I was going to call my "Uniquely Illinois" posts "Chicago Idiots" or "Illinois Idiots," although I think this would be too narrow of a range for what I am trying to express. I am a baseball fan. I like almost all professional baseball teams and their players. In professional baseball, players and officials are moved around so often, that it seems the best criteria to judge a team is by the people that don't change that often: their fans. I judge baseball teams by the character of their fans. When I am invariably asked, "Cubs or White Sox?" the answer is more complex for me.
Cubs fans have grown progressively ridiculous over the past few decades. I site one of my recent favorite blogs, "The Stuff White People Like," as one of the most accurate portrayals of Cubs fans and their Cathedral: Wrigley Field. While I always enjoy baseball and if I am asked to go to a Cubs game, I will say yes. I find it hard to become so enthralled with a franchise that has a less than stellar record. I was at a party in Ohio this weekend where I saw a friend of mine who is moving to Chicago. All of a sudden, he had on a flat top Cubs hat. A few drinks in him and he was talking smack to a student with a NY Mets hat on. This is the mentality of a new Cubs fan: wear the hat and immediately pretend you watch every WGN game. I warned my friend of the dangers of Chicago and drinking the "Rah Rah Chicago kool-aid," but it seems he is already on his way to becoming a reason I don't like Cubs fans and, more broadly, Chicago.
I believe, for the most part, White Sox fans understand my opinion of the Cubs fans, but they too have drank the "Rah Rah Chicago kool-aid." While the South side team personally and generally hates the Cubs fans and team, they still think that the South side team is the greatest thing in the world. The White Sox fans site the 2005 World Series Championship as evidence of this. I was in Ohio at this time, celebrating by myself because no one gave a damn in Ohio. While watching on T.V., a White Sox fan told the World that this champioship is bigger than the Bears winning the 85' SuperBowl and the entire 90s' Chicago Bulls. No one cared in Ohio and probably the rest of the nation. No one cares about Chicago teams, outside of Chicagoans who think it is the center of the universe and Midwesterners who have somehow gotten a hold of the "Rah Rah Chicago kool aid."
So when I am asked which team I prefer, I say the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds are the oldest team in professional baseball and have a loyal fan base. No one is a Reds fan because they just recently moved to Cincinnati. I am a Reds fan because I simply can not stand fans that think their city is the center of the universe; Cincinnati fans at least realize Cincinnati is not the center of the universe, nor will it ever be.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Uniquely Illinois #1: Cubs Vs. White Sox
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2 comments:
The one place I'd have gone with this post is to generalize the fans. Perhaps you're shying from stereotyping, but it's fairly easy as to Cubs fans. I guess the other blog did that though. Sox fans are more of the unwashed masses, although less homogeneous in color or creed. Whereas some cities would view a father and son tag team trouncing an opposing team's first base coach shamefully, Sox fans seem contented with the entertainment value and the fact that the aggravators were deservingly pounded by the entire KC dugout.
I don't know where I'm going with this, beside my quiet acceptance of Sox fans in spite of their faults, and my undying resentment for the Costas-and-seersucker sporting assholes from the knob-slobbing North.
If I even began to get started in stereotypes, I think I would be here till the morning. I know there are many pre-gentrification Cubs fans (And post) and White Sox fans that could be on the same page together. Lets not forget they are in different Leagues either. If the White Sox play the Indians, I'm going to want the White Sox; however, if the Cubs play the Reds, like they did recently, I was overwhelmingly neutral. I kept seeing Dusty Baker and Paul Baku in their Red's outfits and thought I was back in Chicago.
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