I’ve been a White Sox fan my whole life, going to all their games and staying up late cheering the 2005 team on to the World Series Championship. My room is covered with with White Sox pennants, rally towels, hats and even a small bobblehead collection (thanks to my boyfriend). Last year I went to nearly 20 games and stuck by my team’s side through every loss. Excitingly, this year the Sox have made an impressive start to their season, which of course, was out-shined by the Cubs’ "impressive" start. I’ve grown up with a very intense dislike for the Cubs, instilled in me by my mother. Unfortunately, my long-term boyfriend is a diehard Cubs fan—that’s his only bad quality. Sometime this leads to bickering back and forth about which team is better all the time, in all fun of course! I’ve tried to be happy about the Cubs’ success for his sake, but it’s damn near impossible.
As the successes of the Cubs is consuming the media throughout the Chicagoland area, this has been firing my dislike for them more. I can’t go on social media when a Cubs game is on without seeing the obnoxious posts about how good the Cubs are, or seeing the 'W' flag plastered along Facebook walls, Instagram posts, etc. We get it! The Cubs have a good team this year, so do the Sox, although constant posts about it is alienating the rest of Chicago. It's funny. Three years ago, nobody ever posted about baseball because quite frankly, both teams sucked. During the years of 2015-2016 now there are Cubs fans coming out of the woodwork since they’re doing well, where were you before this "new" and "better" team? Sometimes I question an individuals post when they refer to the Cubs and the knowledge they have about baseball. I try to keep my Sox posts on social media to a minimum. At times, I will retweet the Sox on Twitter but that’s about it, I try to keep my posting to a minimum to avoid annoying my followers (hint hint Cubs' fans!).
As I mentioned before, the media in Chicago is getting under my skin with the tedious broadcasts about Cubs successes. Hello? Did you forget about the other Chicago team, who has, in fact, a pitcher with the best records in the majors. Walking into any store that sells sports apparel is a stab in the back, too. As there are Cubs apparel scattered neatly along walls, there is an array of messy White Sox apparel in the tiniest corner of the store. I can’t drive anywhere without seeing the “W” flag flying in someone’s yard at least once during the trip. Chicago is covered in Cubbie blue right now and it’s making me sick, just once I’d like a little recognition for the South Side, just once.
I try so hard to not hate the Cubs, after all, we are one city, except they make it so hard for me to like them. I try to be a good, supportive girlfriend to my boyfriend, but supporting the Cubs isn’t easy for me. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll convert him to the South Side.
