cta_musgrave_1998Being a White Sox fan at the moment has to be one of the most gut wrenching experiences I’ve ever had to be a part of in October. Where to begin is really the question. If you feel like me, you may ask yourself, ‘how do I try to enjoy a World Series that has the Cleveland fucking Indians against the Cubs.’ It can’t get much worse for a Sox fan.

The Indians are division foes of the White Sox and a team that we had to watch in countless playoff appearances in the 90’s and continually come up short including a World Series loss to the Atlanta Braves. I will give the Indians a pass on that one, as no one had a chance when the umps were giving Maddux and Glavine strikes six inches off the corner the entire series. No hitter from any team had a chance.

Fast forward to April 2016,the White Sox come out of the gate like gangbusters running their record to 18 – 8 and hold a 6-game lead over the Indians. The Indians have numerous injuries pile up and most baseball experts leave them for dead because the injuries were insurmountable.

By June 1, the injury bug hits the White Sox and they were again, not designed to withstand any sort of injuries and the team that looked like a postseason contender was now a 1.5 out of first and only a ½ game up on the Indians. Somehow, the Indians, with a depleted staff had rallied to come back in the division and eventually end up in the World Series when all was said and done.

For a White Sox fan it was a slow and painful death that didn’t really feel over in the division until around the trading deadline, but there was the false hope of the Wild Card, quite possibly the most evil element added to baseball placing teams in purgatory that should be making bolder moves for the future.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town they had popped champagne bottles back in March when every expert picked the Cubs to win the World Series. Most Cubs’ fans wanted to fast-forward to October because their destiny had been predetermined. I can here the Emperor’s voice in Star Wars saying, “It is your destiny.”

As annoying as I found this behavior, it turns out that they may have had a point. Why risk 162 games when the final outcome turned out to be a World Series appearance anyway, but hey anything can happen its baseball.

I can honestly say that I’m not rooting against the Cubs as I have too many friends that have had lots of miserable years sticking by their team through it all, born and raised in Chicago where a city remains divided on baseball based on blue collar vs. white collar and Northside vs. Southside.

Which leads me to my next comment; I can’t express in any words how disappointed I’ve been in my fellow Southsiders that have jumped onto the Cubs’ bandwagon this Fall. Earlier in the year, I remember Charlie walking around Lemont with his Cubs’ shirt on getting some lite jabbing about wearing that in the “wrong part of town”. Then somehow like a nightmare a switch was hit and everyone is fucking royal blue cheering on the Cubs. It’s fucking disgraceful. Stick to your guns, pick a lane and stand by what you believe in for the sake of honesty, not because you don’t want to miss the party. I’m ready to miss the party; I don’t want anything to do with it.

So, how does a White Sox fan deal with an Indians/Cubs World Series? Thankfully, there’s tons of great programming on Netflix, I finished Stranger Things on Saturday as the Cubs clinched. I did find it funny when I posted how great Stranger Things was on Facebook it prompted a Cubs fan to reply, “We get it you’re not watching the Cubs”. I didn’t realize my viewing habits would come under such scrutiny. In fact, thanks to modern technology with iPhone alerts, not sure everyone is aware of this advancement, but you get live updates on score changes and controversial calls as the game is being played. That allows me since I run half a blog from the White Sox and SF Giants point-of-view to comment on everything without having to watch. It’s pretty cool. I think we all know by now that the major advancement the last time the Cubs won a World Series was the Model-T Ford.

Which brings me to my next thought, if there was every a reason to want the Cubs to win the World Series its my last sentence and many other narratives on curses and goats. We’re all tired of it; it’s just not funny and doesn’t add a value to any debate about winning and losing baseball games. Curses do not exist and you can’t jinx your team by confidently saying you believe they are going to win the World Series, yet Cubs fans still tiptoe around this topic.

A perfect example was a web poll question that I posted on Friday asking, “Do you believe that the Cubs are going to the World Series?” 106 people engaged, but only four answered, and my guess is one was a Sox or Dodgers fan. That’s three Cubs’ fans out of 106 that didn’t think they would jinx their team. Kind of funny and ridiculous isn’t it?

Since, I’m just a bystander in the upcoming World Series I honestly think the Cubs are going to be 2016 World Series champions, although based on my predictions throughout the 2016 MLB season I may have just jinxed them.