writes in to say:

Tony, Tony, Tony. For all of your insistence that the Sox fans are haters, I see 1600 and 44 words up here saying how much the Sox suck.

The first step is admitting that you are jealous of our success. You’ll feel much better then.

The Sox and their fans are the real underdogs, even if they did win. When everybody in town was on the Cubs bandwagon, all day long, we were the real die-hards, the ones that stuck with our team while it was cool to love the Cubs.

Funny how for Cubs fans being on the bandwagon makes you the underdog. Where I was from, not far from Hanover Park (insert Anthony voice here, all Dahl fans), it was so easy to be a Cub fan because everyone else was. It was hard to be a Sox fan because you were the outcast, the loser.

Nope. We are the ones who have been long suffering and its our suffering that made our World Series title so tasty.

The Cubs have always been the rich man’s team in Chicago and the great unwashed on the South Side (where my gene pool originates), loved the Sox. Basically Irish drunks and African Americans from the projects, not the rich Northsiders, were the Sox fans. The rich ones up North were the Cubbie fans. Yes, we are your janitors and trashmen and all of that. Apparently you think there is something wrong with that. That’s fine. You’re entitled to look down on whomever you want.

Rob, Did you miss the comments from one of your fellow Sox fans that started all this nonsense? To summarize, it was boring and pretty much taken care of. Your bro wanted some attention and it was given to him. Even during the World Series i had no problem ignoring the Sox, as you remember. Trust me when I say I have no jealousy to any AL team, particularily the Sox.

As for your comments… clearly im much older than you. for when i was in high school there was no such thing as a “rich man’s team” in Chicago – for any sport as they all sucked – and there definately was no such thing as a Cubs bandwagon. and if there was any bandwagon in the 70s to mid 80s it arrived first on the south side for the Sox who made it into the playoffs in 83 with the Winnin Ugly fisk-baines-luzinski team.

at that time our school was evenly split between cubs and sox fans and the kids who switched allegiances over to the Sox were rightly pummeled by both real Sox and Cub fans. and, again, these were the days when bleacher seats for either team only cost a few dollars.

if there was a cubs bandwagon it happened after i had moved away, and the question you should ask yourself is why more joined the 84 Cubs playoff run than jumped on with the Sox a year earlier? and why would they stay after the heartbreak that was the 84 playoff series against the Padres that lead to four sub .500 seasons in a row before they made it to the playoffs again in ’89?

Since the 80s the cubs have only six seasons where they were above .500 and only two seasons where they placed first or second, meaning in the last 16 years those who have jumped on this imaginary bandwagon of yours have only been rewarded twice. thats not exactly why people join bandwagons.

meanwhile your claim that the Sox fans are the real die-hards is also as ridiculous. remember that Cubs game that i went to last Friday afternoon? at the time the Cubs were more than 30 games below .500 and they still drew over 37,000 fans.

meanwhile your Sox, who last night were still in the playoff chase (albeit it, not a great chance, but still in it) played a night game and only drew just 39,427

you’re telling me that the defending champs, during a pennant race, playing on a 68 degree night, with the wind blowing out, against a first place Detroit team (who should be responsible for at least a few thousand transplant fans) can only barely attract 2k more fans than a Cub team fielded by players who are not named Wood, Prior, or Maddux?

what sort of bandwagon is it when a team is in dead last place and the fans still nearly sell out the game? thats not a bandwagon, that’s called loyal fans.

not selling out during a pennant race against the first place team in your division, at night is an embarrassment, and nothing for Cub fans to be jealous of.

perhaps the attendees of Wrigley have increased in affluence over the years, but they were not the lovable Bleacher Bums who were portrayed in the famous play, or the hapless losers painted in the Rockwell classic.

the Cubs have always been the team for the average man. for the exception of the last few years they were the ones who televised nearly every game on free, local, non-cable tv. which attracted the likes of Harry Caray away from the south side who said that he didn’t want to work for a team that would charge the working man extra to see his team on tv.

and when talking about african-american fans, the north side had plenty to root for: Buck O’Neil was MLB’s first black coach, Ernie Banks was the first black to win back to back MVPs, Hall of Famer Billy Williams played at Wrigley from 59-74, the torch was passed to Bill Madlock who won back to back batting titles in 75 and 76, which is to say nothing of Fergie Jenkins who had six consecutive 20 game win seasons from 67-72.

just because the south side had more african americans living closer to Comiskey didnt mean that the north side didnt have blacks worth rooting for. indeed, with all due respect to larry doby, bobby bonds, and harold baines, the cubs had better ones. which again prompts me to say, we had nothing to be jealous of. nothing.