're an adult? Because that's the way it was with your parents or their parents before them? That sounds like an uninformed member of the electorate who votes one party regardless of candidate because that's what the ancestors have always done. Does this sound dumb to anyone else?
To have Chicago, a beautiful city despite its awful flaws, become a centerpiece for the country , featured in the news and discussed on talk shows in a positive manner is what we who live here should desire...something good that showcases our city. If the Cubs can do that with a magical run to a long awaited World Series, that is something we should embrace. If the Sox can once again rise to the top of the baseball world, more power to them. This is Chicago and we should be proudly applauding them from the sideline, not wishing them defeat and despair at the hands of an interloper.
Last year, the Cubs enjoyed a magical season but even as they did, my enjoyment was interrupted by Sox fans who persisted with their imaginary civil war they feel they must fight. One Facebook friend took to the net to say she would never root for the Cubs and wishes them ill will and on and on and on as if her words are going to inspire anyone to think she was acting like anything but a jackass. I hardly knew the woman and I wondered why I even had a facebook association with someone of this mindset and I put an end to it. Another friend whom I actually spent time with was in full taunt mode during the post season Cub run and reminded me of my childhood when he called the northsiders "The Flubs" which is not just childish but unimaginative and not well thought out since only one letter in "Sox" separates them from a very real negative comment on their performance. And during one exchange with this guy, I went there and called the Sox by this insulting term. "What the hell am I doing?" I wondered to myself. This guy was turning me into someone I havent been since I was ten and I didn't like it. I have no ill will toward the Sox. People like that guy were everywhere. I remember callers to sports talk stations reporting that behavior and the show hosts would say "Why do you want a person like that in your life?" Correct! I haven't seen that friend since.And yes, I am sure there are Cub fans who similarly launch verbal attacks on the White Sox.
Mind you, I completely endorse having your team...your Cubs-Sox preference. I said earlier that I am a born and bred Cub fan and if it comes down to the Cubs or Sox winning the whole enchilada, I'm going full tilt blue. BUT that said, a Cubs - Sox World Series is the only time I would root against the Sox because they are Chicago and so am I. And I cannot put myself in the shoes of anyone who would prefer Seattle or any other city come to the south side and darn our Sox.
This has all the earmarks of being a successful summer on the diamond and I hope the Cub fans and the Sox fans who endured a long winter and some unremarkable baseball seasons past will be able to enjoy it together as a city. We are baseball town, America, and the Cubs and Sox are our representatives. I don't want anyone in a St.Louis or Detroit jersey coming in to try to ruin that.
Let's play ball, Chicago! We are good!
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