Crosstown begins with mutual love for Chicago contenders, but what if Cubs, White Sox meet in World Series?
A Chicago crosstown series in the thick of a playoff race is interesting enough.
Could you imagine one in October?
“Sign me up,” skipper Craig Counsell said Monday before his Cubs won the first of three games with the White Sox in walk-off fashion, 7-5 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field.
Yeah, you can sign up everybody in this baseball-mad town for that one.
“Iconic,” said Sox fan Mary Beth Szorc of Chicago, who attended the game.
A lot would have to go right for Cubs vs. Sox to happen this fall. In the meantime, the Cubs are looking at this August matchup as less of a playoff preview and more of the latest turn of their schedule.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” left fielder Ian Happ said of this time of year. “The games are meaningful.”
No one in the Cubs’ clubhouse was biting on the fan-fueled rivalry talk — nor should anyone be expected to. Happ is from Pittsburgh, after all, and didn’t grow up with this series circled on his calendar, ready to claim bragging rights.
Still, the electricity always gets cranked to 11 during a crosstown series, with fireworks both on the field and off. Just ask Michael Barrett and A.J. Pierzynski or a host of others who have been involved in game-winning homers, dugout blow-ups, bat flips, manager ejections and dueling no-hit bids over the years.
Earlier this season, the crosstown series at Rate Field was the emotional setting of Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s vulgar interaction with a heckling Sox fan and Sox catcher Edgar Quero’s walk-off home run.
As the action shifted north Monday, there immediately were more fireworks. The Cubs won a back-and-forth classic, with Crow-Armstrong homering twice, including a solo shot in the Cubs’ first at-bat of the game and the winner in the 10th inning.
Before the game, there was more giddy excitement over a couple of good teams than there were fans at each other’s throats — perhaps because this is a non-weekend back-to-school series rather than a midsummer series following daylong Clark Street bar crawls or all-day South Side tailgating.
“It’s nice to see both teams doing well for once,” said Sox fan Sawyer Phillips of Antioch, who attended with his buddy, Cubs season-ticket holder Colin Wieska. “It’s been awhile since both teams have had winning records at this point in the season. It’s cool to see.”
Cubs fan Larry Johnson of Rockford was there with his Sox-fan wife, Ashley, as they celebrated their wedding anniversary.
“It’s a lot of fun at home,” Johnson said. “We’re always throwing jabs. Typical stuff.”
By the time the Sox took a late lead on a pinch-hit homer in the eighth, things had changed. A brawl broke out in the bleachers.
“The fights in the stands were unfortunate and somewhat nauseating,” Crow-Armstrong said, “but you’ve got people in the stands competing, too.”
At least some fans were choosing love over hate. Szorc was married at Rate Field, which she still calls Comiskey Park. Her friend Jen Pierce, a Cubs fan, was in attendance.
“Thirty-five years of friendship,” Szorc said. “We’ve never fought about [a crosstown series].”
But this one seems like it’s for a little more than just bragging rights. The Cubs and Sox both have realistic playoff aspirations. And although the Cubs had the fifth-best record in MLB when they woke up Monday, it was the Sox in position for a first-round playoff bye, thanks to their status as the second-best division leader in a weak American League while the Cubs continue to chase the Brewers in the National League Central.
Even amid all the love, the Friendly Confines were only so friendly Monday. Cubs fans booed Sox pitchers as they walked to the bullpen in the first inning. Sox fans booed Crow-Armstrong as he came to the plate.
Signs outside Murphy’s Bleachers declared the Sox “still second in Chicago” — technically true if you’re going by the win-loss numbers. But there was only one first-place team in Monday’s game, and it wasn’t the Cubs.
If these two teams meet again in 2026, you can forget the nitpicking. Only one thing will matter — the first title in 10 years for the Cubs, or the first in 21 for the Sox?
How about a third act this October?
“I’m in for all the fun, everything,” Counsell said. “You want to hype it up? I’m in for all of it.”