Sox and Cubs

I wrote earlier that I am a die-hard Cubs fan, but I'm one of those rare birds that's also a Sox fan. I grew up in a family of Sox fans, so I went to several games at the old Comiskey Park as well as Wrigley. I used to joke that if the two teams ever played a game that mattered, I'd root for the Cubs, but what were the chances of that ever happening? Then they introduced interleague play and it now happens six times a year.

So even though the Cubs are face-first in the tank, I can take some solace in the success of the White Sox, which currently have the best record in baseball at 24-7. In fact, they have had a lead in every game so far, which is a record this deep into the season. It is also their best start ever, tying the Black Sox of 1919.

They're doing it with great starting pitching and a soft schedule. The starters' collective ERA is just over 3.00, which is a gaudy number for the American League. The schedule so far has included only five games, all with Minnesota, over teams that are currently above .500, although Toronto was above .500 until the Sox swept them last weekend.

I don't mean the soft schedule comment to diminish what the Sox have done. Great teams take care of business against the bad teams, and the Sox have been better than that. However, we'll find out if the Sox are for real by the end of this month. After three with Tampa, they play six each with Anaheim and Texas and three each with Baltimore and the Cubs. Normally, the Cubs wouldn't rate on this list, but because of the rivalry and the fact that the games are in Wrigley, they're included.

Hopefully, the better schedule will bring some fans out. Sox fans have been staying away in droves since Jerry Reinsdorf was a key player in the cancellation of the 1994 postseason, in which it looked like the Sox would have been a participant. It also doesn't help that their park is an antiseptic shopping mall with an upper deck that causes vertigo. And, if you have the misfortune of holding an upper deck ticket, you are imprisoned there (maybe that's why the park is nicknamed "the Cell"), so you can't take advantage of any of the few cool things on the lower deck, like the Hall-of-Fame, the CF shower, or the RF bar.

In the three game series with KC last week, the Sox drew a total of 40,463. The Cubs, on the other hand, are averaging 38,421 per game (about 500 below capacity), and last year had two crowds larger than the Sox drew for the whole KC series. I realize that KC is a glorified AAA team and that was a school-nights-only series, but the time has come for Sox fans to support this team and at least fill the lower deck. I won't ever recommend that anyone sit upstairs.

On the north side, the Cubs finally won yesterday, breaking a seven game losing streak. Carlos Zambrano pitched a complete game in the 2-1 win. In the ninth inning, Ryan Dempster was warming up, but Dusty Baker left Zambrano in to finish the job himself. When you consider how the bullpen has blown up this year, that's probably just as well, even though Zambrano got close to 100 pitches.

Baker said after the game that Dempster is the current winner in the anyone-but-LaTroy sweepstakes. He will keep the job for at least one blown save. It good to see that the team's optimism is still high enough to think that at some point, they may need to use a closer.