Tad

Why do you hate them? I could tell you why he hates the White Sox. He had some anti-White Sox blog last year. He used to post there under a different name, but he says all the same things. One reason was that there was some Sox fan at his high school (New Trier) that he hated and the other was that he used to post on southsiders.net, which is a small-time White Sox message board. I guess they banned him and it was the mortal wound of his life because after that he went on a real rampage, trolling all the Sox message boards, kicking his blog into overtime, trolling non-White Sox boards with anti-White Sox messages, encouraging people to spam and troll the southsiders.net board, etc. He'd report his anti-White Sox activities on his anti-Sox blog (which is gone now). A lot of it was funny to read, particularly his defense of his activities (White Sox fans are bad because they hate the Cubs obsessively, so he hates the White Sox obsessively)and his theory that MLB is conspiring to keep the Cubs from ever winning the World Series. A little too much time on your hands? If you're implying that I might have made this up, I can assure you that's not the case. viewtopic.php?t=22103 This thread contains an encounter I had with the person I am talking about. If that person is not the same person who now posts as CubsBullsBears then I apologize for my mistake. Recalling that conversation as well as some of the things said here as well as what I remember from that blog (for example, calling Carlos Lee "El Horso" or claiming that Mark Buerhle tried to murder Travis Hafner), I simply put 2 and 2 together.

Why do you hate them? I could tell you why he hates the White Sox. He had some anti-White Sox blog last year. He used to post there under a different name, but he says all the same things. One reason was that there was some Sox fan at his high school (New Trier) that he hated and the other was that he used to post on southsiders.net, which is a small-time White Sox message board. I guess they banned him and it was the mortal wound of his life because after that he went on a real rampage, trolling all the Sox message boards, kicking his blog into overtime, trolling non-White Sox boards with anti-White Sox messages, encouraging people to spam and troll the southsiders.net board, etc. He'd report his anti-White Sox activities on his anti-Sox blog (which is gone now). A lot of it was funny to read, particularly his defense of his activities (White Sox fans are bad because they hate the Cubs obsessively, so he hates the White Sox obsessively)and his theory that MLB is conspiring to keep the Cubs from ever winning the World Series.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/chi-0607130263jul13,1,7073318.story?coll=cs-whitesox-headlines Just to clarify:

This is true, although that label is usually applied to Sox fans. My brother's brother-in-law worked with Steve Bartman and said that the Cubs fans in his office were none too classy after Game 6 in 2003 and I knew a few Sox fans who were kinda hoping that the Cubs would pull it out just for Bartman's sake (I know, you all know the Sox fan who was out buying a full Marlins uniform that year). I've stated this before, but I've found that the Sox "fans" who are the most anti-Cub tend to be either former Cubs fans who jumped ship a while ago or are Sox fans from Cubs families. I have a friend who falls into both categories and he's the one calling people bragging about the playoffs and rubbing it in people's faces. I have another friend who is a life-long Sox fan who does the occassional teasing but is mostly gracious about the whole thing.

I've posted as much. But I'll lose sleep at the thought of even the most measly of sums being lost to Reinsdorf. No offense, but I imagine you must have more important things to worry about.

Do you honestly think that possibility never occured to the man before now? It's more likely that a Sox title will cut into our revenues, making it harder for Hendry to maintain one of the league's biggest payrolls. How does that help us? Actually, I doubt that even if the White Sox win it all this year, it would really have much of a financial impact on the Cubs. The Sox will draw more fans next year, but it will hardly be at the expense of the Cubs. Wrigley is still going to sell out most of its games, not that ticket sales have any corallation to payroll. The Cubs are still one of the most popular teams in the nation. The White Sox will have to continue winning for many more years just to become the most popular team in Chicago. There will be a rise in White Sox merchandise sales and TV ratings next year, but if they don't maintain a winning team then it will all drop off again. Unlike the Cubs, the Sox won't draw fans to US Cellular if they don't win because they don't have the neighborhood or hipness appeal to do so, nor do they have that mystique of teams like the Cubs, Yankees, or Red Sox that cause people who have never stepped foot in Chicago to become a fan. The only thing that is going to be hurt by a White Sox World Series championship is the pride of Cubs fans and the organization.

So he's Chicago's version of Ben Affleck and Boston. The only difference is that Affleck didn't profess to be a Red Sox fan, then say that he was done with them forever, show up at a Yankee playoff game in Yankee gear and then two years later when the Red Sox were back on top, show up at the Series back in their gear supporting them. There is a blurb in today's Sun-Times where Bernie Mac says he never rooted for the Cubs. http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-journal24.html

Anyone that wants to gloat about any victory, be it Sox fan or Cubs fan, is really just looking for a reaction. Judging by some of the sour grapes posts in this thread, I imagine many people will be giving them the reaction they are looking for. Its funny that, on one hand, people will say that there are hardly any real White Sox fans, but then, when talking about the possible White Sox World Series victory, describe Sox fans as this almost unfathomable and unstoppable dark force that will only ruin the lives of every Cubs fan in Chicago.

