CHICAGO - Several months ago, an email arrived from a good friend, inviting us to a get together in Chicago -- a "destination" surprise 30th birthday for her husband. Having never been to Chicago and always up for a surprise party, we gladly accepted, booked flights and a hotel. At the time, it never occurred to us that the trip would fall on the same day as Game 1 of the World Series, and little did we know that that very game would be played in this city.
At one point on Friday evening, over drinks just after the surprise had been sprung, discussion turned to the topic of Chicago baseball's championship drought. We marveled at the length of it, and though somewhere a statistician has calculated the probability of such an "un"-occurrence, it wouldn't have made almost 90 years of waiting easier to comprehend.
What does make it easier to comprehend is my experience as a Phillies fan. After all, it's been a quarter of a century since the Phillies last won their one and only World Series title, and really, is there any difference between twenty-five years and ninety-years of waiting? Once the drought reaches a generation in length, it's way too long.
At some point in the conversation, something occurred to me quite clearly through the libation-induced glow... The possibility exists that I may never be in a city again while the World Series is in town. Sure, it is a pessimistic thought, but hey, sometimes even pessimists get things right. Thus, I decided that while I couldn't become a White Sox fan for a day, nor did I want to, I definitely wanted experience the feel of a city with the World Series in the background.
It wasn't hard to do...
...The man working the front door of our hotel wore a White Sox cap every day we were there.
...On Michigan Avenue, World Series banners hung from every lightpost.
...At the welcome center for the Millennium Park, the attendants were giving away to anyone that wanted one (and some that didn't) a cardboard face-mask-on-a-stick of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
...During a Second City improvisation skit, the performers managed to work in an update of the progress of Game 1 as well as an interpretive dance of Southside Chicago-style baseball fans.
...Even the staff of Howl at the Moon, a piano bar, displayed various items of White Sox paraphernalia. I could be wrong, but I didn't get the impression that the staff would normally follow sports very closely.
...For the most part, those on the Northside -- Cubs territory -- seemed to have a certain degree of apathy towards the White Sox success, however even Harry Caray's restaurant was decorated for the White Sox (don't forget, Caray was an announcer for the Sox before the Cubs)
But perhaps the best way we experienced the World Series was to watch the final two innings in Corcoran's, a pub across the street from Second City's theater. When we walked in to the bar at the bottom of the eighth inning, A.J. Pierzynski -- the White Sox catcher -- was in the middle of stealing second base and the establishment's patrons cheered. When Scott Podsednik tripled off of Houston Astros reliever to score Pierzynski to give the Sox a two run cushion going into the ninth inning, the individual cheers around me instantaneously blended into a wall-shaking din.
By the time Bobby Jenks struck out Adam Everett to close out the game, the smiles were contagious to all in the room. During the inning, I found myself clapping after every strike Jenks threw. But I wasn't really rooting for the White Sox, I was rooting for their fans.
Because, if Red Sox Nation can finally be rewarded for their 86-year perseverance in 2004, and if the Southsiders can experience their first title since 1917, then maybe, just maybe, there is hope for those of us that follow the team in Philadelphia.
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Great Moments in World Series History
First, when Ozzie Guillen motioned to the bullpen for the 6'3'', 240 lb. Jenks, he didn't just tap his arm, but extended each arm out wide to mimic the reliever's, uh, stature. Guillen is without a doubt breaking the mold for how managers are perceived. Second, when Neal Cotts and Jenks combined to get five of the last six outs via strikeouts. Power pitching at its most dominant.
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Photographs from Around the Windy City
[click to enlarge]
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