SOX The World Series: You Can Put It On The Board... YES!
The World Series is over, and this year the White Sox reign supreme. I could not be happier for Chicago, specifically Chicago's South Side and Chicago's "Second Team." The now cliched moniker of the White Sox as "The Second City's Second Team" could not be more true. I don't think people who live outside of Chicago truly understand how Sox fans are made to feel. Think about it... the Cubs OWN the city's biggest newspaper, the Cubs OWN the city's TV Superstation [WGN], the Cubs OWN the city's radio stations. Additionally, most of the media members who are on the local ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX DON'T live near the Cell. If anything, they live up near Wrigley Field. Most of the local sport during the summer is "The Cubs lost again... blah blah blah about the Cubs... let's feel bad about ourselves. Oh! And the Sox won 5-2. Back to you Jerry."
Personally, I haven't been a Sox fan long. When I got to Chicago, it didn't take me long to realize that this is a baseball town. As impotent as the Chicago baseball teams have been in the past century, this is still a baseball town. Once I realized that this was a baseball town, I started rooting for both Chicago teams. Furthermore, I couldn't understand why Chicago is so VERY DIVIDED between it's baseball teams. You are literally either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan in this town... and you HATE the other. I couldn't understand why! The Cubs and Sox are in different leagues, they might play each other three times a year (certainly not enough to HATE another team), and both teams have been so bad for so long--I figured why not root for both?
Then when Chelsey moved here, started her job, and went to a White Sox game with her office acquaintances all in her first week... the White Sox became the team we both followed together. And she and I started loving this team and these players together. We have had conversations like: "I don't think I'd like A.J. [Pierzynski] if I met him. [Aaron] Rowand I think I'd like;" "Why do they call him 'El Duque?';" and "Joe Crede is my boy!" That last one was me. Crede is my boy... and was my pick for World Series MVP. If there was a "play-off" MVP, I think it should go to Crede. Konerko and Dye had great bats throughout the playoffs, but Crede had the bat and the leather all playoffs long. Joe Crede is my BOY!
But, in all seriousness, when I think of how long the Sox fans have waited for another championship... my grandfather's didn't see the Sox win the World Series in their lifetimes, my father never saw the Sox win... it is NOT lost on me how long ago 1917 was. And, to think, there are White Sox fans who lived and died without ever seeing their team win. THAT, my friends, makes me all teary eyed. Go Go White Sox!