The Cubs and White Sox begin the battle for the Crosstown Cup on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, renewing a rivalry that started in 1906.
From the first intracity World Series to the A.J. Pierzynski-Michael Barrett fight to Eloy Jiménez’s game-winning home run at Wrigley, it has been one long, strange trip.
Here’s a CliffsNotes version of some of the key moments of the last 118 years:
1906: In the first and last World Series between the teams, the Sox club nicknamed the “Hitless Wonders” prevailed 8-3 in Game 6 to clinch a 4-2 series victory.
“With the game one-sided from the start and almost a hopeless battle for the Nationals, the contest would have been robbed of its interest to a neutral,” the Tribune reported. “But there were no neutrals among the 20,000 baseball-mad spectators. Realizing only the most unexpected of events could rob their heroes of the hard fought for honors, the thousands whose sympathies were with the Sox turned the affair into a jubilee of noise. … Nothing like it ever before was seen on a baseball field. To the losers were the bitter dregs of unexpected defeat.”
Or, as Sox broadcaster John Schriffen might say after a rare win: “Taste the bitter dregs of unexpected defeat, losers.”
1922: After the final game of the annual Cubs-Sox exhibition series, safe-blowers broke into the Comiskey Park offices and cracked open a safe in search of $28,871 in gate receipts, according to the Tribune. Sox traveling secretary Harry Grabinger “at first said the cracksmen got less than $100,” the report said. “Later he admitted the amount stolen would reach $1,000, and still later that it was ‘something more than $2,000.’ He denied the entire receipts had been stolen.”
A photo accompanying the Tribune story showed Miss Lillian Casey, then secretary to Sox owner Charles Comiskey, sorting through files scattered on the floor by the alleged “bandits.” Casey was also my grandmother. I can only hope she was in on the heist.
1966: In a midseason charity game at Comiskey Park, Cubs manager Leo Durocher and Sox manager Eddie Stanky faced off for the first time in Chicago before a crowd of 47,064. The Sox won 5-4 on home runs by Pete Ward and Tommie Agee, but the Stanky-Durocher matchup was the highlight.
“Durocher went to the coaching lines in the Cubs sixth, and the Sox bench — at the given signal of Stanky — showered him with baseballs before the inning began,” the Tribune reported. “Leo retrieved four of them and threw them high into the seats. Sox General Manager Ed Short proclaimed: ‘He’ll get a bill for $12.'”
Throwing baseballs at the opposing manager never should be condoned, though it certainly would add some spice to the first Pedro Grifol-Craig Counsell matchup Tuesday.
1981: After a players strike interrupted the season, the Sox and Cubs marked the return to baseball on Aug. 7 with a 0-0 tie in an exhibition game at Comiskey. The Cubs won the next day’s exhibition at Wrigley in what was dubbed Mayor Byrne’s Charity Series. The Sox were held scoreless for the first 14 innings of the two games, in case anyone thought this year’s offense was lame.
Originally the teams considered playing in July at Soldier Field because neither Comiskey nor Wrigley could be used with the players on strike. The problem was the right-field fence would have been only 210 feet from the plate because the baseball field would have been shoehorned into the football stadium. The current Cubs and Sox lineups surely would benefit from a move into a shoehorned Soldier Field.
1994: For the first and maybe only time in Chicago, Michael Jordan was booed.
Jordan, then a Sox prospect on his way to start a new career at Double-A Birmingham, played for the Sox in an exhibition game at Wrigley. “I heard a lot of ‘rookie’ calls, but I was able to block that out,” Jordan said of Cubs fans’ reaction.
“This is just the sort of respectful reaction reserved for authentic baseball players in actual baseball games, not larking celebrities in a benefit social, so it must be considered a compliment,” Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome wrote.
Jordan wound up with a single, a double, two RBIs and an error in a 4-4 tie. It was as close as he would come to playing on a major-league field.
1997: The teams’ first meeting since 1906 in games that actually mattered took place in June at new Comiskey Park when interleague play began. According to the Tribune, WGN’s telecast of Game 1 with Sox announcers Ken Harrelson and Tom Paciorek was the station’s highest-rated Sox telecast of the season to date, up 136% over the season average. The Game 2 WGN telecast with Cubs announcers Harry Caray and Steve Stone was the highest-rated Cubs telecast of the season, 74% above the average.
Whether this week’s telecasts on Marquee Sports Network and NBC Sports Chicago can climb the ratings ladder with these two struggling teams is doubtful. The 15-45 Sox have lost 11 straight and are on pace for the worst record in modern major-league history. The 29-31 Cubs have lost 22 of 34 to fall two games under .500.
2006: The greatest moment in Cubs-Sox history occurred on May 20, 2006, at U.S. Cellular Field as Cubs catcher Barrett punched Pierzynski after a play at the plate to spark an all-out brawl.
“The way I look at it is, if I’m out walking down the street and somebody knocks me down and I get back up and he’s standing over me or coming back at me again, what are you going to do?” Barrett said two days later.
Nothing has come close to that incident since, though the presence of Sox outfielder Tommy Pham suggests the Cubs might want to tread carefully. “I’ll never start anything but I’ll be prepared to finish it,” Pham said Sunday after being taunted by Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras following a play at the plate. “There’s a reason why I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason because I’m prepared to f— somebody up.”
Schriffen apparently is ready to jump in.
2019: The “Thanks, Cubs” game became a part of Cubs-Sox lore when former North Side prospect Jiménez cranked a two-run home run off Pedro Strop for a 3-1 Sox win at Wrigley. Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti’s home run call included the in-your-face phrase, “Thanks, Cubs,” a suggestion the Cubs had gifted the Sox a superstar in the 2017 trade that sent Jiménez and Dylan Cease to the South Side for José Quintana.
With the polarizing Schriffen having replaced Benetti and Jiménez on the injured list for the umpteenth time, an appropriate response from Cubs fans might now be: “You’re welcome.”
2024: The Hitless Wonders team that beat the Cubs in the 1906 World Series batted .230. Amazingly, the 2024 Cubs ranked 26th in the majors through Sunday with a .228 average, while the Sox were last at .214.
If the ’06 World Series was the pinnacle of the 118-year-old rivalry, this year’s City Series could be considered the bitter dregs.
