Woohoo! Cubs tickets on sale today!

[amazingfantasy15]

Sadly still trying to get tickets to a game, got a few windows open at the virtual waiting room with no luck. Any other Cubs fans around trying to get tickets?

 

[Showtime]

Is it hard to get Cubs tickets?

 

[Fran]

Cubs games ALWAYS sell out, dude.

 

[Super_Ludacris]

What this like $50 for another season of dissapointment?

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Is it hard to get Cubs tickets?

Well, everygame of the 81 game season will sell out this weekend so yeah. They gave out 9,000 wristbands to people to buy tickets at the park and I've been in the virtual waiting room for a past hour and a half trying to get a chance to buy tickets. So yeah, it's pretty tough.

 

[Showtime]

Cubs games ALWAYS sell out, dude.

:sarcasm:

Well, everygame of the 81 game season will sell out this weekend so yeah. They gave out 9,000 wristbands to people to buy tickets at the park and I've been in the virtual waiting room for a past hour and a half trying to get a chance to buy tickets. So yeah, it's pretty tough.

I know, I was just being sarcastic. It's the same thing with Red Sox tickets.

 

[Fran]

DAMNIT I need to buy Tigers tickets.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

DAMNIT I need to buy Tigers tickets.

That shouldn't be too hard. I'd bet you could go up day of game and pick up some.

 

[Fran]

That was a good burn on my team. I am saddened.

Just kidding. But you are most likely correct.

 

[Badger]

That is the ONE plus to being a Royals fan. Only time they sellout is opening day and when the Cards are in town.

 

[Fran]

I heard people are basically giving Royals tickets away, Badger.

 

[Badger]

Better days are a coming.

 

[Fran]

Give or take a few years, I would agree.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Dammit still haven't gotten past the virtual waiting room, I got past it during lunch, but since I was away from my computer I missed my chance. It is only showing 16 games sold out right now though at least.

 

[Jerry!]

My brother was trying to earlier, he's been on that virtual waiting page for hours.

 

[Nightmare]

What this like $50 for another season of dissapointment?

Beautifully said.

 

[Fran]

My brother was trying to earlier, he's been on that virtual waiting page for hours.

There's... another?

 

[E. Nygma]

If you didn't get tickets to the Cubs, remember the franchise motto

"WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!"

 

[Jerry!]

There's... another?

Yeah there are two teams in Chicago. The Cubs and the White Sox.

The rivalry between the two teams and their fans dates back to the founding of the American League. In 1900, Charles Comiskey moved his Saint Paul Saints minor league franchise to Chicago. It is believed that the Cubs owner at the time was not happy, and filed a suit against Comiskey. After talks, it was decided that Comiskey could move his team to Chicago, pending that Chicago was not used in the title of the team name, and that the team play south of 35th Street. In response, the team was renamed the "White Stockings," which had been the original name of the Cubs from 1876 to 1889. The establishment of a new team in the city was a direct challenge to the National League franchise, which had been the idea behind the formation of the American League. As the AL gained in popularity (with cheaper prices on admission and alcohol), the NL recognized the equality of the AL. This recognition did little to stem the rivalry between owners, players, and fans.

While teams in New York City (such as the Yankees, Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers) routinely played against each other in World Series matchups throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the two Chicago teams only met once in the 1906 World Series, a celebrated event that seemingly put the city on hold for a full week. The heavily favored but young Cubs (who had won 116 games in the regular season) lost in six games to the veteran and pitching-strong White Sox, "The Hitless Wonders."
Between 1903 and the beginning of interleague play in 1997, the Cubs and White Sox occasionally met in a "City Series" and later in single charity exhibition games, often on Memorial Day each year called the "Crosstown Classic" or the "Red Line Series." While fans generally loved these games, as evidenced by high fan attendance, the games did not count toward the teams' rankings in their respective league standings, which took away some of the excitement. At best, they provided "braggin' rights" to the winner.

Since interleague play began in 1997, the White Sox and Cubs have routinely played each other six times each year (one three-game series at each stadium). Based on the availability of tickets and the prices offered through ticket brokers, these games are among the most anticipated of the season. These games have featured a variety of heroics, perceived slights, and errors on both sides that have added fuel to the rivalry.
On Saturday, May 20, 2006, the Cubs and White Sox added a new chapter to the intense rivalry: a brawl broke out. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was punched by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in the bottom of the second inning after a Brian Anderson sacrifice fly brought home Pierzynski after a big collision at home plate. After A.J. got up, he walked towards the Cubs dugout and bumped into Barrett. Barrett then punched A.J. in the jaw. This set off fighting between the two teams. Barrett drew a 10 game suspension and Anderson got a five game suspension of his own. The fracas took nearly fifteen minutes to resolve and to decide who would get ejected, and who would stay in the game. When play finally resumed, outfielder Scott Podsednik promptly got on base, loading the bases up, and second baseman Tadahito Iguchi cleared them with a grand-slam home run to send the White Sox to an eventual 7-0 win. Also, on May 25, 2000, the White Sox rallied back in the bottom of the ninth inning with 7 runs to overcome their deficit against the Cubs.

