Baseball-Chicago fans celebrate rare World Series trip
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-18 11:37

LOSING LEGACY

To say Chicago baseball fans have not had much to cheer about in the last century is an understatement.

The White Sox have not won a World Series since 1917, and were accused of fixing the 1919 championship in a gambling scandal. The cross-town rival Chicago Cubs have been waiting even longer -- since 1908.

The city has had its share of monumental collapses and near misses.

The 1969 Cubs blew a 4-1/2 game lead over the New York Mets with just one month to play in the season.

In 2003, the Cubs again came tantalizingly close before falling to the eventual world champions, the Florida Marlins, in the National League Championship Series.

The White Sox had not been to the playoffs since 2000, when they coasted through the regular season only to get swept by the Seattle Mariners in the first round.

They nearly missed their shot at the title this year.

A 15-game lead over the second-place Cleveland Indians dwindled to just 1-1/2 games in mid-September but the Sox kicked into high gear, ending the season with a three-game sweep of the Indians that knocked them out of the playoffs.

Perhaps even more galling for a city that boasts two of the oldest baseball franchises and the longest World Series droughts, the expansion Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks have won three championships in the last decade.

The legacy of losing has added to the city's inferiority complex. Fans complained bitterly this season about East Coast teams like the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox dominating national sports broadcasts even as the White Sox compiled the best record in the American League.

Despite leading their division since the first day of the season, the White Sox struggled to get respect even at home, where the Cubs have long been the favorite and drew far more fans despite posting a losing record.

For now, White Sox fans can revel in the fact that the Cubs have long since gone home for the winter and the South Siders have the city's full attention.

If they can pull off just four more wins, the city will party like it's 1917.