Chicago Yankees? Not as ridiculous as you might want to think it sounds!

I rooted for the New York Yankees when I was a kid (back in the era of Billy Martin vs. Reggie Jackson vs. Thurman Munson, all up against George Steinbrenner), and even today can’t count myself amongst the types of fans who claim “Yankee Hatred.”

Back when Bucky wore 'red' socks

I just don't see the point. Apparently, I’m not alone. Not even in Chicago.

THE NEW YORK Times last week gave us a graphic based off a Facebook study that determined how big each major league baseball club’s fan base was geographically.

It’s not the most scientific of methods – people who indicated they “liked” the Facebook page of a particular ball club were counted as “fans.” It's about as scientific as an Internet poll asking people if they're a "Brittney" or a "Christina." But the graphic literally makes it possible to see – by zip code – which team dominates the local baseball fans.

Guess what?

The White Sox dominate on Chicago’s South Side and surrounding suburbs going down to Kankakee County, while the Cubs rule/drool in the northern part of the metro area. And yes, the Cubs have a regional fan base that extends into the rural Midwest, while the White Sox are purely an urban phenomenon.

LOOK AT A national map, and you see a swath of baby blue across northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and northern Indiana. With a big black blotch right in the middle – that blotch being the White Sox fandom that screws up the Cubbie perception that they prevail over all in their path.

'Joey Pep' in baby blue

None of this should be a surprise. It fits in with the commonly-accepted, and century-old, idea of the South Side/North Side split between the ball clubs.

But what caught my attention while going through the zip-code through zip-code breakdown of Chicago was that there were also stray out-of-town teams that get some fandom here.

And in most cases, it really is the hated Yankees.

Half a season in 'other' pinstripes

RIGHT IN THE zip code where U.S. Cellular Field is located, 5 percent of the locals are Yankees fans. Just as in Beverly and in 60601 – the heart of downtown Chicago.

In Hyde Park, that figure of Yankees fans boosts to 8 percent. Although it should be noted that that one South Side neighborhood was the lone Cubs outpost to the south of Roosevelt Road – albeit by only 35 percent for the Cubs and 34 percent for the White Sox.

A native Chicagoan Yankee

Of course, this shouldn’t be a complete shock. Anybody who ever attends a ballgame when the Yankees make their annual trip to Chicago knows there is a contingent of fans root, root, rooting against the home team.

It’s like the Yankees have become the default favorite team – a trend that makes sense in parts of the country that have no other ball club locally to root for.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS one other thing I noticed – it seems to be limited to the South Side, where the Yankees are “Team Number Three” across the region. But to the north, it seems fans who don’t want to root for either black and silver or baby blue root for the Detroit Tigers or the Boston Red Sox.

It ended for Sparky at Comiskey

Go to Lincoln Park or Old Town, and it’s the Red Sox who are the next favorite team – 4 percent. Which might be all the more reason for a Sout’ Side Yankees fan to look down on the tawny set who reside there. While those living around Wrigley Field consider the Tigers their next ball club (4 percent) to root for.

For what it's worth, my favorite ballplayer as a kid was Yankees outfielder Lou Piniella -- even with that notorious temper. But my adult self always thought that his temper and Yankee ways just contradicted that Cubby blue.

NY "Louuuuuus" were Chi "boooos"

With all the on-field gaffes he had to cope with, it's a wonder he survived the experience to go back to New York as a part-time baseball broadcaster.
 

FOR THE RECORD, Cook County as a whole roots 40 percent for the Cubs, 38 percent for the White Sox and 4 percent for the Yankees, as opposed to 47 percent of Will County residents rooting for the White Sox, 37 percent for the Cubs and 3 percent for the Yankees.

Sound pretty contrarian? Perhaps it is. Although there was another figure I noticed that showed me the real malcontents of Chicago baseball fans. It’s 28 percent.

It is both the number of Wrigley Field-area residents who root for the White Sox AND people surrounding U.S. Cellular Field who root for the Cubs. Talk about people whose houses likely get egged every Halloween.

