degenerasian wrote:Steve: I get the Yankees popularity over the Mets based on their past success and longer history but never fully understood the Cubs popularity over the White Sox especially after the Sox won in 2005.
Television is probably the biggest factor - the Cubs were on TV all the time, playing day games, and on a VHF channel with a nice clear picture. They broadcast every home game and almost every road game. The Sox broadcast fewer games, and they were on a UHF channel that sucked. (Ask your grandparents about UHF and VHF.)
Then the Sox moved to an over-the-air pay channel. Back then, no one paid for television. So basically no one watched them on TV.
And then the Cubs hired Harry Caray and won the division in 1984, and Wrigley Field became the Place to Be. It was beautiful and green and in a nice location a mile from the Lake, surrounded by bars, where white people feel safe taking public transportation. Even though I grew up 25 miles from Wrigley, we were able to go to games without parents when we were 13. Sox games were at night and Comiskey was on the south side where all the scary black people lived.
And even the white folks on the South Side aren't nearly as rich as the white folks on the north side. Since the media is made up of rich white people, the Cubs got more attention.
It is really too bad that the Sox pooched it when they built New Comiskey. That was the first stadium built after all the multipurpose hellholes, but it was the last one built before Camden Yards ushered in an era of retro ballparks that were actually nice.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.