The Frustration Factor

How does one quantify or measure suffering?

When it comes to baseball, no one can come close to the fans of Chicago's two hapless franchises in terms of the length and depth of the pain and anguish known here in the town that the baseball gods forgot.

Sure, Boston used to be able to claim a storied history of failure close to, but not quite equaling, our own, but they finally ended their run of futility last season with their first World Series Title since 1918. Even before that happened, Chicago had them beat. Neither of our two teams had won a World Series since Boston's last triumph, and one of them had, in fact, managed to throw one since then! Besides that, Boston had made 4 previous trips to the World Series - even before last year - since the Cubs had last appeared and 3 of them since the White Sox last participated. Sorry, Boston. You don't know suffering as much as we do, despite the higher level of publicity you got for it.

Cleveland knows pain, too, but their last World Championship in 1948, still beats Chicago's last one by 31 years, and 2 Fall Classic appearances as recently as the mid-to-late 1990's pale in comparison to the wait here for even so much as a League Pennant. True, fans in San Francisco, Houston, San Diego, Milwaukee, Texas, and Seattle can claim to know the pain of franchises without a single World Championship, but all of these fan bases were created decades after the last time Chicago held a baseball-related parade, and while Houston, Texas and Seattle have never even been to a World Series, all of these teams began their very existences since the last time either Chicago team was there! (Note to all of the relative newcomers without titles in Colorado, Tampa Bay and Washington, don't even get me started!)

Chicago is, indeed, unique: Decades of frustration and futility multiplied by two beloved ne'er-do-well teams, who just can't seem to win. The rivalry between the fans of the two teams here is extraordinary. If you are not from Chicago, odds are you don't understand how much fans of each team tend to hate, yes I said hate, the other ballclub. Could all this mutual ill-will contribute to the karma that keeps both teams from breaking a nearly Century-long drought? No one can say, but neither team wants to be the one left behind by the other team's finally achieving that ever-so elusive success. Maybe that explains it. To watch your rivals break their curse while being forced to continue wallowing in your own pain only makes it that much worse. What they say is quite true, especially when it comes to Chicago baseball fans... misery loves company.

Over the years, Chicago baseball futility has become the stuff of legend. The Chicago Cubs are said to suffer the "Curse of the Billygoat," where a legendary Chicago tavern owner, denied admission to the park for a 1945 World Series game with his pet goat, placed a curse on the team, telling them that another World Series game would never again be played in Wrigley Field - none has. Several efforts to break the curse over the years have been unsuccessful.

The Cubs famous collapse in 1969 can be traced, in part, to a black cat circling Third Baseman Ron Santo as he waited in the on-deck circle at New York's Shea Stadium, an event captured on television for all to see. The Cubs lost that game and the next one, putting the 1969 "Miracle" Mets in first place to stay.

1984 saw the Cubs get within one game of the World Series, only to lose three straight to the San Diego Padres, including a crushing Game 5 defeat contributed to by a key error by First Baseman Leon Durham. In 2003, the Cubs most recent venture into post-season play resulted in the City of Chicago's first post-season series victory since 1917 when they beat the Braves in the National League Divisional Series, but just as they sat within less than 2 innings of a trip to the World Series, along came the "Bartman Ball," where a fan inadvertently interfered with an outfielder attempting to make a catch in foul territory. After that moment, the tide of the game and the League Championship Series turned in favor of the eventual World Champion Marlins.

My beloved White Sox have fared no better, and in some ways even worse, with 6 fewer post-season outings over the course of their mostly unremarkable history than the Cubs. They play second-fiddle to the Cubs in almost every way in Chicago, all but ignored by the Cub-loving media here. If the Cubs are the stuff of legend, the lovable losers, the cause celeb, the White Sox are the bastard child living in the basement that no one likes to talk about.

In some ways, the White Sox suffering is self-induced - the "Curse of the Black Sox" is still going strong. Baseball was almost ruined, long ago, when several players from the heavily favored Chicago White Sox, many of them angry with being cheated out of money they felt they were rightfully owed by notoriously tight owner Charles Comiskey, decided to get even by conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds for money. Much has been written about the "Black Sox" scandal over the years, and while we may never know if all of those who paid the price were truly involved, newly appointed iron-fisted Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned eight players for life, despite their being acquitted of charges in a court of law. This act may possibly have saved baseball, but it ruined the White Sox organization for at least a generation, and they and their fans, of which I am one, still bear the pain of one of the last great sports "curses" even today, as they have not won a World Series since 1917, and have appeared in only one since 1919, a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959.

