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Why the White Sox and Cubs need to be in the same division
These days, there are as few as only six games in the entire 162-game season that White Sox fans truly care about, and those are the Crosstown Classic games. But what if that number doubled?
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred casually hinted at restructuring divisions and adding expansion teams during Seattle and New York’s Little League Classic on August 17. Division changes would not only reduce travel demands but create a more captivating postseason structure that caters to the audience’s locality, according to Manfred.
Enter baseball analyst and columnist for The Athletic Jim Bowden, who proposed a 32-team model in 2023 that redrew divisions according to location proximity. Bowden’s scheme puts both Chicago teams, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis in a new Midwest Division:
Putting the Sox and Cubs together will light a much-needed fire under the Sox. Setting the record for the most losses in baseball’s modern era isn’t enough. The best incentive for the Sox to win is to see their big brother with a superiority complex just north of them place last in their division. The Sox could also help the Brewers, their current NL ally, beat up the Cubs, pushing them further down in the division standings.
Adding more games against the Cubs would also pay off financially. Attendance at Rate field for this year’s Red Line series averaged 38,140 people over three games for a total of 115,230 attendees in one weekend. Now triple that, and you get three nearly sold-out home series every year instead of one. Those attendance numbers can’t be matched by any other AL Central series, and they never will. With more tickets, concessions, and merchandise bought more money will go towards the team. Even with miserly owner Jerry Reinsdorf in charge, at least a fraction of that additional green will be reinvested into the team that otherwise wouldn’t be earned.
Reigniting the White Sox and Cubs rivalry by placing them in the same division would do wonders for the Sox. While the two teams may not have as historic of a rivalry as the Yankees and Red Sox, their feud is just as profound. Some healthy, hatred-fueled competition never hurt anyone — in fact, it’s historically favored the Sox.
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