Wrigleyville not all blue
Traitor. Turncoat. Benedict Arnold.
As a lifelong White Sox fan who has spent the last three years living in a rooftop building across from Wrigley Field on Sheffield Avenue, Brendan Wittry has endured his share of slings and arrows.
Standing in his front yard in the shadow of the expanded bleachers on Saturday morning, the Elgin native offered a simple explanation as to why he chooses to live as a fish out of water.
"I'd rather live across the street from this stadium than live down on the South Side," said Wittry, 26, a 2000 graduate of Larkin High School. "There's always something happening around here."
To the dismay of Wittry and all White Sox fans, the most significant happening in Wrigleyville on Saturday was a Cubs' offensive explosion. A nine-run, fourth-inning by the North Siders propelled them to an 11-7 victory over the Sox in Game 2 of the Crosstown series, putting the Cubs in position to sweep the three-game set at 7:05 tonight.
The outcome surely delighted Wittry's lifelong pals from Elgin -- Cubs fans Mark Scathura, Craig Myers and Billson Rasavongxay. The trio, along with Sox fan Marty Nelson, were heading for their seats in section 139 before the game when they spotted Wittry hanging out on his front porch.
So how did five friends from Elgin who have known each other since kindergarten end up with split baseball allegiances?
"Some of us have more taste than others," Scathura said with a smile.
Wittry enjoys the Crosstown series partly because it represents a once-a-season opportunity to show his true colors without the usual ridicule.
"I love it when the Sox play here," said Wittry, who sported a black Sox jersey and matching cap. "This is the one time of year I don't catch any (grief) for wearing the Sox gear all the time."
The Elgin pals enjoyed a libation prior to the first pitch at 12:05 p.m., giving them something in common with thousands of Sox and Cubs fans throughout Wrigleyville, where most bars opened earlier than usual due to the early game time. The Cubby Bear Lounge, Casey Moran's and Bernie's Tavern opened for business at 9 a.m. while the new Harry Caray's swung open its doors at 9:15 a.m.
The area early bird, however, was Murphy's Bleachers, where bartenders were slinging hair of the dog as early as 8 a.m.
"For a regular game (at 1:20 p.m.) people might come in at 10:30 or 11 in the morning, but for a Sox game at noon they're here waiting for us to open at 9," said Bernie's owner Linda Dillman, who opened her tavern at Clark Street and Waveland Avenue an hour early.
Tavern managers around the neighborhood said problems between Cubs and Sox fans have been minimal all weekend. "Knock on wood, everyone's been very well behaved," Dillman said.
"Everything's going pretty good because both teams are in first place," said Bruce Lee, a burly bouncer who checks IDs at Murphy's.
"There were a couple of fights last year, but everyone's been better."