The Sox won the Wrigley Field series 2-1. They'll take two more at Sox Park, bringing the season series to 4-2, which means no matter how far the Cubs go, unless they win the World Series, the Sox will be kings of Chicago. Again.
The attendance at Wrigley Field will always out-pace that of Sox Park. It will simply always be the case; Wrigley Field is a tourist attraction, whereas Sox Park is an actual baseball stadium. The Wrigley Field marquee staring out from the north-west corner of Addison and Clark Streets is a symbol of Chicago, whereas Sox Park is where the city's actual baseball team plays.
Fig. 1. Wrigley Field. On a non-touristy no game day, a woman hangs out.
No matter how well they perform, the Chicago Cubs are the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Lots of people go to see the Globetrotters, but not because they want to watch basketball.
No, they go because Wrigley Field is the place to go if you're a young white urban professional seeking to do something quintessentially "Chicago." In this respect its the same as playing 16" softball, eating deep-dish pizza, or hinting that your precinct captain should shovel your sidewalk before you put up a campaign sign. It's also the place to go if you want to show your kids a little bit of baseball history, or if you're a jolly, toothless old black guy with relentlessly endearing catchphrase. But it's not where you go if you just want to watch some baseball.
The White Sox are a perennially competitive team. Even when they're bad, they're good. In fact, they've been playoff contenders more or less every year since 1993, whereas the Cubs have been wretched more or less every year since the Trust-Busting Era.
The contrast between The Big Hurt Frank Thomas and juiced-up Swingin' Sammy Sosa is a microcosm of the difference. Why?
Frank Thomas is one of the best pure hitters in the American League since Ted Williams. His career on-base percentage is one of the best in the history of the game. He always walks much more than he strikes out, and while his home-run numbers are never gaudy, his hitting in general is always a threat. Sosa is just another of the modern juiced-up sluggers who are flashy and beloved but not a real boon to his team.
There you go, right there. The Cubs, in their Sleepy-Time Baby Bear Pajamas--which should come with attached feet, and never be worn by anybody calling themselves grown men--are flashy and beloved. They're historied and adored and represent Chicago. But they're not a real baseball team; and I'd say that 65 percent of people who call themselves Cubs fans aren't real fans of baseball, but rather of The Cubs specifically, also known as The Budweiser Spokesmen Who Call Themselves the Cubs.
But the South Side, for whatever reason, lives and breathes sports. Maybe because it's the "poor side of town," as Frank Thomas put it, but sports are a very real and very important part of South Side community culture. I took a drive in a friend's car through the North Side last week on a nice late afternoon. Along the way, of 12 parks including ball fields or basketball courts we drove past, 7 were empty; and the other five were in poorer neighborhoods. A part of this is that much of the North Side prefers private gyms, which predominate in North Side Proper (the area north of the Loop and east of the Chicago River, but also including much of Wicker Park and Bucktown), and some of it may have been coincidence. Whatever the reason, if on any given day you take a cruise past any of the numerous ball fields and basketball courts on the South Side, you're sure to see them packed to the gills.
Fig. 2. Comiskey Park. What's that you say? They named it US Radiation-emitting-killing-us-all device Field?.
My old neighborhood, near Fifteenth and Ashland, had a public pool for the housing projects and a basketball court, which were not just always filled, but would often be illuminated by car headlights parents would bring near the courts just so their kids could play later into the night. I'm not at all suggesting North Siders are lazy: just not as sports-prone as South Siders. As a West Sider, or Great Mediator, I get to say such things. Trust me, its in my lease.
Or take a trip down to the Gem Lounge near 26th and Loomis, just north of Bridgeport. The South Siders, mostly white, who populate this bar are almost all neighborhood folk and eye newcomers suspiciously. On my first visit there last summer, I took a seat at the bar and even though the place was packed, the seats on either side of me were empty. The bartender serving me merely grunted and then refused to pick up my tip. That is, of course, until he noticed me rolling my eyes at a Sportscenter piece about Sosa. He shook his head at it and I told him I was glad they traded the "30/30 Guy" as he used to call himself, and all of a sudden I was at home.
Long story short, sports is big on the South Side. However much of a social lubricant it may be up North, it is gospel down South. (And if you ever find yourself in Oak Lawn, wear a Blackhawks sweater and you're gonna make friends.) South Siders take their Sox very seriously and its for that reason the Chicago White Sox as a baseball team are infinitely better handled than the Cubs, while the Cubs as a money-making organization are more successful than the Sox.
The Cubs are a gimmick. The Sox are Chicago's only baseball team. But Chicago needs the Cubs to play at Wrigley for the same reason the Italian government pays people to dress like Centurions and hang out at the Colosseum: you know, it's cute.
Rc / June 27, 2003 12:49 PM
Just remember, it's only sport.