Red Sox and Cardinals Descend on Chicago

This will be a great week-end for baseball in Chicago.

The Chicago White Sox will be hosting the Boston Red Sox for a four-game series and the Chicago Cubs will be hosting the St. Louis Cardinals for a three-game series. Both series start tonight.

These are going to be some great games. The Cubs and the Cardinals have a long-running rivalry and their games always have a special spark, kind of like a play-off game. A lot of fans travel to the rival city to support their team. So we can expect a lot of Cardinals fans, from downstate Illinois, the St. Louis area, and elsewhere, at Wrigley Field this week-end.

And Chicago now has a beloved former Cardinals All-Star.  Jim Edmonds signed with the Cubs earlier this season after the San Diego Padres released him.  Although he was only hitting .178 with the Padres, he has batted .279 with the Cubs, bringing his season BA to .243.  Now the fans are faced with a dilemma.  Do they love him or hate him?  And the answer is . . . yes.

You can read more about the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry, and vote for your favorite team, here.

And these teams are the World Series champs since 2004. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007. The White Sox in 2005. And the Cards in 2006. When, you may ask, have the Cubs last won a World Series game? That would be a little longer ago. That would be . . . let’s see now . . . oh, 1908 or so. So it has been a round 100 years since the last time the Cubs were World Series champs.

And this year? The Cubs and the White Sox are still both in first place in their divisions. The Red Sox are in second place in the AL East, 2.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. The Cards are in third place in the NL Central, 6 games behind the Cubs and a game behind the second-place Milwaukee Brewers.

And the curse-breaking karma may rub off on the Cubs. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 for the first time in 86 years. The White Sox won the World Series in 2005 for the first time in 88 years. Having all those Sox with all that finally-done-it good vibe in town may help the Cubs to finally do it themselves.

You can read more about the Curse of the Billy Goat, and vote on whether you believe in it, here.

Well, there’s a lot of baseball to be played between now and the World Series. It’s probably best not to get too far ahead of us just yet. But I can foresee, without any controversy, that this is going to be a happening baseball week-end here in the Windy City.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals