When Hope And Disappointment Collide

It's beginning to feel like Fall here in the city of wind. The wind is blowing a little harder, the temperature is dropping and the baseball and football seasons are overlapping. For generations, Chicago fans operated under a blanket of denial. Always hopeful for their team's success they ignored history and deluded themselves into believing that this was going to be the year. On too few occasions, the prayers of the faithful have been answered, but that seems to only lead to more problems.

Last year the White Sox won the World Series. Long suffering Sox fans heaved a collective sigh of relief and then took a few months to lord the victory over the heads of the hapless Cubs fans. They say the only thing harder than winning a championship is repeating, and the Sox are beginning to prove the adage correct. I'm not some cigar smoking, jock sniffing, sports writer, so I won't get into the minutiae of the incredibly Disappointing season. I will say this...What the F---!? This team is loaded with talent, but it seems like they can't get it together. Could it be that they're not hungry anymore? Could it be that last year was a fluke? Could it be that the Cubs fans bad mojo has taken hold of the South Side and brought an equal level of loserdom to the "Cell"? No the disappointment will always be greater on the South Side. We have seen the mountain top and were thrown off. The cubs have only heard rumors regarding a mountain.

On the flip side, the Bears have started the season with two monstrous victories, giving rise to thoughts of a Championship season. Suddenly, the "Monsters Of the Midway" are back, and guess what, they have an offense too.

What is a fan to do? I can't give up on the Sox. I'm like the nerd in school who got to hang with the cheer leader for a couple of weeks. She let me be in her world so that I would help her pass physics, but after she got her A she didn't care anymore and cast me aside. The Sox let me know what it feels like to root for a winner, and now they don't seem to care. I could shift all my attention to the Bears, but I hold out hope that my cheer leader girlfriend will come back. Maybe I'll just ignore them for awhile and see if they notice. Later...Brian