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Most native Chicagoans, from an early, age pick sides. Cubs or White Sox. Sometimes it's a conscious choice. More often, its a nature of geography or passed down by family -- father to son, mother to daughter. And once we make this choice, there's no changing it for most Chicagoans. We ride the highs and lows with our teams.
So what made you pick Cubs or Sox?
Chicagoist didn't inherit our team from our parents. They both grew up in small Midwest towns with no baseball teams and had only modest interest in sports. While we grew up deep inside Cubs territory, we chose to cheer for the White Sox at the tender age of eight after trying on both teams for size for a bit. This was 1985, so we'd just seen the 1983 "winnin' ugly" Sox and the 1984 Cubs make the playoffs. While we appreciated the "play to have fun" aspect of our Little League, we sensed that major leaguers should care more and the Cubs whole "lovable losers" thing didn't work for us. So we picked the Sox, even when they were just plain losers. And in many of those ensuing years they were -- winning 72, 77, 71 and 69 games the next four years. But we stood with them anyway. We've done so ever since and there's nothing that'll change that.
2003 was certainly a painful year to be a Sox fan. Not only did our team drop 5 of 7 to the Twins in September after entering the month in 1st place, but we had to watch the Cubs make it to the NLCS. For a while, it looked like out worst nightmares would come true -- even worse than the Cubs actually making the World Series would be having to put up with Cubs fans gloating about it. We'd probably have rather died than putting up with that. Chicagoist is sure than many Cubs fans now feel the same way.
Among those who expressed such sentiments was Irene Egan. Her son recounted and exchange he had with his mother, "She's like, 'If them damn Sox go to the World Series, it will be the death of me.'" Two days after the Sox won the pennant, Irene died of a heart attack. "The White Sox gave her a heart attack," [granddaughter Allena] Harnish said with a chuckle. "The White Sox killed my grandma." Chicago baseball fans understand.
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It definitely was a matter of it being passed down to me by my dad -- being a Cubs fan, that is. I moved back to Chicago last year, and I don't think I could ever switch teams, just because of how strongly I associate the Cubs with my dad ... The days when I was a kid, when he'd drag the TV out into the backyard of our bungalow, pop open an Old Style, and we'd watch the games together.
My dad took me to a Sox game when I was 8, and I grew up in the south suburbs, I wasn't aware that I had a choice in the matter.
In 3rd grade, we watched the Cubs lose the playoffs to the Padres in school (um, yeah, I guess my teacher was a big fan...) Even though they lost, I learned a lot about the game, the team, the names of the players, etc., and so became a Cubs fan.
when i was growing up, going to wrigley field was akin to going to six flags.
we went to comiskey to watch baseball.
Born a sox fan remember my first game in 77 only 3 years old And also my first memory period. YES i can remember this. Having absolutely no idea where I was or what was going on, I remember watching a marching band going through the old concourses. Thanks Bill for the memory. I would have to think the Ole' Bill and Harry have something to do with these mysterious wins. I think they finally buried the hatchet with Reinsdorf. Or they are looking down at the Cubs and wondering what the hell the Trib has done to them.
when i was growing up, going to wrigley field was akin to going to six flags.
we went to comiskey to watch baseball.
My dad was always a Yankees fan and I saw the Yankees play more than any other team until I moved here and started watching the Cubs. That particular problem is my friend Dana's fault because she wanted someone to go to the game with her. And now I know way too much about and care way too much about the Cubs.
For some reason, when I was 11 years old, I would always do homework and go to sleep listening to WMAQ 670. Back in the early 90s WMAQ was broadcasting the Sox games. And I became a big fan. Then the strike-shortened season came when I thought the Sox were going to do something big that year. I lost a little bit of excitement for baseball since then. But I'm still a Sox fan.
I grew up in a small town halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, so you were either a Cubs fan or a Cardinals fan. My grandfather went with the Cubs, so we all did. We rooted for the Sox too, but not like we did for the Cubbies. Similar to Irene Egan, my grandfather died in 1987 after having a heart attack when the Cubs blew a ninth inning lead. Until her death seven years later, my grandmother refused to watch Cubs games because, "the Cubs killed your grandfather!"
So I'm a Sox fan because my grandfather pitched for them. So its kind of genetic. Here's the irony though. After school my brother and I would go to my grandparent's until my mom got off work. My grandfather was obviously a baseball fan, and the Cubs on WGN would be the only game on most of the time. So my brother, having grown up watching the Cubs at my grandparents constantly, is a huge Cubs fan. So when someone asks either my brother or I why we like the Cubs/Sox, we both truthfully answer "Because of my Grandfather"
Mom is a Sox fan and passed it down, though growing up in the south suburbs didn't hurt either. I was lucky enough to repay this kindness and took her to game one Saturday.
Also, being a Cub fan always seemed too easy. Nobody asks "Why are you a Cub fan?" Wriglye Field, the bleachers, the neighborhood, it seems like a given. Whereas I am constantly asked why I root for the Sox.
Sports was never a big thing for me growing up (and still isn't) but I loved Chicago even before I started living here. I lived in the south 'burbs not too far from the city proper. Geographically, I was a Sox fan.
My dad's father is a Cubs fan but my mom's dad is a Sox fan. So there wasn't much of a familial influence there. But our house was a Sox house. I never asked why, it just was. Going to games as a kid reinforced it. I felt like this was my team, you know? Plus, I love an underdog. And exploding scoreboards.
We were Twins fans and when we moved to Chicago in 1967 (after the Twins went to the World Series in 1965), we became Sox fans because we were familiar with the Sox. But in 1968, I was convinced to also become a Cubs fan, because everybody in High School was a Cubs fan. After the Cubs BLEW it in 1969, the gild was off the lily, but still maintained a Sox/Cubs fan dualism.