Wow, a thread complaining about a Tribune-owned media outlet's coverage of a Chicago baseball team, and its on a Cubs board! What truly strange times we live. :)

The typical Cubs fan stereotype of Sox fans is that of a white trash thug who is obsessed with the Cubs and has an arrest record a mile long. The typical Sox fan stereotype of Cubs fans is that of a yuppie who goes to Wrigley to party and couldn't name more than 3 players on the team. I think that the Sox fanbase is like any other fanbase. There are good fans. There are trashy fans. There are nice guys and there are absolute jerks. In my own experience, I've found that there are two distinct types of Sox fans. One is the actual Sox fan, a life-long fan who likes all things Sox. They might rip on the Cubs, but its in a local rival way, as opposed to any sort of "Cubs obsession". They are still concerned more with the White Sox. The other type of fan is the Cubs Hater. It seems to me that many of these peope either come from families with lots of Cubs fans or were Cubs fans but at one point switch teams. For example, my friend was a Cubs fan for years, and his family are Cubs fans. However, at some point, he dumped the Cubs for the Sox (I don't remember when, but it was before this year) and now he rips on the Cubs more than any lifelong Sox fan I know. These are the people who are more interested in the Cubs losing than the Sox winning. As for the "Cubs Suck" t-shirts and that stuff, who cares? None of that stuff is licensed by the team or sold inside the ballpark. There are "Sox Suck" t-shirts, too. From what I've heard, the same people selling the "Cubs Suck" t-shirts are selling the "Sox Suck" t-shirts. I've seen people at US Cellular with Cubs jerseys and hats on, or "Sox Suck" shirts, loudly rooting for whoever was playing the Sox, so I find it kind of amusing when people claim that its Sox fans who do everything to agitate Cubs fans and ignore the fact that there are Cubs fans doing stuff right back. I've also noticed that its alot of younger Cubs fans doing these things, so maybe there's a new breed of fan on the way up, one who buys more into the Cubs-Sox rivalry than older fans.

I don't know if I'd use that guy as the template for all Sox fans. I heard he was banned from both WSI and SoxTalk because even they couldn't stand him.

The Sox win today. They are going to the playoffs.

When a team is as popular as the Cubs, they are always going to be faced with resentment. There are always going to be people that hate them just because of their popularity. Most of my encounters with fans of our crosstown rivals have been friendly. There's always a bit of joking and stuff, but I've never been in serious arguments or faced a lot of venom. There are always jerky fans. I've seen Cubs fans act like as big of jerks to Sox fans as Sox fans have acted to Cubs fans. It goes both ways. I've seen groups of 20-something Cubs fans, dressed in Cubs jerseys and hats, show up at US Cellular and loudly root against the Sox, no matter who the Sox are playing. I know that there is a ton of resentment in the Sox fan base against the Cubs and their fans. That's just the way it is. That's not going to change in the near future, either, so you might as well get used to it. The analysis here is going to be one-sided, anyway. "Sox fans are jealous and insecure and obsessed with the Cubs" is going to be the nature of most responses you get. Ask people on a Sox site why there are so many anti-Cubs threads and you will get something different. By the way, the guy who sells the "Cubs Suck" shirts outside US Cellular also sells the "Sox Suck" shirts outside of Wrigley, or so I've been told.

I find it amusing the way some people take this so personally, like "Sox fans rooted against the Cubs in '03, so I can't wait for the Sox to mess up". If that's how you feel, more power to you, but I don't really care if Sox fans root for or against the Cubs. Personally, I didn't know very many Sox fans who rooted against the Cubs in '03, although I also don't know very many who (openly, at least) rooted for the Cubs, either. I think that the White Sox attract a lot of people who are Cub haters. What I mean by that is instead being Sox fans first and then deciding that they hate the Cubs because they are Sox fans, they hate the Cubs and decided to become Sox fans just because they hate the Cubs. Nationally, there are people who hate the Yankees, simply because they are the Yankees, and will root against them no matter what. I think you get the same thing locally here. I think you get people who are so sick of hearing about the Cubs that they want to go against the grain and root against them.

I saw or read something now about Buehrle claiming that the stuff he said on the Score was something like a joke that didn't come out right or something. I'm not trying to make excuses for Beuhrle, because it was stupid, but I don't think it was as malicious as some people want to believe it was. I think he was really trying to get under the skin of Cubs fans more than anything, and just said something dumb. I recall a few years ago a Cardinals pitcher, I think, making some comment about Prior needing to be hit by a line drive and then Prior saying he hoped the Astros won and made it to the playoffs and the Cardinals didn't right before a Cubs/Astros series. I wish I could remember the details. It was quite ridiculous at the time. Anyway, the media, I think, blows all that stuff out of proportion because they know how the fans feed on that stuff. Back to the original question in this thread, there are always people who focus more on what they hate than what they like, especially, in this case, when the Sox are having a good year and the Cubs really aren't. I think it is especially more frustrating if you view the White Sox as untalented and just "lucky".

