OMG CUBS-SOX OMG

June 20th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

It’s probably because I’m a dirty (now flooded) Iowa native that I don’t have much appreciation for Cubs-White Sox. I mean, I get that the series itself is kind of a big deal — anytime regionally relevant opponents square off, rivalry ensues — but excuse me for not thinking it’s the biggest deal in the world. Everyone else, apparently, disagrees:

The Chicago Tribune would like to ask the important question of our day: Why are baseball fans/Chicagoans/fat people so fat? Hey, look at that fat guy! Also: Is this the golden age of Chicago sports? (No.) Are you ready to rumble in a needlessly violent fashion at Wrigley Field? (Yes!) Did you need a reminder that the first game starts in like three hours, even though, you know, everyone is talking about it? Here’s this handy countdown that you really shouldn’t need if you have ever cared about baseball ever in your life! WOOOOO!

Of course, the Sun-Times is on the story too:

Do you dream, Chicago fans? Do you love? Do you go to bed at night, still stinking of the day’s toil, hoping for a future brighter than the present? Are you going to vote for Barack Obama? Then this baseball series is for you! Maybe some dude will punch some other dude, or something.

Of course, I kid. I’m actually pretty happy with all this coverage, because baseball is fun, I enjoy it immensely, and Sox-Cubs feels like an event to be witnessed. Those are always worth the pixels. It is unfortunate, though, in the midst of all this harmless fun and sheer joy, that the Sun-Times still lets Jay Mariotti write things like this. I think Kenny Williams is kind of a nitwit, too, but it seems impossible to me that Mariotti can get away with writing that it’s “low” for Williams to bring up the Cubs’ 100-year title drought. It’s not like Mariotti, you know, brings that up whenever possible. And yet, there it is:

How weird is that? How low is that, bringing up the 100-year plague? And how hypocritical is that, given his role in the ongoing civic grudge? For years, Williams has positioned himself as an executive who encourages Sox fans to hate the Cubs and, thus, has contributed mightily to dividing the city. Now, he chides Cubs fans because they “refused to enjoy” the World Series title won by the Sox in 2005? He wants Sox fans to resent the Cubs and Cubs fans to respect the Sox? And I thought Ozzie Guillen made no sense.

Sigh. This is going to be a circus.

Update: ESPN’s on the bandwagon now too, though I give them credit for leading with a particularly funny D.J. Gallo how-to for soulless bandwagon jumpers. Yay national attention. Yay.