Now that the Major League Baseball season has been reduced to no less than four and no more than seven games, a hearty "congratulations" should go out to the last two teams standing, the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros.
As improbable as both of their runs have been, it bears noting that the two teams clearly showcase the most dominating starting rotations in their respective leagues, so maybe their survival through MLB's version of "Last Man Standing" isn't as big a surprise as many claim it to be. No matter, with underwhelming lineups and very solid divisional competition, both certainly have earned their mettle en route to their current perches as league pennant holders.
While the niceties are going to keep coming, sure as the rain, it seems that the national media is taking things a bit too far — did you expect any less?
I'll submit to the reality that the Houston Astros are as good a sports story as we've had in many years — seemingly out of contention in May and too stubborn and steadfast to make wholesale changes, a team mixed with sturdy veterans and unproven youngsters keeps their collective nose to the grindstone and shoots up the standings with reckless abandoned.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt in claiming that Ozzie Guillen's no-nonsense approach is not only good for the White Sox, but is great for baseball. Hell, I'll even give in to the notion that destiny played a role in this, with the symmetry between Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas being almost poetic (seriously ... born on the same day, drafted in the same year, MVPs the same season and each, in the twilight of his career, now watches as their teams bring to fruition a pipe dream both have shared for so many years).
I draw the line, however, at consenting to the idea that these two franchises, tormented by failure and near-misses on their way to extended championship dry spells, have shown a nation how such seemingly woebegone franchises should handle failure.
Sure, Houston fans and White Sox fans are a silent minority ... they aren't known as "loveable losers" and they don't have to deal with goat curses, curses of the Bambino, or the Evil Empire. As both have come frustratingly close over the last 45-plus years, their fans have never publicly lamented their plight (no more than normal, anyway) nor have they openly campaigned for sympathy. This, some opine, is because they are a fan base full of pride, self-respect, and an understanding for the concept of patience.
Pish-posh. Fans of these teams are apathetic, passive, and have no true allegiance to their squads. Houston fans don't cry like Cub fans because they don't care like Cub fans. Case-in-point, check out attendance numbers. Houston brought just over 2.8 million fannies into their home seats this summer — the Cubs, over three million. Houston is a playoff team, NL champs actually, and Chicago has been also-rans since just after the All-Star Break.
The White Sox, who ironically enough play in the same city as the Cubbies, claim they get no appreciation because of those blustery crybaby Cub fans. The truth is, they get no respect because they disappear at the first hint of average play from their South-siders. Some wonder why the country paid such homage to the Red Sox a year ago relative to the attention the ChiSox are getting so far this year — both teams have comparable streaks of ineptitude. Why are Red Sox fans considered long-tormented while hardly a mention is given of the equally-frustrated White Sox fan base? Again, simple answer — Red Sox fans cry when their team loses. I've seen it — I grew up in the northeast and honest to goodness have seen grown men cry and hug over a regular season Red Sox loss. You don't see this in Cellular One Ballpark.
Now don't get me wrong, I know there are fans out there that are every bit as passionate about the 'Stros or ChiSox as I am about the Cubs and BoSox, and this article in no way is meant to demean that passion or those who hold it. You may well have an argument about the national attention the Cubs and Red Sox garner over their losing streaks (now defunct, in the case of the Boston Red Sox). But for anybody, especially someone claiming to be a journalist, to claim that the Astros and White Sox "know how to handle" empty championship dreams is absolutely ludicrous.
I'm not calling fans of these teams bad fans or anything like that, I'm simply stating that they have an apathy and a ho-hum approach to their teams in the "lean years" that you would never find in the stands of Wrigley and Fenway. This does not make them better fans, nor does it make them worse fans, it just makes them different fans. Just like you can't compare an apple to an orange without making some concessions on inherent differences, you cannot compare a Cub fan and an Astros fan without doing the same.
In closing, fans of the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox have a great deal to be proud of and to revel in. No matter which team emerges as the victor, the spoils will include the sating of ridiculously long absences of a championship parade in their respective cities (for baseball success, at least). But let's keep things real, to steal a line from the popular culture lexicon. No one has ever heard a dying man utter the words "Go Astros!" as he passed on to the other side. Nobody's only regret was to not have seen the White Sox win a World Series.
Things like this only happen to teams cursed by goats and Bambinos.
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