Only fair to say Sox, Cubs both failed

The responses to the Cubs' and White Sox' playoff stink-outs are more amusing than Tina Fey.

The Dodgers swept the Cubs in three games and the Cubs are considered failures.

Down deep they are.

The Rays eliminated the Sox in four games and the Sox are considered successes.

Down deep they aren't.

The different views of our two baseball teams couldn't be due just to the fact the Sox won a playoff game and the Cubs didn't, could they be?

Certainly that 1 victory didn't a season make, and certainly it didn't define the Sox or the Cubs.

Expectations are what defined them. The Cubs are the "A" student who gets a "B" and a scolding. The Sox are the "C" student who gets a "B" and a new car.

The Cubs were supposed to win the world championship, and the Sox weren't even supposed to qualify for the postseason.

So the Cubs could have finished 1 victory from the World Series - or five outs away like five years ago - and been a failure.

Meanwhile, the Sox could have finished a victory or five outs from winning the American League Central and been a success.

Doesn't seem fair, does it?

What we have here is a Cubs team that failed because it was retooled into outstanding underachievement, and a Sox team that succeeded because it was rebuilt into mediocre overachievement.

The Cubs made the playoffs three of the past six years. The Sox made them two of the past four years, including the 2005 championship season.

Now it's time to move both to the next level, which means demanding a World Series every year.

Anyway, isn't it interesting how expectations color everything?

The Cubs won 97 games and the NL Central for the second straight season, then lost their opening playoff series. The Sox won 88 games and another in an AL Central playoff, then lost their opening postseason series.

So, the Cubs failed and the Sox succeeded? No, both failed.

A good guess - judging by his face, mood and words after Monday's loss to Tampa Bay - is Kenny Williams agrees.

Sox players, Sox fans and the local media might not think so, but Williams does.

The Sox general manager believes real baseball success belongs to that one team standing at the end of the World Series.

That's how all of Chicago should feel after experiencing so few world championships the past century.

Expectations have to be higher around here now. They have to be where they were for the Cubs this season.

The time has passed when moral victories, incremental progress and cheap thrills are enough to appease the faithful in any given year.

Every season should start with this: Win it all or you haven't won anything.

In a way, despite failing, the 2008 Cubs were where any big-market team should be.

Expectations should be that it's going to win the World Series. It should be positioned like the Red Sox and the Yankees to have a real chance at a championship every spring, summer and autumn.

Like the Red Sox and the Yankees, neither Chicago team should be considered a success unless it at least gets to the World Series.

So both failed this season, which isn't amusing at all.

mimrem@dailyherald.com