For an affirmed Cub-hater, the worst part of their seemingly destined run to the World Series is that my White Sox won't be there to derail them. If the Cubs do win it all -- and right now they're the hottest team -- this year will be remembered by Sox fans as the great lost opportunity for a city series. Last time we had one was 1906, when the White Sox "Hitless Wonders" beat up on their local rivals. Wrigley Field didn't yet exist, and Comiskey Park has come and gone in the years since.
I desperately wanted the Sox to win one while my father was around to enjoy it, but that didn't happen. Now I pray they'll win before either the Cubs or Red Sox make it. Between these three teams, 286 years have passed since one of them won a World Series. The Red Sox and Cubs have their respective curses to blame it on -- it's the trade of Babe Ruth, or the fact that old man Wrigley barred restaurateur Sam Sianis and his goat from the '45 series -- but the Sox fan has no such delusions to distract from all those years of failure. Instead, we have nothing but reality, whether it goes by the name of Jerry Dybzinski, Buddy Bradford or D'angelo Jimenez.
Living here in Chicago again amidst pennant fever, I find it awkward to tell people I'm rooting against the Cubs. Good friends who love the North Side team react like I'm a killjoy or fanatic. Instead, I'm just honest. Part of me would like to root for them, but I just can't. It'd be like a lifelong liberal voting Republican. It's dispiriting that the 2003 White Sox had more talent than all but one team still in the playoffs. But they did so little with it because they had less heart than practically any team in baseball. That they beat the Cubs four times out of six games this year will be a permanent reminder of what could have been. Instead, Sox fans have to remain the losers among losers, somehow less cute or noteworthy than the other historically inept franchises in Chicago and Boston. Not that I'm complaining . . .
Posted by Vernam at October 6, 2003 11:57 PMOn some level, it's gratifying that so many people in Chicago are rooting for the Cubs to lose. The Trib and other media prefer to ignore it, but they are to the Cubs as Pravda was to the Soviet Union.
I felt guilty about having brainwashed my kids into being Cub haters and so yesterday told them it's okay if they root for a Series victory. No chance. Last night the Fox announcer described Ron Santo in the hospital with tumors, hoping to make it out in time to see the Cubs in the Series. "If they make it!", my son said. Such a heartwarming family tableau.
Posted by: Vernam at October 8, 2003 10:47 AMSigh. True. All true.
I can still see Dybzinski going to third with Vance Law was still standing there in Game 5 in '83. Or maybe it was Game 4? I can't remember if it was still best-of-five in '83.
This year's playoffs are a real dilemma. They're some of the most evenly matched series I can remember but yet are between teams that I despise (Cubs, Yankees) or am bored by (Marlins). I guess that means I'm rooting for the Bosox. I'm in New England now. Seems like a good idea.
Have you heard that Fox is billing the Marlins-Cubs series as "The Most Improbable League Championship in History." Hmm. How about the very first NLCS in 1969? The "Miracle Mets" and the lackluster Braves?
Posted by: mrw at October 7, 2003 09:48 AM