They’re dying to dance in the streets of Bridgeport and Armour Square, Back of the Yards and Beverly, Roseland and Hegewisch, Calumet Park and South Holland.
Oh, so ready to raise a glass at Bernice’s Tavern and Shinnick’s Pub, at Cork & Kerry and Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap.
And to break bread with gleeful goodwill at Fat Johnnie’s, Vito & Nick’s, Valois, Daley’s and the Duck Inn.
For once, the South Side wants to see its beloved White Sox clinch a postseason series in Chicago, something that hasn’t occurred since — if you can believe it — the 1906 World Series against the Cubs.
Those Cubs had a winning percentage of .763, still the highest in baseball’s modern era. Those Sox were so bad at swinging the sticks, they were known as the “Hitless Wonders.” The Sox won anyway, which, of course, not a damn one of us remembers.
But now there’s a division series against the Guardians, and a Sox team that arrived at Rate Field on Wednesday leading two games to none in a best-of-five.
A “Blackout” in the stands. Towels waving. Fans aroar. And — what a letdown — a 9-3 Sox defeat.
That leaves one more shot Thursday for the Sox to clinch at home. By God, it’s time for it to finally happen. The 1917 Sox won the World Series over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. The 2005 champs enjoyed clinchers in Boston, Anaheim and Houston. This year’s team swept the Astros in the wild-card round in Houston. The South Side needs a celebration.
Either that or win Game 5 back in Cleveland, but who wants to bet on that?
The odds remain in the Sox’ favor, for what it’s worth. Right around 90% of major league teams that have led 2-0 in best-of-five series have ended up happy.
But the Guardians are busting with confidence after getting off the schneid.
“I would say our confidence is at a 10 [out of 10],” said pitcher Gavin Williams, the American League’s strikeout champion, who would get the ball in Game 5 if he doesn’t appear in relief in Game 4 and the Guardians remain alive. “It better be a 10.”
The Sox will have to tangle again with the Guardians’ top starter this season, Parker Messick, in Game 4.
“I’m ready to rock and roll,” Messick said.
But the Sox are ready to frame and hang more newspaper pages in the Rate press box. Yes, newspapers still exist — don’t even joke about that — and dated ones mark all the biggest Sox occasions on the walls where the home and visiting scribes sit.
The Sun-Times cover pages alone are wonderful to see. “EL, YES!” in big, fat headline type after Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez pitched the Sox past the Red Sox in 2005. “WORLD CLASS” after the Sox got past the Angels that year. “CHAMPS!” after they won it all against the Astros. “SOXAPALOOZA!” after the downtown parade.
The press box is screaming for an image of the Sox piling onto the mound right here at home.
Jose Abreu didn’t win a postseason series here. Mark Buerhle, Frank Thomas, Harold Baines, Dick Allen, Luis Aparicio, Minnie Minoso, Nellie Fox — none of them. You get the picture.
What better time than now, when there are no paper bags over heads and no “Sell the team!” signs in the crowd?
The Sox are only the fourth team ever to appear in the postseason a year after losing 100 games, and they’re the one and only team to do so after losing 100 games back-to-back (or, in the Sox’ case, back-to-back-to-back). It’s still crazy that they’re even in this position, but they might as well not foul it up now, right?
Again, though, the Guardians, accustomed to being better than their division rivals, have their chests puffed out.
“We’ve got to stand on something,” said outfielder Steven Kwan, who drove in his team’s first run on a win-or-go-home late afternoon.
Jose Ramirez, the Guardians’ best player, has been a Sox nemesis for longer than a decade and was the star of this game with his bat, his legs and his glove. When he doubled to left, stole third and came flying home on an infield grounder in the fifth, beating second baseman Chase Meidroth’s throw, all the game’s momentum went with him.
“That made it a Jose Ramirez game,” Kwan said.
In the sixth, Ramirez made a diving stop of a Miguel Vargas smash with the bases loaded and two out and the Sox down just 5-3.
“After that I felt like, ‘This is going to be our game,’ ” Ramirez said via a translator.
It was game on. Now it’s series on.
“We came here to compete,” Ramirez said. “That’s what [the Sox] did when they weren’t at home. They won two games. We can do it, too.”
There’s a question Guardians manager Stephen Vogt often asks his team: “What do you like better, making 50,000 people go crazy or shutting 50,000 people up?”
One happens at home and the other on the road, of course.
“Both very different feelings,” Vogt said, “but they’re equally as fun.”
But nothing tops winning a postseason series on your home turf. The Sox and their fans wouldn’t know this, but they can ask around.
There’s one more shot at it. The headline awaits.