Today, fans of both teams can be found in the same families and share common social origins. Cubs and White Sox fans have a mutual hatred of each other. For many people in Chicago, the rivalry is simply a fun tradition which provides the opportunity for good-natured verbal jousting, and is as much about theater and humor as it is about serious criticism of the other team. This aspect of Chicago sports culture, which predates the north side-south side class hostilities, is often forgotten.

The history of Chicago is like that of many large urban centers in the 19th century. There has long existed a separation between the more affluent citizens and the economically poorer citizens (often recent immigrants and African-Americans). The north side of Chicago, with its favorable higher ground became the center for affluence, while the less developed south side became the home for numerous immigrant groups (Irish, Italian, Greek, among others). The south side of Chicago was already home to a growing African American population. Locals logically tended to follow the sports teams that were closest to home, thus the Cubs became associated with more affluent, mostly Caucasian fans, while the White Sox became more associated with "blue collar" workers and immigrants. Thus, the issues between workers and owners, between races, between immigrants and more established families, and poor and rich which became key struggles in the 20th century were represented very clearly in Chicago by the various fans who followed their respective baseball teams. In a sense, this sports-based rivalry became a far less violent way to express dissatisfactions between rival groups.

U.S. Cellular Field is more accessible by car than Wrigley Field, and the White Sox enjoy a growing fan base. Studies have found that the annual median income between Cubs and White Sox fans varies less than three thousand dollars hence negating perceived socio-economic differences between the fan bases.[citation needed] Even so, the perception of Cubs fans being more affluent than White Sox fans continues, especially in the city. The gentrification of the Wrigleyville neighborhood around Clark and Addison streets plays a part in reinforcing the wealthy image of Cubs supporters, although a good amount of money is being spent on improving South Side neighborhoods as well.

While not meant in the most literal sense to most fans, there is an overall feeling that both teams' misfortunes began with unfortunate events which some claim have cursed both teams into their poor play. This adds to the overall downtrodden feelings that fans feel for their own teams, making it much easier to revel in the poor play of the other.

The Chicago Cubs won ten National League championships between 1901 and 1945, and also had among the best winning percentages in the NL up to that time (3796-3022 for a 0.557 winning percentage). The Cubs had a 2 games to 1 lead over the Detroit Tigers in the 1945 World Series, when on October 6, 1945, Cubs fan and local tavern owner Billy Sianis was prevented from reaching his seat because he was accompanied by his pet billy goat. Local legend says that he responded by placing a curse on the Cubs to never again win the World Series, which they have not. While few take the idea of a curse with great seriousness, the Cubs, on more than one occasion, have featured a tongue-in-cheek promotion where billy goats are brought into the stadium to be offered as an apology (see: Curse of the Billy Goat). Some historians argue that the genesis of the curse goes back much farther; that the allegededly underhanded way they won the 1908 pennant (leading to their last World Series win) angered the "baseball gods".

For lack of a standard term, this could be called the curse of Johnny Evers, since he was at the center of the controversy. Every post-season they have participated in since them seems to have featured a disaster of some kind, from Hack Wilson losing a fly ball in the sun, to Babe Ruth's "called shot", to the "Steve Bartman incident". When they won the division in 1984, their first title since 1945, manager Jim Frey shouted in the champagne-soaked clubhouse, "The monkey's off our back!" Some fans took that as the kiss of death... which it proved to be, as the Padres late-inning rally in the final game in San Diego featured a ground ball slipping under the glove of first baseman Leon Durham... an eerie precursor to a similar and much-more-memorilazed incident with the Red Sox and former Cubs first baseman Bill Buckner that would occur two years later.

That requires a quick mention of the "Ex-Cubs Factor", an offshoot of the main Cubs "curse": that any team reaching the post-season since the 1945 Series, and having 3 or more ex-Cubs, was almost certainly doomed to lose in either the playoffs or the Series due to "a critical mass of Cubness". The 1960 Pirates had been the lone exception until 2001, when the Diamondbacks effectively ended talk of that curse by winning the Series in a dramatic finish that featured 2 of the 3 ex-Cubs, one of them (Luis Gonzalez) making the game-winning RBI.

