Hilarious

I'm a life-long Red Sox fan (having grown up 30 miles from Boston), so you wouldn't think I'd have a dog in the Cubs-Sox rivalry here in Chicago. But I must say, I share a lot more in common with White Sox fans than with Cubs fans.

I've found a disturbingly large number of Cubs fans to be inveterately fair weather fans. (This was before they got good in 2003, by the way, so it can't be chalked up to the bandwagon effect [like with the surge of Red Sox "fans" after 2004].) White Sox fans remind me much more of Red Sox fans: often intense, sometimes bitter, always involved. Neither team was terrible for any extended period over the past 70-80 years, but both were just good enough to not win. With the Red Sox, four times between 1918 and 2004 they almost won the World Series, losing each time in 7 games. During the same span, the White Sox just barely missed the playoffs countless times. Each team was good enough to suck their fans in and make them care before ripping their hearts out.

The Cubs, on the other hand, have been largely terrible over that same span. And their fans actually revel in the team's long-time suckiness, accepting the title "loveable losers" with a smile. When the team would lose, they wouldn't get angry. They'd go to one of the 50 bars in Wrigleyville to get a drink and talk about how hard the team played and how fun the game was. They didn't really care. And that is the worst sin a sports fan can commit.

Hence, I'm not fond of the Cubs, and I find the photo at the top quite hilarious.