Cubs-White Sox Announcement?

[MrSheps]

<!--quoteo(post=93449:date=Apr 28 2010, 06:48 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Apr 28 2010, 06:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=93442:date=Apr 28 2010, 06:55 PM:name=MrSheps)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrSheps @ Apr 28 2010, 06:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->I get that. I understand what you're saying.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't. I mean Butch, it's not a bullshit rivalry, my god, you're the evidence of this. You're a grown man that can't stand the sight or thought of the sox or their fans so much that you don't even want to play them. You considered not voting for your presidential pick because he liked the Sox. Not working with people that like the Sox. People care about the games for these very reasons, it's a great rivalry that manifests in goodnatured fun for most fans all the way to anger for others. That's what a rivalry is. Two teams' fan bases that don't like one another, playing each other.

Again, I don't like that the Cards usually have it easier due to playing the Royals, but also again it's not a balanced schedule even if you take out those games. Change it to a 3 game set each year if that's the issue. But let's not pretend the Cubs hate the series and the Sox love it, the Cubs make bank on it too, not just with seats but with merchandise, advertising and broadcast. Oh and their fans love it too. Hell, I'd bet anything the Cubs were behind the Cup thing, again, another way to make money on it.
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Using me as an example doesn't work, though. I despise the games and I try my best to avoid watching them. They're the first games I put up on StubHub because I hate the atmosphere at Wrigley during the Cubs/Sox series and I have no desire to attend them.

My hatred for the White Sox is based almost entirely on the endless amount of shit talk I've had to endure since 2005 -- it has nothing to do with some manufactured "rivalry." Before 2005, I didn't care for them, but they didn't bother me and I was able to ignore them, for the most part. Everything has changed since 2005. I don't have to go into more detail about that, I'm sure.

I'm not sure how else to explain my feelings on this. They aren't in our division. They aren't in our league. Forcing the teams to play 6 games against each other is purely a marketing ploy. All of this makes it a bullshit rivalry.
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Yeah, if you're to the point that you seriously can't watch the games I get that you're not the best example of fans wanting it. But you're a great example of the intense feelings that illustrate it's a very real rivalry, that's my point. I've never met anyone else whose reaction to hating another team and its fans goes beyond wanting to beat them to not being able to watch the two teams compete. Usually those feelings make for awesome rivalries. That's sorta what you want.

And I agree, obviously there was and perhaps still is a manufactured element, but the feelings of rivalry are there, it's not the Cards and the Royals or the Twins and the Brewers, it's the age old battle between Sox and Cubs fans. Only instead of it being 1 exhibition a year it's games that matter. And MLB isn't forcing the teams or fans into it, they both appear to love it.

Again, I get that you hate it because you ultra-hate the Sox, but I don't think you can argue that the teams and the fans by and large hate it. Maybe you can argue they should hate it, but they don't. That's all I'm trying to get people to acknowledge here. More people want to watch those games more than any other games during the regular season. I'm not always a fan of the populist approach, but when it comes to mass entertainment, it's gotta count for something.