BridgeportHeather Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...1,7889856.story I like it like that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CubsSuck1 Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 Can you copy/paste it?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BridgeportHeather Posted October 16, 2003 Author Share Posted October 16, 2003 Sox fans savor ecstasy of defeat North Side agony is South Side joy E-mail this story Printer-friendly format Search archives More Headlines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cubs release statement on fan View from a Cubs Fan Paul Sullivan on the Cubs By Rudolph Bush and Rex W. Huppke Tribune staff reporters October 16, 2003, 12:15 AM CDT Life will be grand today for die-hard fans of the Chicago White Sox. Sunshine will seem a little brighter, traffic will be less bothersome and the bitter taste their team left behind this season might even start to fade. The Cubs blew a chance to go to the World Series, and as the last out was recorded at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, many in White Sox nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. "It's reality," said Scott Petrulis, 26, surrounded by Sox fans cheering the Cubs' defeat at a South Side bar. "The Cubs will never, ever be in the World Series." A Cubs victory and trip to the World Series would have caused those who bleed Sox black and white to curse their fate. It would have made Cubs fans—normally just a nuisance to South Siders—wholly intolerable. "I just can't stand them," said Pat Melvin, a Chicago accountant and lifelong Sox lover. "When you see their fans bringing out the broom after one game in Atlanta, doing the mock tomahawk chop—this is the kind of people we have to put up with as Sox fans." Hatred runs deep among the truly devoted, and many say there's not so much as a molecule-wide space in their heart for the Cubs. "There's no mercy," said Al Soudan, 54, a lifelong Sox fan raised a few blocks from where U.S. Cellular Field now stands. The final two games of the National League Championship Series were dreamlike for White Sox fans. First there was the Cubs' home field loss in Game 6—blamed in part on a bespectacled Cubs fan reaching for a foul ball—that gave White Sox fans ammunition to last for years. Many South Siders insisted that a Sox fan would never have interfered with a play, further evidence, they said, that Cubs fans go to games just to hang out at Wrigley Field, not to truly appreciate the game of baseball. "I would agree with that," said Ald. Thomas Murphy (18th). "I did notice the guy that went for the ball had headphones on. I don't think if you go to a Sox game you're going to see too many people sitting there wearing headphones. Who knows what he was listening to?" Soudan had a harsher take on the event. "The Cubs fans just want to sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,'" he said. "Sox fans, they know about baseball, they're well-educated." Most Cubs fans would likely counter that statement by recalling the infamous antics last year of White Sox fan William Ligue Jr., who charged onto U.S. Cellular Field with his teenage son and began pummeling the Kansas City Royals' 55-year-old first-base coach. But for as much joy as Game 6 brought Sox fans, it paled next to the rapture of Game 7. At Shinnick's sports bar on the South Side, White Sox fans leapt up and cheered at the Cubs' every strike and out. "It's almost better than the Sox winning," said Bernie Geers, 63. His son, Keith, agreed. "I was born and raised to like two teams," he said. "The Sox and whoever plays the Cubs." An outsider might ask: Why the hostility? Jerry Ginsburg, a White Sox fan since the 1950s, tried to put it into perspective. He grew up on the North Side, in Cubs territory, but this didn't let that stop him from becoming a devoted White Sox fan. He got plenty of flak for his allegiance. "For me, it's hard," he said. "I grew up on the North Side of Chicago, and the only fistfights I ever had in my life were Cubs-Sox related. So that emotion has stayed with me all this time." That's not to say all White Sox fans are so hard-boiled. Betti Goldberg, 48, of Flossmoor grew up on the South Side and remains a devout believer in the White Sox. But she was pulling for the Cubs Wednesday night. "I've talked to plenty of Sox fans, and they were all rooting for the Cubs too," she said. "They deserve it." That's blasphemy in some circles, a fact that White Sox pitcher Kelly Wunsch said he can easily understand. He grew up in Houston, a die-hard Oilers fan. "It would be nearly impossible for me to pull for the [Dallas] Cowboys," Wunsch said. Of course, as a native Texan who grew up far from the crosstown Chicago rivalry, the pitcher said he can allow himself to support the Cubs. "On a personal level, I don't hate the Cubs," he said. "I can't pull against them. I know some of them—they seem like good guys." He paused a moment. "But for Sox fans, for the Cubs to win," he continued, "that would be the worst thing that could happen." Luckily for White Sox faithful, it once again was not meant to be. Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CubsSuck1 Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 Life will be grand today for die-hard fans of the Chicago White Sox. Sunshine will seem a little brighter, traffic will be less bothersome and the bitter taste their team left behind this season might even start to fade. So, so true. And the fact that Cubs get all the media coverage isnt hurting much either for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 That was a fun article to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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