“Traitor!”
That one-word text popped up on my phone a couple of weeks ago — and I knew exactly what my friend was referencing.
He had seen a photo of yours truly onstage at the Royal George Theatre at intermission of “Miracle: A Musical 108 Years in the Making,” singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
“Were you kidnapped?” said another friend/fellow Sox fan.
I did it of my own accord. (A relative of one of my closest friends is in the play. That’s my excuse for attending, and I’m sticking with it.) I thought I’d be a good sport and accept the invitation to do the sing-along.
But let the record show, when we got to “root, root, root,” I did NOT sing “Cubbies.” I held the microphone out to the crowd.
I haven’t gone that soft. I still adhere to the lyrics of “South Side Irish”:
And when it comes to baseball we have two favorite clubs
The Go-Go White Sox—and whoever plays the Cubs!
In fact, after something of a lukewarm temperature to the Red Line Series in recent years, as the Cubs have been really, really, really good and the Sox have been really, really, really not, I feel like the rivalry is starting to heat up again.
We’re already seeing some signs of animus rising — and as usual, the opening salvos are emanating from the South Side.
Last Friday, NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien caught up with diehard Sox fan Frank Kaminsky, Benet Academy/University Wisconsin alum and current Charlotte Hornets player who was in the stands for the Yankees-Sox game.
Garfien: “Sox playing the Cubs at Wrigley — you gonna go?”
Kaminsky: “Absolutely not … I won’t be caught dead at Wrigley. I went once and I wore a Bartman jersey, people didn’t like that. There’s no reason to go.”
Garfien: “Not even to watch [your] team? You won’t set foot into Wrigley Field.”
Kaminsky: “I feel like I can get the same effect watching it on TV, but I don’t have to feel like an idiot for being with Cubs fans. I don’t like Cubs fans, I just don’t like ‘em.”
OK, that’s juvenile and ridiculous.
And I love it.
Hawkeroo — retired White Sox announced Ken Harrelson — stoked the fires, telling reporters he’s looking forward to the Sox improving to the point where they can regularly best their North Side rivals: “It’s going to be fun watching us kick their ass.”
The back-and-forth between former college teammates and roommates Dylan Covey and Kris Bryant last week was a microcosm of the Sox-Cubs dynamic, i.e., we’re always thinking about them and itching to beat ‘em, and half the time they act like they don’t even know we exist.
“We definitely want to beat them, no doubt, every single week,” Sox hurler Covey said about the Cubs last week as reported MLB.com’s Scott Merkin.
Bryant’s response: “I love Dylan. I didn’t even know we played them next week. … Now I know. That’s funny.”
Oooh, them’s fighting words!
Well. Not fighting words. But “Now we really want to beat you!” words.
The Cubs and their fans are riding high these days, as well they should. Over the last four seasons, the Cubs have averaged 97 wins and have won a World Series, while the Sox have averaged 70 wins and have won … I don’t know, the unofficial Best Dancing in the Dugout crown?
But the tide is turning. In about two years, the White Sox will have one of the best teams in baseball — led by MVP candidate Eloy Jimenez, the former Cubs minor-leaguer who is going to haunt Cubbie fans on a Lou Brock level, just you wait and see.
My fellow Sox fans: We’re always going to feel like the Second Team in the Second City. We even felt that way in 2005.
Our day is coming. In the meantime, it’s gonna be great fun taking two at Wrigley this week and completing the season sweep on the South Side come July.
