Day 17

This city is about to see its first World Series game since 1959 and I'm glad to see people have finally gotten into it. I'm sure where I live has a lot to do with it - The North Side - but I just hadn't felt the buzz in this city like when the Cubs were in the playoffs in 2003. At my client today, Edward Don & Company, I saw a ton of sox t-shirts and jerseys on their employees. The news leads off with Sox stories every night. I even had to sit through a story about how many Sox players' wives had given birth during the season (gag).

I feel for Cubs fans in this town. Nobody is a bigger bitterman than me when it comes to other teams winning titles before mine do. But there are two kinds of Cubs fans out there right now. The ones who are now "Bi-Soxual" and have taken to rooting for the Sox, and the ones who I think are "real" Cubs fans who could never root for the hated White Sox. Take my friend Brett. This man is as die hard of a Cubs fans as there is. A season ticket holder for years. I spoke to him the other day and asked him how he was handling all of this. He said, as only Brett could, "TD, this is making me absolutely sick, if the Sox win the World Series, I am going to be forced to move." You know I respect that. Only a person who loves his team that much could be that bitter. That is exactly how I would feel if I were him. I cannot root for the Sox, one of the Tribe's main divisional rivals along with Minnesota. Any team with AJ Pierzynski - my least favorite athlete - on their team, I just cannot back.

Now take my friend Ags. Ags is one of a handful of people who love the Tribe as much as I do. Yet somehow, he likes the White Sox and is rooting for them. All playoffs long, he has been saying that "this is so great for the city" and "its a great baseball story" because they haven't won a World Series since 1917. When I question his rationale, he tells me that I sound like "a jilted lover" and I am "so full of Cleveland bitterness." All of which is true. But Clevelanders are born with sports bitterness in our blood. This can not be understood by Cubs or White Sox fans, even though their World Series droughts are both 30 plus years longer than the Indians (1948). This city basked in the glory of the 1985 Bears and were lucky enough to witness perhaps the greatest athlete of alltime win 6 championships in basketball. They know the feeling of hoisting that championship trophy. I am still waiting for #1. That is all I want, just one title. My Chicago born college friends all blame me and "The Cleveland Curse" for KU basketball's postseason failures. But as a wiseman once told me, "it is what it is." If the White Sox win, I won't pout, I'll be happy for their fans and for the team - everyone except that arrogant prick AJ Pierzynski.