Sure, man. How about not talking about the White Sox altogether? Interleague is done, they don't effect the Cubs anymore.

It must irritate White Sox fans b/c I posted it on southsiders.net and soxtalk.com and I got kicked off. Of course I came back and got kicked off again. That story is pretty old and the Sox fans I know seem to feel that if it doesn't happen while he's on the Sox, then they don't care what happened in SF. Twins fans still like the guy. It sounds like you were on the Sox boards to troll. That's probably why you were kicked off. I was kicked off southsiders.net 4 times. 1st time, b/c my al-city team had "too many Cubs" 2nd time b/c I registered under the same IP, 3rd time b/c I asked if AJ's kick in the nuts was a true story, 4th tme b/c of my white sox suck blog. BTW - I deleted it. Well, ok the thing I don't get is if you hate the White Sox and are a Cubs fan, why do you even want to post on a White Sox board? I know that you are trying to act like you were wronged by Southsiders.net, but you had a blog where you declared your hatred of the White Sox! I saw that on your blog (before it was deleted) you posted the IP and email address of the admin of that board and encouraged people to spam him. That was not cool, so I don't know why you are surprised that they banned you. I guess I just don't understand why you put so much interest and energy in hating the White Sox and yet want to be a part of their internet community. If you were kicked off 4 times, why keep going back? You don't even like the team. Why bother trying to go back or obsessing on the website unless you just want to troll, which is pretty lame. And if you wanna troll, go to the MLB boards. That's pretty much the only thing that happens there. If you want to talk Cubs, you are at the right place. If you want to just hate the White Sox, you should revive your blog. I posted his email and IP after I got kicked off. Yeah, but you still did it and that's not cool. I'm sure if someone here had a "Cubs Suck" blog, they wouldn't be member for very long. And that still doesn't answer the question of why you want to be a member there in the first place. You hate the Sox and you hate the people who post on that site! But you are angry they won't let you back there!

It's true. The email address of the head of that blog has cubs suck in it. And the troll names they gave me: Flubbie Troll # 1, some uptown yuppie, been hatin' on AJ a bit too much, and CUBS SUCK! They really are more concerned w/ Cubs than the Twins and themselves. I asked them to order the top 5 teams they hate, and most of them had Cubs before the Twins on their lists. Just for the record, here is who I hate: 1. Cardinals 2. White Sox 3. Yuckies 4. Gaints 5. Baltimore 1. I think (and maybe I'm wrong) that Mark R is referring to you and the fact that you seemed concerned with hating the White Sox and that website than liking the Cubs the way many Sox fans are more concerned with hating the Cubs than liking the Sox. 2. If the Cardinals are the team you hate the most, why don't you have a "Cardinals Suck" blog or post anti-Cards stuff? Almost everything is about the Sox.

It must irritate White Sox fans b/c I posted it on southsiders.net and soxtalk.com and I got kicked off. Of course I came back and got kicked off again. That story is pretty old and the Sox fans I know seem to feel that if it doesn't happen while he's on the Sox, then they don't care what happened in SF. Twins fans still like the guy. It sounds like you were on the Sox boards to troll. That's probably why you were kicked off. I was kicked off southsiders.net 4 times. 1st time, b/c my al-city team had "too many Cubs" 2nd time b/c I registered under the same IP, 3rd time b/c I asked if AJ's kick in the nuts was a true story, 4th tme b/c of my white sox suck blog. BTW - I deleted it. Well, ok the thing I don't get is if you hate the White Sox and are a Cubs fan, why do you even want to post on a White Sox board? I know that you are trying to act like you were wronged by Southsiders.net, but you had a blog where you declared your hatred of the White Sox! I saw that on your blog (before it was deleted) you posted the IP and email address of the admin of that board and encouraged people to spam him. That was not cool, so I don't know why you are surprised that they banned you. I guess I just don't understand why you put so much interest and energy in hating the White Sox and yet want to be a part of their internet community. If you were kicked off 4 times, why keep going back? You don't even like the team. Why bother trying to go back or obsessing on the website unless you just want to troll, which is pretty lame. And if you wanna troll, go to the MLB boards. That's pretty much the only thing that happens there. If you want to talk Cubs, you are at the right place. If you want to just hate the White Sox, you should revive your blog.

It must irritate White Sox fans b/c I posted it on southsiders.net and soxtalk.com and I got kicked off. Of course I came back and got kicked off again. That story is pretty old and the Sox fans I know seem to feel that if it doesn't happen while he's on the Sox, then they don't care what happened in SF. Twins fans still like the guy. It sounds like you were on the Sox boards to troll. That's probably why you were kicked off.

Wow, I read your blog. You're an angry guy.