![]() The average home price last year was near $1 million, compared with $255,000 in Bridgeport, where the Sox play. The neighborhood surrounding Wrigley has also blossomed. When the Sox threatened to move to Florida during contentious negotiations for a new stadium in the late ’80s, their public relations director remarked, “Between the mystique of Wrigley Field and the marketing power of the Tribune Company, it’s like sword-fighting with Zorro.” “Harry was the greatest salesman of baseball I’ve ever seen then the Cubs won. “Kids came home from school, and as my old producer used to say, we were the only thing on not starring a doctor,” Stone said. The Cubs then made a playoff run in 1984 - their first since 1945. ![]() Both moves came just a few years after WGN became a national “superstation,” putting the Cubs on television across the country (the Sox pulled themselves off WGN in 1968). Stone pointed to the early 1980s as the period of the seismic shift, when the Cubs were bought by the Tribune Company and the iconic announcer Harry Caray left the White Sox for the Cubs. The White Sox, in 1983, were the first Chicago team to draw two million fans. From 1951 to 1967, the White Sox outdrew the Cubs in 16 of 17 seasons. “Unfortunately, for a number of reasons - some of them economic - they don’t come out as much.” “Sox fans are a very passionate group,” said Steve Stone, a current White Sox broadcaster, who pitched for both teams and has served as a television and radio analyst for each. Even if the disparity is greater, that still leaves plenty of White Sox fans, and according to Comcast SportsNet Chicago, while the numbers are close, White Sox broadcasts have generated higher ratings than the Cubs’ this season. Or there are just a lot more Cubs fans than White Sox fans.Ĭonventional wisdom holds that the fan split in a metropolitan area of 9.5 million is around 60-40 in favor of the Cubs. Slick bars and restaurants surround Wrigley, while the not so affectionately nicknamed Cell is nestled among parking lots and the Dan Ryan Expressway. The Cubs play on the tony North Side, the Sox on the grittier South Side. As many explanations are rooted in psychology, geography and socioeconomics as in baseball. There is no shortage of theories about this puzzle, which is part of the fabric of the city. The White Sox have never drawn three million fans the Cubs have done it eight straight seasons. Even after the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, the Cubs outdrew them the next year despite finishing 30 games below. The last time the White Sox outdrew the Cubs was in 1992, U.S. “You’ve got a Triple-A team on one side of town and a very likable, very good team on the other.” “It’s baffling,” said Bob Verdi, who covered both during 42 years at The Chicago Tribune. ![]() The Cubs, 27 ½ games out of first place, were 10th at 36,826. Through Saturday, the White Sox, sporting a 70-55 record, were 24th in attendance, averaging 24,568 fans. With both of Chicago’s major league teams home over the weekend, a season-long - decades-long, for that matter - trend was on full display: at the box office, the White Sox, despite being a contending team, are no match for even a cellar-dwelling Cubs squad. Earlier in the day, eight miles north at Wrigley Field, a crowd announced as 35,296 watched the fifth-place Cubs lose to the equally bad Colorado Rockies. A crowd announced at 27,562 was on hand as the home team won, 5-4. Cellular Field on Saturday on a gorgeous 86-degree evening. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only.CHICAGO - The first-place White Sox, in the thick of a pennant race, hosted the Seattle Mariners at U.S. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. Some defensive statistics Copyright © Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2022. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith.įull-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Logos were compiled by the amazing .Ĭopyright © 2000-2022 Sports Reference LLC. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. ![]() We present them here for purely educational purposes. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. ![]()
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