THE WHITE SOX

I am a Cubs fan. I have always been a Cubs fan. It is a little hard for me to imagine not being a Cubs fan. Therefore, I feel it behooves me to post my feelings on the 2005 White Sox now, while they are still 2.5 games up on the Indians in the Central. It may be too late later.

I do not hate the White Sox. I never have. Hate is reserved for special rivals, like the Cardinals, the Astros, the Packers (to mix sports), and Iowa (to mix levels of competition and sports). I have never hated the Sox because the two teams did not play until recently. I still don't because in all honesty, six games a year does not a rivalry make.

In light of that, I am not delighted that the Sox appear to be in free fall after their best year in a decade. It will not warm my heart to see them tank a season that seemed like magic to their fans. Instead, I would just remind all of those "true" baseball fans who root for the Sox that great pitching with crap for offense (sold to the Sox faithful as "small ball") is the same recipe that got my Cubs exactly no appearances in the World Series in the Zambrano/Prior/Wood era. Hard to believe that for all their endless babbling about being "real" fans, Sox fans did not see this similarity.