How Cubs, White Sox stack up with Cards, Red Sox historically
Let's pick a baseball season, say, 1967. That's as good of a place to start as any for today's fun little exercise.
In one of those rare, serendipitous quirks of the schedule, Chicago will play host to four baseball teams this weekend, and not just any baseball teams. The Cubs will take on their Gateway Arch rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. On the South Side, the White Sox will play the defending world champion Boston Red Sox.
The last time you had a confluence of these four teams being in big situations together, even if they weren't in the same city at the same time, came in that magical season of 1967.
The Red Sox outlasted three teams, including the White Sox, to win their first pennant since 1946.
The Cardinals won their second World Series in four years on their way to three NL pennants in five seasons.
Back in Chicago, the Cubs claimed first place on July 2, and the fans waited for the scoreboard operators to put the Cubs pennant atop the rest to signify the first time the team had led the league this late in the season since 1945.
The '67 season proved to be a last hurrah of sorts for the White Sox, who completed a 17th straight winning season before collapsing in '68.
Four teams. All but the Cardinals being charter members of their league. So how do they stack up in several categories? Let's take a look:
Championships
1. The Cardinals lead this pack with 10 world titles, the most recent coming in 2006. They've lost in the World Series seven times.
2. For all the talk in recent decades about the "long suffering" and tortured Red Sox fans (I say let them come to Chicago), Boston has done pretty well overall in the world-championship department, winning seven. Overall, they've been to 11 World Series.
3. The White Sox have won three, including the 2005 title that turned this city on its head. Who knows what the course of the franchise would have been had not the Black Sox scandal hit in 1919?
4. The Cubs, believe it or not, were the scourges of the NL in the first half of the 20th Century, but they claimed only two world titles, in 1907 and 1908. You may have heard about an anniversary.
Vision
1. Although they've been aided by bucket loads of cash, the Red Sox have shown the way in becoming one of the more progressive front offices under GM Theo Epstein. (The Oakland A's, given their smaller budgets, probably get the overall title.) The Red Sox hired stats guru Bill James and have been among the first to understand and make use of sabermetrics.
2. The team of GM Walt Jocketty, manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan put together one of the most impressive runs in recent history, as the Cardinals won six division titles from 2000 on and one back in 1996. Jocketty now is in Cincinnati, but the Cardinals are still contenders.
3. White Sox GM Kenny Williams has taken a lot of heat, but he's never been afraid to make the bold move.
4. The Cubs have been latecomers to the stats revolution, but the Tribune Co. has opened the coffers recently, not only allowing the Cubs to buy free agents, but enabling the organization to beef up its front office and scouting staffs.
Even though the Cubs can afford to be inefficient, it's not really a good idea.
Tradition
There are things other than winning that go into "tradition." Rather than rank the teams, we'll mix and mingle.
On Page 41 of the Red Sox media guide, Fenway Park is called "America's most beloved ballpark." Maybe in an America that views everything between coasts as "flyover country." In other words, Cubs fans have a ballpark they feel is pretty beloved.
With the Cubs, tradition is day games (on this 20th anniversary of the first night game at Wrigley), the seventh-inning stretch, throwing back opponents' home run balls, Sammy running out to right field, Ernie being Mr. Cub, the "W" and "L" flags atop the hand-operated scoreboard and taking the el to the ballpark.
With the Sox, it's the exploding scoreboard, "Let's Go, Go-Go White Sox," worrying about the Cubs and keeping Minnie, Little Looie and Billy Pierce part of the family.
With the Cardinals, it's honoring the Gas House Gang, Gibby, Stan the Man, Lou Brock and Jack Buck.
With the Red Sox, it's the Green Monster, worrying about the Yankees, talking about Teddy Ballgame hitting .406 and going out with a homer in '60 and watching Yaz play the caroms.
Whose is best? Who's to say?
Star power
1. Along with leading this foursome in championships, the Cardinals have had their share of stars, spanning nearly a century. Rogers Hornsby gave way to Dizzy Dean, who gave way to Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, who gave way to Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and Ken Boyer, who gave way to Ozzie Smith, who gave way to Albert Pujols.
2. For the lack of championships, the Cubs have had their share of stars from the time Tinker, Evers, Chance and Three Finger Brown were winning it all a century ago.
Hack Wilson drove in 191 back in 1930. Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks and Fergie Jenkins might have been the biggest collection of stars never to have won anything. Will we say the same about Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano in a few decades? And let's not forget Sammy Sosa. The Cubs seem to have done so, but he'll be welcomed back one day.
3. Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr and Carl Yastrzemski will go down as more beloved in Boston for not having won it all than Manny Ramirez will be for helping the Red Sox to a pair of world titles.
4. The White Sox have been more about Go-Go and self-proclaimed "grinders" than stars. Still, Luke Appling, Hall of Famers Nellie Fox, Early Wynn and Luis Aparicio set the sirens off in '59, and Dick Allen had one of the best single Sox years ever, in '72.
Frank Thomas will wear silver and black into the Hall of Fame, even if Carlton Fisk didn't. The Sox welcomed Fisk back. They'll do the same for Big Frank one day.
The '05 "grinders" may not have had the stars, but they got the ring.
Enjoy the weekend. To paraphrase Mr. Cub, maybe you can ride the Red Line and catch two.
bmiles@dailyherald.com