Misery loves company

The Chicago fan's hierarchy of rooting interests is a tricky beast to tame. For starters, there are two baseball teams in town that draw from distinctly different bases (no, really?) with the Cubs cornering the market on yuppies, out-of-towners and transpalnts and the Sox relying heavily on the South Side and suburbs to fill seats at the Cell.

If there's one thing that the national baseball audience doesn't understand, it's that the Cubs tend to pull in new residents to keep Wrigley Field filled to capacity with popped collars, while the White Sox represent a truer Chicago-only fanbase. For better or worse, that's just how I've seen the demographics play out in nearly 30 years (and a day at both parks yesterday) as a fan.

Aside from the Bears, which consistently draw Chicago fans year in and year out, the city's baseball teams have to duke it out with the Bulls and Blackhawks for ticket money, with the NBA and NHL fans ebbing and flowing based on the teams they trot out and the fans' current level of loyalty based on which league screwed their fans least or more recently.

Still, if you had to lay money down on the hardest of the the hard core Chicago fan (ranked by strength of loyalty), you'd have to go: Bears, Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls, in that order. I'm not saying there aren't plenty of Cubs fans who would fit the bill, I'm just saying by numbers alone that you're most likely to find Sox fans who also pull for the rest of the city's teams before you'd find Cub fans who are a match.

I guess that's why it seems strange that the White Sox have released word that they'll be cross-promoting with the Blackhawks this season. Seems like that's just preaching to the choir.

That aside, this could be a lot of fun, depending on what types of promotions they can cook up. Right now, it's mainly shooting pucks on the top of the White Sox dugout between innings, but I think any of the following would really spice things up.

* Any six White Sox players versus the local peewee hockey team in town for the pregame exhibition game. Seeing six professional athletes who can't skate versus a pack of six year olds who can? Comedy gold.

* Manager swap night, where Denis Savard fills in while Ozzie takes the night off and vice-versa. Strangely, I think the Blackhawks would respond well to Ozzie's special brand of bilungual cursing and theatrics (thought he'd have to wear a suit) behind the bench. As for Savard's calls this season for his players to get into the corners and get some cuts on their faces, that type of atmosphere might give Sox fans something they've been missing since the 2005 season - a team full of Aaron Rowlands.

* I don't have a joke here, but can only assume Bobby Jenks would make a decent goaltender.

* Hockey players and Sox fans have similar dental patterns - anyone missing more than three from a fistfight gets half-priced beer through the first period.

* As long as we're in that fighting mood, wouldn't a steel cage match be fun for the whole family? I say we pull Bob Probert out of retirement and have him fight William Lidge. For charity of course, except for the side action amongst the fans.

That's pure profit.

(Image from DayLife.com)