Sweet home, Chicago
How one native Chicagoan is dealing with this once-a-century season.
Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring. - Nelson Algren, Newsweek, August 13, 1984
Of course, that quote has never held true for it’s baseball teams. For decades since the Black Sox scandal, October baseball in the City of Big Shoulders has been a rarity, a treat that teases the minds on either side of town into thinking “This may be our year.” And for all that teasing since 1919, it’s only been Chicago’s year once.
Thankfully, that year was 2005, and being a Sox fan, I couldn’t have been more delighted. The Bulls may have won six titles in my short lifetime, but Jerry Reinsdorf felt the same way many Sox fans, including this one, did: one baseball championship beats all six in basketball combined. It is the only time I ever ran around outside for a victory lap.
I miss everything about Chicago, except January and February. - Gary Cole
Fast forward to today, where I find myself in western Nebraska, where the definition of “sports” is “Husker football”. And while January and February are just as bad here (the north wind is brutal with nothing to stop it), I’ve spent the last couple of season having to follow Chicago baseball from afar. Even with Gameday Audio and the Trib online, it still doesn’t compare to the every day push and pull between Cub fans, Cub bandwagoners, and Sox fans.
Of course, this season isn’t just another season. You should be familiar with the three traditional ways a Chicago baseball season goes:
- Sox make playoffs, Cubs are middling or worse
- Cubs make playoffs, Sox are middling or worse
- Both teams are middling or worse
There has been only one exception to this, and that was in the toddler stages of the American League. This year should be exception #2.
The thought of postseason baseball on both sides of the city, not to mention even the slight possibilty of a Red Line Series, is making this author yearn for home. Of course, being able to enjoy another (probably short) White Sox postseason is always a joy. But watching Cub fans when the North Siders are in the postseason is a whole different brand of fun.
I’ll be honest and say that up until 2003, I never believed in “curses”. Then Alex Gonzales happened, and it seemed that Cubdom went into mass panic. The fans had more tension than the “W” flag on a blustery day. The players took the field and immediately absorbed that tension to the point of being tense themselves. And the Billy Goat clip-clopped his way into relevance. Granted, I was just exiting my teenage years at the time, but it was like nothing I’d ever seen.
And thus, while I’d love to handicap the chances of a Red Line series, I am bereft of my most vital piece of information: the current collective mindset of Cub fans. Their team has been dominant all year, and even a basic statistical analysis will tell you that they should be able to claim their first NL pennant in 63 years. But if someone is Durham-ized during the LCS, it’s all up in the air. I don’t know how they will react, but I know never to underestimate the effect of the Billy Goat on Cubdom.
As for my White Sox, the equation is much simpler. To make the World Series, these things will have to happen:
- Win AL Central (the only way to get into the postseason).
- Rays win AL East.
- Experience defeats youth, even though the youth is better on paper.
- Hope Angel bats crush Carmine pitching.
- Repeat 2005 ALCS (including having Doug Eddings behind the plate in game 1 or 2).
I leave with this parting thought: Armageddon will occur if the board ever reads “Eamus Catuli! AC000000″.
