Bidding baseball adieu

As much as I love the crunchy leaves and the comfy sweaters that come with the fall season, there is one thing about fall that I don't like. The fall season marks the end of my favorite season, baseball season.

There's something about baseball season, specifically in Chicago, that sets it apart from other sports seasons. Beginning with spring training in March and continuing until September (or if you're lucky, October and the World Series) there is a baseball game almost every day. Scoring tickets to a baseball game is relatively easy, and on any given summer day you could find yourself drinking a Bud Light in the bleachers at Wrigley Field or sipping a Miller Lite in U.S. Cellular Field's upper deck. The games are easy to get to, with the Red Line practically dropping you off at either field's doorstep. Also, during baseball season you can walk into any bar and watch the game with a group of complete strangers. It doesn't even matter whether the White Sox are playing or the Cubs are playing, there will be someone in the bar rooting for them or against them, and you're always welcome to join in on the fun.

Most importantly, the fact that Chicago has two teams really makes baseball season more unique than basketball or football season. It is easy to get caught up in the friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) rivalry that occurs between Cubs and Sox fans. Besides people who don't care for baseball and the fair-weather baseball fans who like any team that is winning, most people choose a side. Sometimes your allegiance is chosen for you in early childhood by fanatic parents who purchase every baby jersey on the market to make you look like the team's mascot. Other times you choose a side later in life depending on influences from friends or your own opinion of the team's management and players. No matter how you come upon your decision to pick your team, you stick by them through good times and bad, no matter what.

Overall, both teams had good seasons this year. They both won their respective Central Division Championships. The White Sox fought hard to get to the playoffs, winning their very important last three games against three different opponents in three days. The Cubs had a record season, winning more games than they have in the past 63 years and winning the most home games since 1935.

However, fall began in the bleakest of ways this year by both teams losing in the first round of playoffs. Chicago baseball fans' dreams of a Cubs-Sox World Series diminished in that first week of October, a week I'd rather not think about at this moment because I'm still trying to get over it.

Despite the fact that neither team got very far in the playoffs, their loyal fans will still be there to watch them play in 2009. Perhaps that's one good thing about the off-season; it gives you a chance to mend your broken heart and remember the good times, like the White Sox winning the division despite predictions that they wouldn't or the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano pitching a no-hitter on September 14. Both Cubs and White Sox fans can relish each team's sweep of the other during the cross-town classic.

And of course, in true Chicago baseball fan fashion, everyone will argue throughout the winter months about which team did better this season. The Sox fans will argue that they did better by winning one of their postseason games. The Cubs fans will argue that their team won eight more games than the Sox in the regular season. I'm sure I will take part in similar arguments throughout the winter, but mainly, I'll be wearing my team's logo and waiting 'til next year.