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The lead up to our Crosstown Classic baseball themed comedy show has spawned two controversial posts this week. The first is Brian’s critique of White Sox fans. The second is Matt “Empathy Geyser” Castellvi’s treatise on Cubs fans.
Both posts are tongue in cheek, but the posts and their comments got me thinking, “Is a Chicago citizen capable of not taking sides in the Cubs vs. White Sox debate?”
I was born a White Sox fan. My father, and his father before him, his six siblings, and everyone I talked to about baseball during my young formative years were all for the Sox. There are even pictures of me at the tender age of 4 wearing White Sox footie pajamas. That’s a bond that can never be broken.
I had a Frank Thomas glove. I went to the last game at Old Comiskey Park, and my favorite sports player was Robin Ventura.
But the years went by. I went to High School and met my first Cubs fans. They were cool. I went to college and knew mostly Cubs fans. Their love of the Cubs was infectious. I moved to Chicago, a mile away from Wrigley Field.
Call it Stockholm Syndrome or whatever, but being captive to constant Cubs-ness, forcing my way through overcrowded “L” cars full of drunk blue shirted devotees, looking up at the historic stadium rising from the beer-vomit soaked streets of Wrigleyville, really grew on me. And I started to like the Cubs too (much to my families chagrin).
So now I’m trapped. Good guys can wear black (or at least guys that want to look totally badass and Matrix-y). And being a lovable loser means you get a lot of love.
So is it okay for me to like both the White Sox and the Cubs? Or does that make me a pussed-out fence-sitting a-bag who doesn’t deserve the title of Chicagoan? Let me know in the comments.
And if you think I’m a pussed-out fence-sitting a-bag, tell me which team I should choose and why.
