Final Draft

Cubs vs. Red Sox

Misery loves company. But what happens when one of the partners leaves the room? Does the other partner just get more miserable? That is what we get to find out this year as the Chicago Cubs try once again to win a World Series- 96 years and counting since their last one- while the Boston Red Sox start 2005 as reigning World Champions. The Cubs and Red Sox have similar histories of losing, but lately, both teams have had some success. Where they differ is with Boston having completed their turnaround by winning the 2004 World Series, while the Cubs find themselves still chasing that dream.

It seemed as if Boston was at the doorstep of major success every year. Getting ever close to the finish line then running out of gas right before crossing it. The years are there to examine. They roll off the tongue of a Sox fan like they’re riding their bodies of some vile venom: 1982, 1986, 1999, 2003. In each and every one of those years Boston lost a deciding game 7 in a playoff series. Too many heartbreakers, if you ask a Sox fan. Each year brought with it their respective goats and villains, Bill Buckner with his pivotal error in game 6 of the ’86 World Series, and Aaron Boone, the New York Yankee who hit a home run in the 13 th inning to end game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, to name a couple. Ask a die-hard Red Sox fan, and he won’t stop venting till tomorrow.

The results of last year are what separate Boston and Chicago in the world of Major League Baseball. The Red Sox made the playoffs as the wild card in the American League and went on to win the World Series, the first time since 1918. That series, in 1918, ironically, was won over the Cubs 4 games to 2. Boston ’s 2004 playoff run was highlighted by an epic battle in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. Boston won that series after falling behind 3 games to none; the first time ever that has been accomplished in Major League Baseball history.

The New York Yankees is a team fans of the Red Sox refer to as “the Evil Empire.” Thus, it is an understatement to say the Yanks are Boston ’s archrival. The Yankees have usually been the team that causes each respective year’s frustration for Boston . Being in the same division, the American League East, it seems like every year it comes down to these two teams for the division crown. Now with the advent of the wild card system in 1996, in which the best record of the second place finishers in each division get into the playoffs, the Red Sox and Yanks have found themselves facing off in the playoffs. That elevated stage has sharpened the rivalry. This animosity towards the Yankees could arguably be justified. While Boston has been mired in losing, New York is the most successful franchise in MLB history (26 World Series titles), which only adds to the typical Red Sox fan’s angst.

Some Red Sox fans attribute their losing to a curse. After the 1919 season the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth nicknamed, “The Bambino,” arguably the best player ever, to their nemesis, New York Yankees. Ruth went on to lead the Yankees to multiple World Series titles. To some “The Curse of the Bambino,” is the sole reason the Sox had not won a World Series title since 1918.

Chicago , on the other hand, hasn’t been as successful getting to the postseason as Boston has been throughout the years. The “Loveable Losers,” as the Cubs are fondly referred to, have a tradition of losing seasons. Manager Dusty Baker has spoken out on how he dislikes the “lovable losers” moniker and wants to rid the team of it. Nevertheless, Cubs fans had to wait 39 years between playoff appearances, 1945 to 1984, and 59 years in between playoff series victories, ’45 to ’03. Like the Red Sox, the Cubs had their years where they almost broke through: 1969, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2003. And while the Sox have the memorable “Bill Buckner Blunder,” of 1986, the Cubs have the epic choke job of ’69, when the Cubs blew a 10-game lead with a month left to play in the season. The difference is Bill Buckner made the mistake in the playoffs.

The St. Louis Cardinals are to the Cubs what the Yanks are to Boston . Archrivals, in the same division, and somehow, someway, the Cards usually end up on top at the end of the season. This rivalry tends to be a tad more civil than Sox/Yanks, but the heated contention is still there. You’re a Cubs fan or a Cards fan, one or the other. Just like the Sox and the Yanks. In both cases there is an invisible line approximately half the distance between each two cities where the fan bases collide. It’s almost as if you could straddle the line and have one foot in Cards country and one in Cubs country.

Also like the Red Sox, the Cubs have a curse some blame their losing on. In 1945, William Sianis tried to bring his pet goat into Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, for game 4 of the World Series. The ushers wouldn’t let the animal in, and in response, Sianis cast what is now known as the “Billy Goat Curse” on the Cubs by saying, “Cubs, they not gonna win anymore.” The Cubs, of course, lost that 1945 World Series and haven’t been back since.

The argument rages on as to which teams’ fans have suffered the most. The Sox fans, by having built up emotion only to be crushed in the deciding game or the Cubs fans by having to deal with constant sub-par results. It’s like asking to pick your poison. There is no good answer.

Both these teams have been, to some extent, successful in the past few years. Chicago , having consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 37 years and having reached the playoffs twice in the last 6 years, and the Red Sox of course, with their World Series title. This year’s teams are no different. Both are projected to make the playoffs, if they stay healthy. It seems that the days of constant losing are behind these two clubs. Not a minute too soon for fans of either team.

With the Red Sox winning the title last year they have left Cubs fans all alone in their misery. How will the Cubs respond? Only time will tell. There is a ray of hope out there that Cubs fans can hold on to. If the Red Sox can win a championship than most certainly anyone can! Maybe the Cubs can win it all this year and can celebrate together with Red Sox fans. GO CUBBIES!!