I can blame my suffering on my Father, a lifelong White Sox fan, who passed the genetic disease on to me. My Dad has suffered far more than I have, as his suffering is decades longer than my own. But at least he got to see the Sox play in a World Series once, which is much more than I can say.

When a team can go through multiple generations, as both Chicago teams have, with nothing to show for it, it is more than sad, it is a disgrace. Many a Chicago baseball fan has been born, lived a full life and died without ever seeing a championship from a team they wasted their entire lives rooting for. Precious few people still walk this earth who were even alive the last time a World Series Title was claimed here. Those that are still alive were likely too young at the time to remember it or are too old now to remember anything at all.

As the White Sox take the field today in Boston, they have a chance to claim their first post-season series in either mine or my father's lifetimes. The first, in fact, since my long-departed grandparents' childhoods. Think about that for a moment, then help us root them on. Lord knows, it's about time!

UPDATE: The Chicago White Sox have finally broken down one of the gigantic walls of woe surrounding them, as they have won a post-season series for the first time in 88 years, defeating the Boston Red Sox in the 2005 ALDS 3 games to none! Come on team, let's keep going, shall we? Pretty please with sugar on top???

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UPDATED 10/9/05 to reflect results of 2005 ALDS & NLDS

I thought about coming up with some sort of misery index, but that sort of math cannot do this sort of futility true justice. Instead, I offer the following charts, showing just how bad fans here in Chicago, and elsewhere, have had it over the years. How does your team rate?...

Post-Season Appearances by Team as Percentage of Years in Present Market (Adjusted for Lack of Post-Season Play in 1904 and 1994) 1903-Present:

0.0% - Tampa Bay Devil Rays (0 Appearances in 8 Seasons)
0.0% - Washington Nationals (0 Appearances in 1 Season)
5.7% - Milwaukee Brewers (2 Appearances in 35 Seasons)
7.9% - Chicago White Sox (8 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
8.3% - Colorado Rockies (1 Appearance in 12 Seasons)
8.9% - Cleveland Indians (9 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
8.9% - Philadelphia Phillies (9 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
9.1% - Texas Rangers (3 Appearances in 33 Seasons)
10.9% - Detroit Tigers (11 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
11.1% - San Diego Padres (4 Appearances in 36 Seasons)
11.9% - Cincinnati Reds (12 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
13.6% - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (6 Appearances in 44 Seasons)
13.9% - Chicago Cubs (14 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
13.9% - Pittsburgh Pirates (14 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
14.0% - New York Mets (6 Appearances in 43 Seasons)
14.3% - Seattle Mariners (4 Appearances in 28 Seasons)
16.7% - Florida Marlins (2 Appearances in 12 Seasons)
16.8% - Boston Red Sox (17 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
17.0% - San Francisco Giants (8 Appearances in 47 Seasons)
17.9% - Toronto Blue Jays (5 Appearances in 28 Seasons)
18.2% - Minnesota Twins (8 Appearances in 44 Seasons)
19.4% - Kansas City Royals (7 Appearances in 36 Seasons)
19.6% - Baltimore Orioles (10 Appearances in 51 Seasons)
20.8% - St. Louis Cardinals (21 Appearances in 101 Seasons)
20.9% - Houston Astros (9 Appearances in 43 Seasons)
29.8% - Los Angeles Dodgers (14 Appearances in 47 Seasons)
37.5% - Arizona Diamondbacks (3 Appearances in 8 Seasons)
37.8% - Oakland Athletics (14 Appearances in 37 Seasons)
41.0% - Atlanta Braves (16 Appearances in 39 Seasons)
44.6% - New York Yankees (45 Appearances in 101 Seasons)

Longest Wait for World Series Title by Team:

