FanHouse Cubs Fans

While White Sox and Cubs fans argue constantly over which team is better, and why the other team sucks so much, we still interact with each other. We're friends, and like friends tend to do, we make fun of each other. We also place bets with one another on whose team will fare better.

That happened between one Cubs fan and a White Sox fan earlier this season, when two neighbors made a friendly bet before the two teams squared off for a three-game set at Wrigley back in June. The Cubs fan said that his Cubbies would sweep the Pale Hose, and the Sox fan told him he was nuts. They decided that the loser of the bet would by the other one dinner.

Well, the Cubs swept that series, and though the Cub fan got his dinner, it wasn't enough. That's why he snuck into the Sox fan's house and hid a broom in his kitchen doorway with a note attached that read "This is just a reminder of who the real team in Chicago is."

While Cubs fans are just kind of annoying with their smack talk and bravado, Sox fans are smarter. They're also more devious, and they know the right time to strike.

Dan Uggla has struggled during the second half of the season. Since the infamous All-Star game where Uggla struck out three times and made three errors, Uggla has been awful, sporting a line of .189/.298/.336. The All-Star game may or may not have led to Uggla's struggles, but Uggla's struggles have led to him being benched on Sunday by Fredi Gonzalez.

"Some guys go through rough spots in the season," Gonzalez said. "He's going through one now. He's a big part of our offense."

"We need him to get back on track if we're going to win," Marlins outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. "He's huge for us."

Uggla says he has no explanation for his struggles. He scoffs at the amateur psychologists' belief that his performance in the All-Star Game - three strikeouts and three errors - plays a factor.

"That was over as soon as the game was over," he said.

But that hasn't stopped opposing fans from taunting him ... especially one group that's been particularly scorned by Marlins in the past.

That's good enough for me. Oh! Violence violence violence starts with V.

As you may know, humanity is a living Linkin Park chorus now as players are wiping their asses with hand towels, people looking for sports news on the Internet have to do so in the middle of a terrible issue of Maxim, and seemingly every sports rivalry is erupting in brick-to-the-dome quality physical violence. Yankees fans assault Red Sox fans, Red Sox fans abuse Yankees fans, the Dodgers hate the Giants, a Brewers fan draws a pistol during the seventh inning stretch and kills 20,000 Diamondbacks fans, and three Cubs fans kick a White Sox fan in the nose so hard that it destroys his eyeball at a little girl's birthday party.

This is getting ridiculous. I don't know about you, but I'm giving up this cogged blogger lifestyle and devoting my talents to something more deserving, like celebrity gossip livejournal communities. What did Zac Efron and BBV wear to the premiere of Space Chimps??? Click below to find out!

Albert Pujols, in a game that's still going on, has just hit his 300th career home run against Bobby Howry of the Chicago Cubs. Pujols had today and tomorrow to hit the home run to become the fifth fastest to that milestone, and he did it.

Here's the odd part about the home run that was just touched on in the broadcast: the home run went off the fair pole and on to the field, which at the time would have avoided a whole "will the fan who catches the ball give it back or try to extort a little money off of it" dilemma. But Cubs left fielder Reed Johnson took the ball and flipped it into the stands. So he basically gave a winning lottery ticket to a lucky fan! Not that it was a 756th or even a 500th, but still, that was Pujols' ball and Johnson threw it away.

But the fan who caught Johnson's toss was caught by a Cubs fan. And true to Cub fans, threw the ball back to the field. Crisis averted.

The worst part of the Cubs crashing and burning in the postseason (thus far; plenty of time still left, yep!) is not really the visceral disappointment of the loss. Sure, that sucks -- getting up the next morning seems significantly more difficult -- but even worse is the media's constant perpetuation of silly cliched nonsense about curses, choking, and any combination thereof. It's so, so painful.

So a big 100+ cocktails goes to Nate Silver at Baseball Prospectus for taking the opposite tact today and providing some shred of hope for dejected Wrigleyvillers:

The Cubs actually were a vanquisher at one point. They were the team that took advantage of Fred Merkle's blunder to steal the 1908 pennant from the New York Giants. Importantly, that was the last time they won the World Series. But they've since accumulated a significant karma surplus because of 2003 and 1969, not to mention 1984.

So really, all of this is going to plan. It's the Cubs' turn to pull off a spectacular comeback. In fact, you should be actively rooting for the Diamondbacks to build up a big lead in Game 3. 5-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth? 13-4? 30-3 and Geovany Soto is down to his last strike? All the better from a karma perspective.

Nate is worried that he might have canceled the positive karma by bringing it up, but I prefer to embrace the realization. The Cubs deserve a comeback here, by God. I'd just like another week of Cubs baseball, even though it'll continue to be rhetorically painful. What say ye, non-existent baseball gods?

Everyone knows the tradition at Wrigley Field. Home runs hit by opposing teams are thrown back onto the field. That's how it's always been done at Wrigley. But apparently, throwing a Cubs' homer back may have some serious repercussions. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

New York Mets fan Chris Innace turned that tradition on its ear by throwing back a Cubs homer Friday -- and he later got ejected from the ballpark.

He suspects there's a connection, although the Cubs deny it. Spokesman Peter Chase said throwing a ball back -- even a Cubs homer -- is not grounds for ejection. Innace got tossed for foul language and being aggressive, Chase said.

Innace said that's "absolutely not true." Either way, he had to watch the rest of the game from a bar.

A Mets' fan using foul language and being aggressive? I personally find that hard to believe. Next you're going to be telling me that this gentleman had consumed alcoholic beverages during the course of the game. I've personally wondered how flexible the "throw it back" rule really is. Would a Cubs' fan have tossed #756 back onto the field if it had happened in Wrigley?

There are plenty of stereotypes among and about Chicago's baseball fans. For example, Cubs fans are yuppie idiots who go to Wrigley Field to get soused on Old Style, not to watch baseball; and White Sox fans are "ghetto" or "low class" or any of the other far more insulting words used to describe Chicago's less affluent south side.

It's no big surprise such stereotypes are usually bogus. There are plenty of "blue collar" Cubs fans, just like there are plenty of "suburban" White Sox fans. What's more, today the Chicago Tribune reports that the "Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field -- long seen as the haven of the apathetic Cubs fan -- is not so friendly anymore.

The days of going to Wrigley Field, having a good time in the sunshine and not fretting about the outcome of the game has been supplanted by great expectations since the near-miss in the 2003 National League Championship Series.

"Chicago might be a good place to play, but it is a tough place to lose, one of the toughest," Pierre told the Tribune last month.

"They love their Cubbies in that town, and they sell out almost every game at Wrigley. We lost almost 100 games and the fans voiced their opinion.

That's all well and good, but the Tribune asks a valid question: is an increased nastiness hurting the Cubs?