After last year’s fisticuffs between catchers Michael Barrett and A.J. Pierzynski, it wouldn’t have been hard for the first round of this season’s interleague series between the Cubs and the White Sox to have a mellower vibe, and it did. With Sox fans more numerous than ever at Wrigley Field–a lingering effect of their 2005 championship and the Cubs’ persistent mediocrity, which has made tickets to their games easier to come by–the two tribes seemed willing to coexist. Opposing players and coaches fraternized during batting practice–no one more than Sox manager Ozzie Guillen–and I observed more mixed sets of fans than I could remember seeing before.
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With the mood in the stadium so playful and peaceful, I decided to venture out into the neighborhoods where the real battle rages for the city’s sporting hearts and minds. What I saw was a remarkable tolerance, especially for Sox fans infiltrating the north side, and a muted rooting interest. Most people had one eye on the games, and only when something dramatic happened did they reveal their allegiances.
I watched Saturday’s game from the Heartland, a Rogers Park bar with a reputation among those in the know as a way station for Sox fans, and, indeed, a Sox 2005 World Champions pennant was hidden on the corner of the mirror behind the booze rack, next to a boycott coke! bumper sticker. The only person watching the game intently, I uttered an involuntary “Ooh!” when Joe Crede tied it with a homer that nobody else seemed to notice. Once in a while somebody spoke up. When Paul Konerko put the Sox ahead, yanking a ball into the left-field seats, the woman sitting next to me, who hadn’t seemed to be paying attention to the game, said, “Ah, the White Sox! Yay!” The Sox’ Tadahito Iguchi doubled down the left-field line in the eighth, and a guy at the corner of the bar suddenly said, “Oh, that’s trouble.” He wasn’t around for the Cubs’ rally in the bottom of the inning, but when Derrek Lee came up as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and the Cubs already ahead, the bartender said, “Ooh, Lee.” Lee proceeded to hit a grand slam to put the game away, and she went about her work with smiling efficiency.
The Bulls lost to the Detroit Pistons 4-2 in the second round of the NBA playoffs, but the team’s consistency was admirable throughout the season. I don’t mean on the floor. They were maddeningly inconsistent there, as the Detroit series demonstrated–they lost three straight, blowing a big lead at home in the last of those defeats, then won two, the latter in Detroit, and then succumbed back at the United Center. But management was consistent in the way it approached the Bulls’ young roster. General manager John Paxson made the decision at midseason not to trade the future for the present, and coach Scott Skiles, a notorious win-at-all-costs sort, showed the same patience on the floor, letting the young Bulls learn for themselves in the playoffs and giving rookies Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha more playing time when it mattered as the Detroit series went on. I don’t know if the Bulls have a championship nucleus yet, but Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Thomas, and maybe even Kirk Hinrich have enough talent to make their development a pleasure to watch. Paxson and Skiles seem content to stand pat and see how they develop, and the fans aren’t telling them not to.