1908 - Chicago Cubs
1917 - Chicago White Sox
1948 - Cleveland Indians
NONE - San Francisco Giants (1958)
NONE - Houston Astros (1962)
NONE - San Diego Padres (1969)
NONE - Milwaukee Brewers (1970)
NONE - Texas Rangers (1972)
NONE - Seattle Mariners (1977)
1979 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1980 - Philadelphia Phillies
1982 - St. Louis Cardinals
1983 - Baltimore Orioles
1984 - Detroit Tigers
1985 - Kansas City Royals
1986 - New York Mets
1988 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1989 - Oakland Athletics
1990 - Cincinnati Reds
1991 - Minnesota Twins
NONE - Colorado Rockies (1993)
1993 - Toronto Blue Jays
1995 - Atlanta Braves
NONE - Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998)
2000 - New York Yankees
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks
2002 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2003 - Florida Marlins
2004 - Boston Red Sox
NONE - Washington Nationals (2005)

Longest Wait for World Series Appearance by Team:

1945 - Chicago Cubs
1959 - Chicago White Sox
NONE - Houston Astros (1962)
NONE - Texas Rangers (1972)
NONE - Seattle Mariners (1977)
1979 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1982 - Milwaukee Brewers
1983 - Baltimore Orioles
1984 - Detroit Tigers
1985 - Kansas City Royals
1988 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1990 - Oakland Athletics
1990 - Cincinnati Reds
1991 - Minnesota Twins
NONE - Colorado Rockies (1993)
1993 - Philadelphia Phillies
1993 - Toronto Blue Jays
1997 - Cleveland Indians
NONE - Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998)
1998 - San Diego Padres
1999 - Atlanta Braves
2000 - New York Mets
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks
2002 - San Francisco Giants
2002 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2003 - New York Yankees
2003 - Florida Marlins
2004 - St. Louis Cardinals
2004 - Boston Red Sox
NONE - Washington Nationals (2005)

Longest Wait for League Championship Series Appearance by Team:

NONE - Texas Rangers (1972)
1982 - Milwaukee Brewers
1985 - Kansas City Royals
1987 - Detroit Tigers
1988 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1992 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1992 - Oakland Athletics
NONE - Colorado Rockies (1993)
1993 - Philadelphia Phillies
1993 - Toronto Blue Jays
1995 - Cincinnati Reds
1997 - Baltimore Orioles
NONE - Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998)
1998 - San Diego Padres
1998 - Cleveland Indians
2000 - New York Mets
2001 - Seattle Mariners
2001 - Atlanta Braves
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks
2002 - Minnesota Twins
2002 - San Francisco Giants
2003 - Chicago Cubs
2003 - Florida Marlins
2004 - New York Yankees
2004 - Boston Red Sox
NONE - Washington Nationals (2005)
2005 - Chicago White Sox [1993]
2005 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim [2002]
2005 - Houston Astros [2004]
2005 - St. Louis Cardinals [2004]

Longest Wait for Playoff Appearance by Team:

1982 - Milwaukee Brewers
1985 - Kansas City Royals
1987 - Detroit Tigers
1992 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1993 - Philadelphia Phillies
1993 - Toronto Blue Jays
1995 - Colorado Rockies
1995 - Cincinnati Reds
1997 - Baltimore Orioles
NONE - Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998)
1999 - Texas Rangers
2000 - New York Mets
2001 - Cleveland Indians
2001 - Seattle Mariners
2002 - Arizona Diamondbacks
2003 - Oakland Athletics
2003 - San Francisco Giants
2003 - Chicago Cubs
2003 - Florida Marlins
2004 - Los Angeles Dodgers
2004 - Minnesota Twins
NONE - Washington Nationals (2005)
2005 - San Diego Padres [1998 WS]
2005 - Chicago White Sox [2000 ALDS]
2005 - Atlanta Braves [2004 NLDS]
2005 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim [2004 ALDS]
2005 - Houston Astros [2004 NLCS]
2005 - New York Yankees [2004 ALCS]
2005 - St. Louis Cardinals [2004 WS]
2005 - Boston Red Sox [2004 WS Champs]

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Previous Post: A Brief History of Baseball

Follow-up Post: The Pantheon of Pain

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Thanks for the links!

Pat Curley at Brainster's Blog
John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit
Geoff Young at Ducksnorts

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