I'm a Chicago resident, and am glad for the Sox and for the city that they won, if no other reason as it really puts the futility of the Cubs into perspective. I really can't stand the Cubs, or more accurately, Cubs' fans. Their eternal optimism just borders on stupidity, and I have always thought that if they just stopped going and watching, the Trib might actually try to improve the team.
Hammer, to your point, the Cubs haven't had a decent lead off hitter since Bob Dernier in 1984. Patterson just isn't a lead off guy. And that bullpen, geez, talk about a revolving door of closers. Since 1993, the Cubs have tried Randy Myers (pretty good for a few seasons), Turk Wendell (who?), Terry Adams (again, who?), Rod Beck (one big year), Rick Aguilera (past his prime), Tom Gordon (decent), Antonio Alfonseca (who?), Joe Borowski (one promising year), LaTroy "Gopher Ball" Hawkins (one decent year, horrific the next), and now Ryan Dempster (jury is still out).
The Chisox, imo, proved that it ain't all that complicated. Starting pitching, bullpen depth, solid defense, getting runners on base, moving them along, good power. You look at their roster and their lineup and you may not be impressed, but they won a lot of games with this formula.
I like the two year trend of old long time suffering teams finally winning. How about Cleveland in 2006?