And those who spark a civil war each summer that only ends when the Chicago Bears pull their annual sports uniting act of the city each autumn.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: My own Facebook page doesn't indicate my "liking" of any particular major league ball club. But if anyone ever does a study of defunct professional sports teams, I'll turn up as a fan of the Chicago Sting.

Sanchez/Tebow not really new, not even for New York City sports fans

I’m not much of a football fan, so it kind of amazes me that people are getting so worked up and seeing “Controversy!!!” in the making with the trade of quarterback Tim Tebow to the New York Jets.

After all, the Jets already had a quarterback in Mark Sanchez, and not exactly one who is going to be willing to share the limelight – or sit on the bench.

YET WITH THE persona that Tebow has developed in recent seasons, there’s no way he is meant to be the benchwarmer for the upcoming football season. At the very least, I could see the fans who like Tebow’s excessively public displays of religious fervor getting all offended.

Bring down the wrath of God on the team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the days of Joe Namath? Why risk it!

Yet tamper with the personality that brings attention to the Jets with his ability to date so many women whose own public personas rely on their ability to look fine in skimpy bathing suits.

Are we destined to see a brawl out of New York at some time this autumn? Will their jealousy overcome them? Or is it inevitable that one of them – most likely Sanchez – will fade away from the celebrity scene and ultimately wind up desperately hanging on to professional athletics for a few seasons?

BECAUSE I HAVE to admit that when I hear about this potential for conflict, I can’t help but think back to baseball a trio of decades ago. Specifically, to the off-season between 1977 and 1978.

Because that was the time when the New York Yankees, coming off their first World Series victory in 15 years, had a team that had the “best” pitcher in the American League in the form of Sparky Lyle – who actually won the Cy Young Award for ’77.

So how did the Yankees deal with this situation? They gave a “big money” contract to pitcher Rich Gossage, who threw hard fastballs compared to Lyle’s slider.

There was some talk early on that the two pitchers would be used in a platoon – Lyle pitching to left-handed hitters in relief while Gossage would throw to right-handed batters.

IS SOMEBODY CONCOCTING a similar scheme in New York these days to try to pretend that it is possible for both Sanchez and Tebow to be the “regular” quarterback for the Jets?

If they are, my guess is that it will last about as long as the Yankees’ cheap rhetoric – just a month or so.

Because eventually, the Gossage fastball was viewed as so overpowering at game’s end that it became “the arm” that the Yankees relied upon in order to preserve victories.

In the famed words of Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles, Lyle went from, “Cy Young to Sayonara.” He was traded away at the end of the season, and he bounced around baseball for another four seasons – eventually winding up his career as a major league pitcher in a season-ending stint with the Chicago White Sox in 1982.

HE WAS A far cry from the “best pitcher of the American League” that he was with the Yankees that year, and the relief pitcher who some fans thought might have a shot at election to baseball’s Hall of Fame. While Gossage – whose career started out with the White Sox and even included a one-season stint with the Chicago Cubs – went on to Hall of Fame pitcher status.

Are we going to see something similar happen in New York this year? Perhaps Sanchez can take the same route that Lyle went – keeping a day-by-day diary of his season and turning it into “The Bronx Zoo,” which is still an entertaining sports book a third-of-a-century after it was written.

Although I doubt the Jets are as equally entertaining a sports team as that Yankees team whose season was ultimately a success because of another one-time White Sox farm hand whom Boston Red Sox fans still hold a grudge against.

Go Bucky Dent!!!

WHILE THE REST of us will be looking toward New York to see how entertaining the athletic jealousy will be.

And perhaps we should be pondering the day when a washed-up Sanchez (or will it be a washed-up Tebow?) will be touted as the great hope (and savior) of our very own Chicago Bears.

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BARTOLO’S RETURN: Are the White Sox a dumping ground for aging stars?

I’m starting to wonder if there is something in the character of the Chicago White Sox that makes them a “dumping ground” of sorts for aging ballplayers past their prime.

The White Sox made an attempt to bolster their pitching rotation by signing aging hurler Bartolo Colon, who once was an aspiring star pitcher for the Cleveland Indians who also had some solid seasons for the Los Angeles Angels.

BUT AFTER HAVING an injury-plagued season in 2008 with the Boston Red Sox (he only got into 7 games out of the 162-game season), he found himself unemployed to the point where he was willing to listen to the White Sox – who are hopeful his arm can recover to the point where he can be a useful ballplayer in ’09.

