Sep 17, 2013
Playoff hopes may be dead, but baseball in Chicago is far from it. Another “wasted season” as White Sox slugger Adam Dunn put it, quite simply sums up the last few months of baseball on the south side.
The story isn’t any better in Wrigley either. Both teams have hit lows in their respective divisions, so low in fact most games are composed of twenty year old prospects showing coaches they have the skill to compete.
With the omission of the reliably consistent Houston Astros, the Cubs no longer have anyone to put below them in the NL central. The Sox find themselves fighting for a foothold in a stacked division, led by the hard-hitting, hard-throwing Tigers with Cleveland and Kansas City not too far behind.
2013 has been a year a celebration for the casual fans of Chicago sports, what with the Blackhawks securing their second Cup since 2010. However the dog days arrived early for the boys of summer. Aging rosters constantly inducing poor stat lines for the likes of yesteryear’s all-stars make for a pair of sub-par ball clubs. The poor performance had called for a renovation of sorts.
A conversation with a member of the marketing staff for the White Sox put this summer’s blunder into a new perspective. Stating that at the advent of the 2014 season, there is virtually nothing this year’s record can do to affect the new season. The players, coaches, all the behind the scenes team members start over once again. A comforting thought for the fan, giving new meaning to the ubiquitous phrase, “next year is the year.”
This blunder of a season was not a waste, at least for the mass of followers that support and fuel these teams to put go at it 162 times a year. Living in Chicago gives one a new look at the allure that is the world famous Wrigley Field. As well as, for the more devoted fan, a trip to 35th street for a night game at “New Comiskey”.
The innocence of a trip to the ballpark is whisked away sooner than the money in your wallet after one hot dog. The lost innocence is, fortunately, quickly replaced by the grandiose spectacle of loyalty. No other town, save perhaps Boston, can make such a commanding argument for America’s greatest sports town as Chicago.
Where wearing your team of your sleeve is not just a show of fandom, but a right of passage. Just last Monday, a duel between the down and out Twins and even deeper Sox reminded fans that there is more to baseball than the the wins and losses. For the fans at least. A ten spot bought a front row ticket for a friend and myself. I have seen the view from the press box and honestly I am baffled as to why anyone would choose to exclude themselves from the greatest aspect of any game, the fans.
If anything was more evident than the fact that the players wholeheartedly could not care less about the outcome of the game (it ended up being 12-1 Sox), it was that the fans who truly adore their team could not have loved their team any more.
Baseball in Chicago may be going through a rough patch, but should the day ever come again, when either the North Side’s lovable losers or the ‘05 champs of the South return to contender status there will be no exodus of fans emerging from the woodwork, because they are already here, rooting on their teams for better and most certainly for worse.