I never really liked Wrigley Field that much, and I don't like the new Comiskey, but I thought the OLD Comiskey was one of the greatest ballparks ever. Almost no bad seats and I sat in almost all areas - never had to sit behind a post, though.
Let's face it. I LIKE BASEBALL!
/Especially on a giant screen!
//It's awesome!!!
I grew up in Beverly with a Steinmetz high grad father who plastered a Cubs sticker on our front door. I remember going to get the mail and finding a issue of Vine Line with my Dad's name on it ... it was embarassing!
Which way do you think I went?
Genetic, my dad's dad grew up on the southside and was a sox fan, which made my dad a fan which he passed onto me. Ever since I can remember my dad's always referred to Wrigley as a little league field(sorry cubs fans) I went to one game at Wrigley when I was about 8 or 9 and I wasnt impressed. Besides Sox always had nite games which made it easier to go to weekday games, and early in the season when it was cold at nite, there was something about drinking hot chocolate to stay warm and watch baseball. It was kinda masochistic I admit, freezing your tail off but it felt good. Besides which I have talked to all sorts of people who've never lived in Chicago who profess to be cubs fans but don't know anything about the team or only watch 1 game a year. The cubs it seemed it always too easy to like them.
I'm a Cubs fan, primarily because I moved to Chicago in 1998 in the middle of the Sosa-McGuire battle. Being an ex-Kansan, it was my duty to hate the Cardinals so my alliegance switched to the Cubs.
I have been a Cubs fan since 1982.
Since 1984, the Cubs have averaged approximately two millions fans a season.
Since 2005, the White Sox reached over 2 million for the first time in its franchise history.
If the Cubs were/are too unbearable to watch as loveable losers, I wonder why so many more millions of people loved them for the past 20 years.
I grew up in Peoria, with a SF Giants fan for a father (don't ask me how that happened, because I still don't know). Somehow, my older brother ended up a Cubs fan, and I followed suit.
Also, the Peoria Chiefs were part of the Cubs farm system, and we felt some obligation for the Cubs to be our major league team. So that's how it happened for me.
If the Cubs were/are too unbearable to watch as loveable losers, I wonder why so many more millions of people loved them for the past 20 years.
And Budweiser is unbearable to drink, but it's still the best selling beer. Popularity does not equate quality...
But Benjy, we're talking about Cub fans here - you know, the kind of people who would rather win the MLB Attendance Title than the World Series.
As for me, I became a Sox fan for two reasons:
1) I was born on the South Side;
2) I was a bit wary about supporting a team whose fans largely move here from out of town, never venture outside a 3-square-mile area on the North Side, and then proceed to declare that all other areas of the city are "ghetto" and inhabited by "trash."
AJ:
I like the cut of your jib! Someone hurts your feelings with a generalization about your group - why not fire one right back at their group. Good stuff! ...and so original.
Go Sox!
Popularity does not equate quality...
The quality? Where was the quality in 1919 when they were fixing the game?
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmenu.shtml
Cubs World Series apperances = 8
White Sox World Series appearances = 4
Now tell me who wants to get there more? Who has had more quality chances?
Congratulations to the White Sox who will soon tie the Cubs for two World Series Championships.
Damn Eva,
For someone a hundred years old I'm surprised you're awake let alone using the internet.
Wrigleyville alone is a good reason to be a Sox fan.
When the Sox win, can't wait to see the Million Mullet March down Columbus Drive. Haw haw!
Wrigleyville alone is a good reason to be a Sox fan.
And, of course, you altready know chopped liver that there are lot of places to go to before or after a Sox game...on the 35th CTA train station to someplace else that is, but not around Cellular Field, where if you turn the wrong way you'll be headed towards the Stateway Gardens which mysteriously have no gardens to be found.
To discount the history of both ballclubs is to diminish what generations of fans have passed long--just like what some of this column's writer was talking about.
Fact is, until a week ago Sunday, the White Sox had no room to lecture the Cubs about futility. It had been every bit as a loser franchise as the Cubs, maybe even more so because of the dumb business decisions over the years.
Neglect maintaining Comiskey Park? check
Poorly design a new ballpark so that it would need major renovations to its aestethics within 10 years of opening? check.
Run off the most entertaining TV broadcasting duo in the history of TV (Piersall and Caray)? check.
Flirt with moving the team to Milwaukee, Seattle and Tampa? check.
Take the Sox off Channel 9 and move them to UHF's Channel 44? check.
Put the White Sox on PPV ONTV in the early 1980s? check.
Put Sox radio games on low-powered stations so a fan driving from O'Hare to Hammond might have to change the station 3 or 4 times to hear the game? check.
The Cubs, God love 'em, know marketing and how to turn even an uncompetitive team into an enjoyable product (although I think it's immensely more enjoyable when they are competitive). It's allowed the Cubs to act like the big-market team that they are. So if it means they attract a few pigeons, so be it. If it means they bring in a couple million people in from out of town, shouldn't we be celebrating that? I laugh at those who choose to live in the 3rd largest city in America and one of the best cities in the world yet complain too many tourists come visit. Move to Rockford or Moline if that bothers you.
I became a Cubs fan because my father was a Cubs fan, and a damn frustrated one at that. Fortunately, he passed on other vices like his love of good Scotch, etc., to make being a Cubs fan bearable.
If they win, this will be the third White Sox championship. 1906, 1917, and potentially 2005. So congratulations would be to the Sox for passing the Cubs in World Championships.
And Budweiser is unbearable to drink, but it's still the best selling beer. Popularity does not equate quality...
WHO is drinking all this Budweiser???
/Maybe it's used for cleaning toilets in Iran or something