What is it about White Sox or Cardinals fans that makes the (Cubby blue) blood boil?
A good reason to hate the Yankees
Wikipedia defines rivalries with an elegant turn-of-phrase that almost made me laugh out loud: “A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes. This pressure of competition is felt by players, coaches, and management, but is perhaps felt strongest by the fans. The intensity of the rivalry varies from a friendly competition on one end to serious violence on the other that, in one case (the Football War), was suggested to have led to military conflict….But a rivalry that gets out of control can lead to fighting, hooliganism and rioting. (Hear that South Siders?) Often the topic of sports rivalries is as heated and controversial as politics and religion.” True, true, true!
Well, I don’t think any actual wars have erupted from on- or off-the-field antics at Wrigley, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Even Ozzie Guillen can’t control his distaste (or is it fear???) for Wrigley Field as the Windy City Series approaches. But is there a good reason why we feel such hostility?
Cubs Vs. Sox: Though we’ve only been facing each other in modern times for 10+ years, the rivalry dates to the turn of the century. Charles Comisky decided to move his minor league team to Chicago in 1900, something the Cubs owners tried to stop via a law suit. The teams have only faced off in the Series once, 1906. Sadly, the Cubs lost in six games to the White Sox. Is that enough to lead to years of passionate animosity?
A couple rivalries that make sense to me…
Cubs Vs. Cards: What a difference a few (hundred) miles on I-55 make. Cubs lead the all-time series, but the Cardinals clearly have the rings we’ve been craving for 100 years. Why are we rivals? We’ve taken the field on opposing sides more than 2,00o times and battle for the pennant dozens of summers.
Red Sox Vs. Yankees: Current AL East leaders with a long history of animosity and injury. Remember this: the Red Sox were the American League’s dominant franchise until selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Red Sox fans have yet to fully recover.
Side note…are the Minnesota Twins rivals? Until this weekend I’d never given their fans a second thought, but as their faithful streamed into Wrigley and bellowed from one side of the outfield to the other, I decided I didn’t like them very much. I’ll give them credit for boisterous and uproarious cheering. Maybe it’s from being cooped up in a dome all these years; they had to let loose in the sunshine.
Bring on rivalry week! Welcome to the Friendly Confines South Siders!
Who says the Cubs can't hit?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Where to begin with this one.
I often go back and forth on why most White Sox fans hate the Cubs. Sometimes I teeter towards jealousy, but not usually, as a vivid memory of Bobby Jenks leaping from the mound in Houston quickly suppresses that emotion. I think it has to do more with one of my favorite six letter words — BITTER.
We’re bitter because we’re esentially second class citizens in our own city — in many ways, most people treat our team much like that minor league team the author alluded to.
Think I’m crazy? Try this little experiment during one of your next trips out of town (has to be between April-August). Mention that your from Chicago to someone you’ve never met and 1 out of 2 people will launch into a story that includes “I love the Cubs,” “my visit to Wrigley,” “I watch the Cubs on WGN,” on and on. Only two people have ever asked me if I was a Cubs or Sox fan upon learning I was from Chicago — one was Michael Wilbon (who was born on the south side) and the other happened to be a White Sox fan who lives in New Jersey.
Needless to say…it only fuels my bitterness. And since I can’t take my anger out on unsuspecting strangers who are oblivious while I wait my ATC-delayed flight out of Newark, I reserve my anger for the Cubs (…and the Twins, Tigers, Royals, Packers, Lions, Viqueens and Brett Favre).
All I know is from when I was very little it was Ryne Sandberg I was watching and it was red and blue I was allow to wear. Now, my 4 year old nephew gives a serious talking to the neighbor boys anytime they wear their black and white and breaks out into “Go, Cubs, Go” whenever he sees the W flag flying.
Regardless of the reasons for the rivalry, I’m proud to be a Chicago Cubs fan and to hate the White Sox. That’s what I call being a true Cubbies fan.
I agree with the comments made by South Sider. Its like when we were kids – that feeling you get about those other kids on the other side of the railroad tracks? In the end, when you actually meet then everything is okay and everyone is friendly and we all hate Brett Favre and the Packers.
Fact is, everyone loves the Cubs because of Wrigley, where its located and the national exposure it gets with WGN. There are a ton of Cub fans that are just like me but hate the Sox. Sox fans are just louder about their hate.
I think the lovable loser type is much more likeable than the big bad bully from the tough side of town type that many White Sox, like me, portray.
I grew up on the Northside, loved both teams, but got sick of the Cubs losing in 90’s and grew more of a fan of the Sox in the 90’s becasue they had better teams.
Good luck Cub fan,
Since1908
I’m an odd one. A native South Sider who grew up a Cubs’ fan.
My take, enforced with age and relocating to the North Side as an adult, is it’s about, frankly, class perception. South Siders think that North Siders are a bunch of latte-sipping drips who don’t know squat about baseball and go to Wrigley to drink. North Siders think that South Siders are a bunch of illiterate mullet-heads who stop drinking after work only long enough to smack their wives and yell at their ten children.
What is different, though, is that Sox fans seem to really HATE Cubs’ fans, to the point where they actively root against them and cheer their failure. And I think this fries Sox fans’ even more, but most Cub fans just don’t care what happens to the Sox.
Personally, I’d rather spend my energy hating the Cardinals. Which I do. Passionately.
Cubs fans were originally Sox fans whether they know it or not – trivia, but true, original name of the team now up north: Chicago White Stockings.
I havemy own theory: many more Cubs fans are not from Chicago, meaning not Chicagoland natives – but people who have moved here from elsewhere and dig the vibe, Wrigley and all things Cubs. That’s not to say there are not plenty of native Chicagoans who are fans – but amongst professional crowd moving here post college years- likely more Cub fans. As Alan, native Southsider, points out, geography isn’t always the key to who’s a fan of which team. I was born a Westsider and lived far NW side, which is loaded with Sox fans.
Interesting now, since Sox have actually won a World Series in anyone reading this blog’s lifetime, the kids in my current (suburban neighborhood w/mix of Sox and Cubs-fan parents) are overwelmingly Sox fans. Winning helps.
I canunderstand how you wouldn’t like us very much, winning two World Series while cooped up in that dome while you haven’t won one since that dome was built.
Now that we’re gone, you can get back to your little cross-town rivalry while we continue to pound the NL.