Commentary: Deep six the Crosstown

By Nader Ihmoud

With the Gulf of Mexico being devastated by the recent oil spill, there is another disaster looming and this one is happening right in our backyard. Here in Chicago, where we take our sports rivalries seriously, British Petroleum is sponsoring a joke of a trophy for this year's Crosstown Classic series between the Cubs and White Sox.

These yearly meetings occur when teams from the American League and the National League meet in head-to-head interleague play across the Major League Baseball landscape. Each season local rivalries reappear. In New York, it's the subway series between the Mets and the Yankees. In Los Angeles, it's more of a commuter series, featuring the Angels and the Dodgers. In Chicago, rabid fans of the Cubs and the Sox have their classic.

However, like jokers in a deck of cards, BP wants to raise the stakes in the Windy City and make a mockery of the Cubs-Sox face-off.

It's as if fans don't have enough things to keep track of during a season of wins, losses and other statistics. Along with coaches, fans have to revise their scorecards as the host rules.

What do I mean by that? The two leagues have different rules for playing America's summer pastime and the home team rules are in effect in hosting the games, requiring some adjustment on the ball field. One of the main alterations affects the pitcher. In the AL, a designated hitter can sub for the lefty or righty manning the mound. But that is not the case in the NL, which requires a pitcher to take his turn at the plate. So it makes for some interesting outcomes in the series.

The Sox have bested the Cubs since regular season interleague play began in 1997. Taking four of the six games played in 2009, the South Side team leads the series with a slim 37 wins in 72 meetings. The teams are scheduled to renew their rivalry this year on June 11 at Wrigley Field.

Until this season, the only worth to interleague play for our city was bragging rights through October. Once the regular season closed out, the winner of the Chicago series was given nothing more than any another team that did not reach the post-season playoffs.

So hyping up this season's interleague games by adding a "Crosstown Cup" trophy is senseless. With both teams struggling to find victories - with records below .500 in the standings and being nowhere near the top of their divisions in mid-May - is this "Cup" supposed to make us, faithful fans, content with not watching them in the playoffs come October?

This silly idea is credited to the great thinking skills of our neighborhood friends at BP who think this rivalry needs to be spiced up a bit. This is false because the crosstown games are already one of the hottest tickets for Chicago baseball fans. So there is no need to ratchet up the stakes.

Plus there are too many flaws to this idea, and the one that happens to stick out the most is the question of what happens if the team that wins the series loses the final game of the two three-game sets? If the series ends in a 3-3 tie, the trophy is awarded to the winner of the final game. Rewarding the team that loses that day with a trophy seems silly to me.

Whoever had this brilliant idea did not think it through entirely. Fans want to root for their teams in the hope that in the end the players will be holding the World Series trophy, not some meaningless "Cup" handed out in the middle of the season. For Chicago, this seems more like a distraction for two teams that may go nowhere this season (trust me; neither fan base will be pleased with the end result of their beloved team's 2010 season).

I am sure after this season the "Crosstown Cup" will be a distant memory of an empty-headed idea, and bragging rights will again resume its place as the lone prize for winning the Crosstown Classic series.

North Side versus South Side; it's just as simple as that.

The true winner in the end will be the local baseball team that brings home the World Series trophy.

Chicagoans don't need a demeaning "Cup" to clutter their sports loyalty.

Nader Ihmoud, a student at Lane Technical High School, is the sports editor of The Warrior, the school newspaper.