Sox-Cubs Round One: this is going to be sweet

Yeah, yeah, yeah, these are only three games in the middle of June. Whatever. I am 100% pumped for this series. It’s easily the most excited I’ve been for a baseball game since....Opening Day 06? Just in case Cubs fans don't know, this is what a playoff atmosphere feels like. Wait, the Cubs were in the playoffs just last season before getting swept in the first round by the Diamondbacks? Sorry, I must have been too busy watching my 05 World Series DVDs to notice. But hey- Harry Caray! Sammy Sosa! Hot chicks and beer!

It's like they've got everything but, uh, baseball. Shit. Maybe........next year?

Clearly, every member of the White Sox reads this blog (besides for Ozuna): they absolutely blew the doors off of Pittsburgh the last three games. That was just utter domination. Sure it was the Pirates, but the Sox took care of biz like they had to. Good teams are supposed to beat down bad ones, right? The Cubbies, of course, proceeded to get swept by a stellar Rayz team that looks more and more legit as the season progresses.

So here we are, Sox-Cubs, the first of three at lovely Wrigley Field.

To commemorate the occasion, I sent an email to TUP Friends and Family and asked them how they felt about the Cubs. In case anyone forgot, part of being a Sox fans is hating the Cubs. So yeah. I was going to only give an exert of what everyone wrote, but I’m feeling good after the last three games- and hey, it’s Friday- so here’s everything.

Quickly: right when Spring Training was starting up, I was talking to a friend at work who is from Detroit and recently moved into Chicago.

"What's the appeal to being a White Sox fan?" he asked without trying to be a jerk.

At the same time, we both said "Well, they're not the Cubs"

"Yeah, I get that," he said.

Thanks to all.

Phil Barnes of TTCS (via text message)

I hate the Cubs because Ron Santo is still affiliated with the organization and he isn’t even affiliated with legs.

Pauli (who only writes in haiku)

Ignorant and drunk
A world series they proclaim
But "next year" won't come

Mike

I don't hate the Cubs as a team.  I hate their fans.  They easily have the worst fans in baseball.  Wrigley Field has turned into a giant frat party where people go to get drunk.  No one watches baseball there; it's a place to be seen.  The biggest concern for the "fans" that go to Wrigley is who is singing the 7th inning stretch.  Also, the Cubbie lifestyle seems to be to buy every new merchandise that has a Cubs logo on it or you are not considered a real fan.  They have a certain smugness that one would expect to find in San Francisco or a European city like Paris or Mulan. 

They are a bunch of pompous assholes that think just because their team gets more national attention or more all star votes that it automatically makes them superior to everyone else.  Almost every Cubs fan I know is a complete moron that does not know a thing about the game.  They are like that friend that everyone has that talks sports but just pulls any knowledge that they pretend to have out of their ass.  There are some real, genuine Cubs fans out there that are tolerable and that I could actually have an intelligent baseball conversation with, but for the most part they are all a bunch of douche bags.

Condor

I have loved the White Sox and hated the cubs for as long as I can remember and that will never change.  When thinking about why I hate the cubs I was able to come up with a bunch of reasons, but the main reason is simple, their fans annoy the crap out of me.  Is there another fan base that talks as much trash with so little success to back it up? I still can't get over how everyone kept referring to them as a "Team of Destiny" last year when they finished 8 games over .500 in the worst division in baseball.

That is the best example of why I can't stand their fans. Additionally, I can't stand when they pretend that they don't hate Sox fans.  If you bring up the '05 World Series to a true cubs fan and they get quiet and give you a smile that says I have no good comeback to that, you can see how much they hate the White Sox.  They think we are the red-headed step children of Chicago and in some ways we are…but not on the field.  Kick their asses White Sox. Win all 6 and shut up the Northsiders for a while.

Clarky Clark

In the beginning, it was genetic. Where I grew up (South Side), when I grew up (never mind how long ago), you were a Sox fan because your dad was a Sox fan. I didn't know any Cubs fans and I especially didn't know anyone so lacking in balls as to be unable to make up his mind which team to cheer for -- and thus to claim to be happy when either team won. (Yeah, right, that's a reasonable position.)

In the years since, I have come to realize there are many other reasons to hate the Cubs: clueless fans, endless lines at the troughs in the men's room, the dungeon-like atmosphere on the concourse and the likelihood that your car will lose an antenna, a mirror or worse while it's wedged into one of those overpriced lots around Wrigley. But in the end, it all comes back to my DNA. And there's no arguing with that.

Beau

Top Ten Reasons I hate the Cubs

10.  Anthony Oral, enough said.

9.  Rookie of the Year, I think the Cubs would actually sign a kid with a magic arm.

8.  They blame their 100 year drought on a goddamn goat.

7.  Old Style tastes like HIV infested piss (according to Oral)

6.  Boytown vs. Ghetto (but not really one anymore) = I’ll take the semi-ghetto any day, I’d rather have to wear a
bullet-proof vest to the game than a butt plug

5.  It is the easiest team to root for just because everyone else does. I guarantee some kid in Pittsburgh decided to become a Cubs fan today because the Pirates blow, he can watch the games on WGN and his boyfriend gave him a reach-around wearing his cubs hat.

4.  The ballpark is not a hangout.  Cubs fans treat games like a fucking social event.  While getting drunk at a game is fine by me, at least appreciate the game and what is going on.  The majority of Cubs fan’s overall lack of knowledge of the game of baseball is astonishing.

3.  Wrigley Field sucks, I’m so sick of people saying how its “historic.”  I’ve been to two games there and both times I had a pole blocking my line of sight on some point of the field.

2.  You can’t walk up to the ballpark and buy a ticket.  I became a sox fan because my parents could afford to
take me to games.  We didn’t have to pay up the ass to sit in back of a pole and walk a mile to the stadium from our car.

1. Heard this quote once and it is so true, “there are no such thing as Cubs fans, only Wrigley fans”

*****

Also, if you enjoy jokes about Star Wars, late 90's WWF, and Wu-Tang Clan, please check out this morning's Fantasy Factor over at the Sun-Times. Thanks.