But it was similar logic that caused the White Sox to take on other aging stars, all of whom clearly showed that their best days were in the past and that no one would remember their careers for anything that was achieved on the South Side.

Take the career of Sparky Lyle. He was once one of the best relief pitchers in the American League, and combined that skill in throwing a slider with a prankster nature (Sparky’s derriere and birthday cakes had unusually close relationships on many occasions) to make him one of the most notable ballplayers of the 1970s.

Fans of the New York Yankees remember him as one of their team’s all-time stars, while Red Sox fans remember him as a would-be star who got away (does anybody remember Danny Cater?)

BUT LYLE’S CAREER included a stint in Chicago. In fact, this is where it all ended for Sparky as a major league ballplayer.

The White Sox picked him up for the latter half of 1982, and about all that was proved was that the Philadelphia Phillies (who employed him the first half of that season) were justified in getting rid of him.

In 11 games, he pitched 12 innings, and managed to get the final save of the 238 he managed to build up during his career. Otherwise, it was a forgettable stretch of time.

Is something along those lines what we’re likely to see from Colon? An aging star for the Indians will give the White Sox nothing, except some speculation in future years about what the White Sox could have achieved had they not let him go following one year he was with the Sox in 2003 (winning 15 games that season)?

IF THAT IS the case, the Colon is the latest version of Rocky Colavito.

For those too young to remember Rocco Domenico Colavito, he was a star slugger in the 1950s and early 1960s who entertained Indians fans of that era. In fact, the more irrational of them (perhaps it’s something about drinking water from the Cuyahoga River) talk of the “Curse of Rocky Colavito,” which refers to his trade to the Detroit Tigers and the fact that the Indians have not won a World Series championship since.

On a side note, that is the difference between Chicago Cubs fans and fans of real baseball clubs. Indians and Red Sox (Babe Ruth) fans talk of curses caused by the trading away of star ballplayers, while the Cubs think they’re cursed because some Andy Frain usher had the sense to kick a fan with a goat out of the ballpark.

Eventually, Colavito wound up with the White Sox. It was 1967, the year they lasted in the pennant race to the final weekend of the season, before getting swept in a season-ending series to the last-place Kansas City Athletics (who departed the Midwest a few weeks later for their current home in Oakland).

COLAVITO WAS A part of the reason the White Sox couldn’t rise above the pennant race pack consisting of the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins.

When a Colavito bat was supposed to be a major factor in their pennant drive, the fact that he hit only .221 with three home runs and 29 runs batted in over 60 games is worthy of blame.

It is awful.

Are we destined to see something similar from Bartolo this season? Will those of us White Sox fans who are hoping the ball club can once again contend for a division title someday be blaming Colon’s girth and age for failing to inspire the Sox?

AGE 35 IS not old in real life. But when it comes to athletics, it borders on ancient – even in today’s era where physical conditioning enables some devoted athletes to play ball well into their 40s.

The problem is that Colon has never been a conditioning freak.

The 235-pound weight indicated by baseball officials is likely a generous estimate. I remember the one time I interviewed him coming away thinking this was someone whose girth was larger than mine.

So Colon will be remembered as the guy who managed to win 150 games thus far during his 12-season career pitching in the major leagues, and he got 135 of those wins during a span from 1998 to 2005.

ONE CAN ARGUE he was once one of the best pitchers in baseball.

But a combination of age, physical conditioning and the sense that anything that can go wrong to a Chicago ball player will makes me wonder if the White Sox are destined to be the team that allows him one last game pitching in the major leagues – in between stints on the disabled list.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: After getting White Sox fans to briefly believe he was returning to Chicago in 2008, Bartolo Colon signed a contract to play ball on the South Side (http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2009/01/15/Bartolo_Colon_returns_to_White_Sox/UPI-62431232051556/) during 2009.

Colon is considered one of the best Los Angeles Angels ballplayers ever. Somehow, I doubt (http://www.halosheaven.com/2008/12/27/702907/top-100-angels-bartolo-col) he will achieve the same status in White Sox history.