The White Sox had the best winning percentage of any American League team from 1901-1920 (1638-1325 for a 0.553 winning percentage), but quickly slipped to among the worst teams after that. Many point to the Black Sox scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series as the point in history that changed the White Sox fortunes. Eight White Sox players conspired to intentionally lose the World Series, and in 1920 were banned from baseball for life. While the White Sox won 4 AL titles in the first 20 years of their existence, they would win only one more league championship in the twentieth century.

The term "curse" has seldom been used as such, since the scandal was perceived to be something the players did to themselves rather than being wrought by the front office conducting ill-advised transactions or committing public relations gaffes. In fact, many White Sox fans take offense to the term "curse." Still, a pall seemed to settle on the franchise (along with a slim budget), and it would be the last years of the Eisenhower administration before they would win the league championship again. When the White Sox clinched the pennant, broadcaster Jack Brickhouse capped his play-by-play with, "A forty year wait has now ended!" The 2005 pennant ended a forty-six-year wait for the next one, while the 2005 World Championship ended an 88-year wait for a World Series victory. This adds a decidedly interesting twist on the rivalry as there are very few fans for either team who were alive to see one side actually claim a title while the other waited.

The 21st century seems to be a time for legendary curses to finally surpass their statutes of limitations, one by one. The Curse of the Bambino was broken by the Red Sox's stunning victory in 2004. And the recent success of the White Sox has pretty well put their distant shady past behind them, leaving the Cubs as the last fully remaining "cursed" team in the major leagues.

In 2007 the Chicago Cubs had yet another chance to end the curse. However, the Arizona Diamondbacks swept them in three games and confirmed their 99 year losing streak.

 

[E. Nygma]

I'm not one to be superstitious enough to believe in curses. The whole idea of a curse, especially on a sports team, is ridiculous. But when that Steve Bartman incident happened, i just dont know.

 

[Jerry!]

Why? That happens in a lot of games. I don't call that the Steve Bartman Game, I call it the Alex Gonzalez Game. If you want to pin it on one guy, that's the guy. We shouldn't even know who Steve Bartman is, but of course people go along with the curse bull**** and then it ends up months later they are demolishing that foul ball in hopes to appease the "baseball gods". But I digress, right after the "Bartman Incident", Alex Gonzalez made an error on a tailor made double play grounder that would have gotten them out of the inning. Blame him if you have to blame it on one guy.

 

[E. Nygma]

Why? That happens in a lot of games. I don't call that the Steve Bartman Game, I call it the Alex Gonzalez Game. If you want to pin it on one guy, that's the guy. We shouldn't even know who Steve Bartman is, but of course people go along with the curse bull**** and then it ends up months later they are demolishing that foul ball in hopes to appease the "baseball gods". But I digress, right after the "Bartman Incident", Alex Gonzalez made an error on a tailor made double play grounder that would have gotten them out of the inning. Blame him if you have to blame it on one guy.

Yeah but the Bartman catch signaled a serious of unfortunate events for the Cubs. I dont blame him for reaching for the Ball, and making the catch, but what was strange is that incident sparked the Marlins and led to the Cubs collapse.

 

[Jerry!]

I can't buy into it. There was still another game left. I can't buy into any sports curse, including the Black Sox.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Yeah but the Bartman catch signaled a serious of unfortunate events for the Cubs. I dont blame him for reaching for the Ball, and making the catch, but what was strange is that incident sparked the Marlins and led to the Cubs collapse.

Yeah, it seemed like the incident that changed everything, the Cubs had the game in hand, then that play happens and the Marlins suddenly go on nuts scoring 8 runs in the inning. It was a weird feeling when the "Bartman" play happened, in my head I knew that the party was over and the Cubs were done. Especially when I saw the Cubs come up to bat and everyone was just swinging for the fences, they panicked and started to believe they were cursed.

It was like the play when the Red Sox were down 3 games against the Yankees in '04, A-Rod tried to slap the ball out of the Sox first basman or pitchers hand, after that, the Red Sox turned everything around.

Baseball player's are very superstitious and the smallest things can change their entire attitude and the game.

 

[E. Nygma]

there was a game 7 for the Bartman series though. A game 7 in which the Cubs led 3-0 early on after i think Kerry Wood hit a HR? So you cant blame Bartman for losing the Cubs the series, but that was just eerie.