Chicago Cubs: It’s okay to not hate the White Sox

Up until about a year ago, I too was a White Sox hater.

I would root against the Sox and would hope that they’d finish the season winless.  But I didn’t get the same satisfaction from a Sox loss as I did from a Cubs win.

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I couldn’t stand Hawk Harrelson and thought he was the worst thing to happen since sliced bread – I want to slice my own loaf DARNIT!

Whenever I’d accidentally turn to a Sox broadcast I’d actually cover my ears and try not to listen to him.  Now, I think he’s hilarious.  Don’t get me wrong, he is a textbook definition homer.  But now, I’ll go and listen to Hawk rant about Mark Wagner, Angel Hernandez, or now John Lackey and laugh my behind off.

I wasn’t really old enough to appreciate what was going on in 2005, due to the fact that I was 5-years-old, but I’m sure I would’ve been rooting for their opponent every step of the way.

Fart jokes are still funny, I giggle seemingly all of the time, but in most areas of my life, I’ve matured over the past few years.

I first started to not hate the Sox when they started to make smart moves, besides having the Guaranteed Rate downward red arrow on the side of their stadium.

They brought in Jason Benetti as their future play-by-play guy, they partnered with Chance the Rapper, but most importantly, Rick Hahn took over.

Unlike a lot of people in the news today, I stand by my tweets.  This tweet is certainly no exception.

Rick Hahn has flipped the script on the White Sox farm system, going from worst to first in the course of 8 months.  That’s a major accomplishment.

I don’t know if you missed it, but the Cubs and the White Sox also traded with each other!  Crazy, right?!

If you’re a Cubs fan who follows the farm system closely, it’s okay if you still want to root for Eloy Jimenez and/or Dylan Cease.

You may look forward to the Crosstown Cup every year and you probably want Cubs players to give (Oh, how I hate this phrase) 110%.

There are two main problems with that.  First of all, the players on both sides don’t really care that much unless they grew up in Chicago.  Secondly, they only play one four game series a year!

Rivalries consist of teams that always play each other, either in the regular season, playoffs, or both.  Four games out of 162 aren’t going to make this a rivalry.

Keep in mind, just because they are both from Chicago doesn’t make them rivals either.  Are the Dodgers and Angels rivals?  Knicks and Nets?  Chargers and Rams?

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The Cubs and White Sox aren’t rivals, and I know for some of you this article was pointless and you still hate the Sox, but if you truly examine your hate for them, you’ll be surprised that they aren’t so different from the Cubs.

They both went through a long championship drought, they are and have built through a rebuild, and they both play in Chicago.  Well, would you look at that?

You don’t become less of a Cubs fan if you respect and maybe deep down like the White Sox.