Cubs may be lone team in Chicago if latest White Sox rumor is true

The crosstown rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox hasn't had a spark since the days of Ozzie Guillen on the South Side and Lou Piniella on the North Side.

The reason for excitement surrounding the crosstown series is mostly due to timing. Over the course of the past 20 years. it's been rare that there would be a summer where both the White Sox and Cubs were playing in a season of expectation.

Even when the White Sox were believed to be on the rise entering 2021, there was a case of little brother syndrome as the teardown of the Cubs' World Series core garnered more attention than what the White Sox were building.

The excitement for the White Sox among the team's own fans has been on a steady decline since the team opted to hire Tony La Russa as their manager prior to the 2021 season. La Russa's hire was the beginning of the end for a White Sox contention window that never opened. We are now in 2024, the White Sox just made history for all the wrong reasons, and the latest is that not only is the team up for sale but it may include a move out of Chicago.

Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reported on Wednesday that White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is open to selling the team and that he has preliminary talks with Dave Stewart about a potential purchase. Stewart has been a primary figure in the hope of Major League Baseball having an expansion team in Nashville, Tennesee.

White Sox leaving Chicago would be a dull end to once electric lively rivalry with the Cubs.

It's important to note that, locally, the pushback has been that Reinsdorf leaked the news of a potential sale to gain leverage in negotiations for a new stadium in Chicago. Reinsdorf has used this tactic in the past.

For all the memorable moments over the years of the crosstown rivalry, the White Sox leaving Chicago now wouldn't really change the mindset of the average Cubs fan. Even now, with the rivalry still active, fans would rather talk about Michael Barrett punching A.J. Pierzynski in 2006 than anything that has happened recently in the games between the two teams.