root for the home team.

Nine Things I Learned at the Crosstown Classic

the annual Chicago vs. Chicago series between the Cubs and the White Sox

1. Baseball fans in Chicago don't put ketchup on their hot dogs.
2. They do put tomatoes on their hotdogs (....?)
3. The last time the Cubs won the World Series was in 1908.  A few guys I talked to actually admitted to getting teared-up while watching the Chicago Wins commercial for MLB 2012! 
4. If the opposing team hits a home run you throw the ball back on the field (Laura's dad told me this one when he was prepping me for the game!)
5. Wrigley Field is one of the last fields to have a hand turned scoreboard in the major leagues. If you enlarge the photo, you can see the people turning the score in the open windows.
6. Wrigley Field is also famous for the ivy covering the outfield walls.  
7. The Curse of the Billy Goat is literally about a billy goat.
8. Wrigley Field loves the fans. proof : they're one of the few fields that hasn't put up a spitefence so surrounding high rises don't get a free look at the game.  
9. Fellow fans love eachother. proof : local bars chipped in and bought Ronnie Woo Woo (a formerly homeless Cubs fan who is known for yelling "woo!" in the stadium) a new set of dentures.

my favorite thing to ask the locals during my trip was "what's the difference between the Cubs and the White Sox?" - and I got a lot of passionate answers about true fans (the city rivalry is well illustrated in this New Era skit between Chicago's own Nick Offerman and Craig Robinson). 

At the end of the game Bryan asked if I had decided on a Chicago team to call my own. I told him I made my pick because navy and red is my favorite outfit color scheme. He replied that an answer like that is what really makes a girl a Cubs fan. 

(photos) on film with pentax k1000. full frames on Flickr.