An old candy commercial once claimed that two great tastes really taste great together. This particular tagline could describe either our two MLB teams or the twin phenomena that have created and maintained their long strangleholds on countless Chicagoans year after year.

Well, those sensational tastes are felt within our red-blooded American (pastime) bodies the moment we don our black (Sox) and blue (Cubs) apparel for another approaching baseball season. In doing so, we honor the blood, sweat, and tears adorning our favorite teams’ historical chests, as a result of their long, tenacious journeys upon our hometown baseball landscape.

Though neither team hoisted a World Series trophy in 2008, the fact they appeared in the same postseason—since the 1906 Fall Classic—was historically electrifying. Before the Sox’ 2005 World Series reign, we waited 88 years for the Windy City to rise to the top again. We saw one club win six flags and another trying to gain regular-season respectability. We cheered for our heroes and jeered for those zeros who overpowered them. Even their flatulent owners, media curses, and public spectacles had us doing “the wave” every year.

Sure, the game’s history speaks great volumes, but area competition vastly boosted its importance—like any marketable product. Various small-market baseball clubs have suffered because no local competitor was available, thus depriving hungry sports consumers of that freedom of choice.

Baseball competition has remained the norm in the Chicago area since the 1850s. The earliest-recorded local baseball game took place in 1851 between the Joliet Hunkidoris and Lockport Sleepers. The Chicago Unions (founded in 1856) and Excelsiors (1857) also established toeholds in this burgeoning metropolis. An early 1858 newspaper report promoted a “match game” between the two rivals, ensuring the Excelsiors’ status as a competitive intracity baseball force that modern-day clubs honor.

More diamond ball rivalries flourished after the Civil War. From 1865 to 1869, the amateur Chicago Atlantics, Eurekas, Ogdens, Pacifics, and Garden Citys clubs contested the Excelsiors’ supremacy. The Atlantics and Excelsiors entered the 1866 baseball “championship of the Northwest” tournament in Rockford, with the Ex-Men winning the title. In 1870, the first incarnation of the White Stockings (guess who?) joined the party, forging a short rivalry with the Rockford Forest Citys before becoming a National League juggernaut.

With the White Stockings/Colts/Orphans/Cubs winning six NL pennants in the late-1800s, more local opposition satisfied our sporting appetites. The Union Association’s Chicago Browns (1884) and the Players’ League’s Chicago Pirates (1890) briefly answered that call. But it still wasn’t enough, until Charles Comiskey brought the Western League’s St. Paul Saints to the South Side, renaming them the new White Stockings (guess who again?) in 1900.

We’ve also seen the city’s black community proudly don their game faces, batting for teams such as the Chicago Unions (founded in 1886) and Chicago Columbia Giants (1899). The two merged in 1901 as the Union Giants (later Leland Giants), paving the way for various minor league teams (such as the Chicago Giants) and Negro League stalwart the Chicago American Giants (1910-52), who also reigned on 35th Street.

As impressive as our local pastime’s roots are, it is the game’s ethnic, recreational, and financial struggles that deserve standing ovations. Players didn’t enjoy extensive media coverage, hefty salaries (if any at all), “disposable” uniforms, or play alongside equally talented African-Americans. We could have completely abandoned the sport after the first game or during wartime, but we demanded more bloodshed.

Though team preferences can wreck personal relationships, they do suggest ideas for improvement for both clubs. For Jim Hendry and Kenny Williams, observing the enemy certainly paid dividends in October; as a result, we have bats at the Cell and arms at Wrigley. Without that intracity inspiration, we wouldn’t have groomed 78 Hall-of-Famers and cultivated two distinct sporting cultures.

Interestingly enough, Wrigleyphiles get to soak up the energetic atmosphere of its previous tenants, the Federal League’s Chicago Browns/Federals/Whales (1913-15) and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s Chicago Colleens (1948-50), whenever the Cubbies take the field. Therefore, they witness the great enthusiasm players once displayed before excessive greed and free agency tainted the game. After all, that passion helped the Whales win the Friendly Confines’ only Chi-Town championship in 1915.

Regardless of our team preferences, our love for the national pastime remains an important element that truly united us. We absolutely enjoy the competition between our Blue Bears and Pale Hose because of their ability to adapt to and overcome the perils of a highly competitive sporting market; their blue-collar (figuratively speaking), survival-of-the-fittest attitude represents everything that is the City of Broad Shoulders. So, let’s slap on the war paint and give Chicago another World Series champion—even if it kills us.

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