South Side Cubs Fans Fly the “W” in Enemy Territory
Photo By: Supplied Photo
When it comes to baseball loyalty in Chicago, it’s pretty cut and dry. South siders are White Sox fans, and North siders are Cubs fans…usually.
The Chicago Citizen Newspaper actually discovered a few South Siders who oddly enough, grew up “bleeding Cubbie blue.”
Some told stories of family members passing down Cubs fandom to them, while others just wanted to do something different from their peers.
Eric Collins grew up on the South Side. He became a Cubs fan by watching the team play on television and by hanging out with his dad.
“I got teased of course because I was a Cubs fan in White Sox territory but held my own. I became a fan because of WGN (television) and my dad took me to my first baseball game in 1986. He was and still is a Sox fan but he decided to take me to a Cubs game because we lived by the ball park [Wrigley Field],” Collins says. “My favorite player growing up was the Andre Dawson. He was a great player. In my teen years, it was Sammy Sosa.”
Beverly neighborhood native Tim Baffoe, is a high school teacher who also writes sports columns for media outlets locally and nationally. Even though he found himself rooting for both the Cubs and White Sox, the Cubs ultimately won out as his favorite team.
“My dad, a native South Sider and former Comiskey Park bullpen security guard, is a Cubs fan as his mother was, so I became one because that was the predominant baseball on TV in my house growing up,” Baffoe says. “I liked both the Sox and Cubs as a kid, favoring the Cubs, but I was pushed to full-blown indifference to the White Sox when my friends razzed me for liking the Cubs whatsoever. I was kind of like it became a badge of honor that I was different.”
South Side native Russ Chibe says that his Cubs fandom came naturally to him.
“My family has lived on the South Side since my great grandfather moved from Romania to Chicago, and as far as I know we've always been Cubs fans,” Chibe says.” Switching from Cubs to Sox would've been like betraying three generations of my family.
Chibe, an attorney, went on to say that he has been teased by Sox fans although he feels they secretly wish that it was their team in the playoffs.
“And I've been hearing some crap from Sox fans (mostly just about rooting for whoever the Cubs play), but for the most part it seems like they're just doing their best to ignore baseball right now,” Chibe says. “Kind of hard to chirp when they're coming off such a disappointing season.”
Dagoberto Soto grew up in Little Village. He says that baseball, whether watching, or playing the game himself, was an escape from a tough upbringing.
“I love my Cubbies, especially growing up. It was always an escape for us while growing up in these streets,” Soto says.” Baseball was the sport in my family growing up. My dad and uncles always get together to watch the playoffs regardless of who is in the playoffs.
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