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Being a non-sports fan, I never understood the die-hard loyalty that the Cubs get.

If Chicago had only one baseball team, I suppose people would feel they “have to” root them as a matter of desperation since they were the only professional team around, but Chicago has two baseball teams. Neither is particularly good, but the Sox won a world series in the last decade whereas the Cubs haven’t won one in over a century, or even made to the world series in decades. In spite of this laughable record, Cubs fans outnumber Sox fans by about 3:1 in estimates I’ve read. I’m pretty sure the north side of Chicago doesn’t have three times the population of the south side (in fact, I think the southside probably has more people, mainly due the southeast suburbs and the north side equivalent region being underwater).

Indeed, going back on the Jackie Robinson West hysteria a few months back, I could even see a reason for “regional loyalty” to the Cubs if the coach and all the players were born and bred northside Chicagoans. They’re not. Half of them aren’t even from the same CONTINENT, the ONLY thing they happen to have in common with their die-hard fanbase is the stadium they play at happens to be located on Chicago’s north side. They are overpaid professional athletes who get millions to lose, and would happily leave their “fans” in a New York minute if another team in another city offered them more money to play for them.

Sports fanaticism makes zero logical sense to me. Exhibit A is the Cubs.