Chicago Baseball Teams Flatter To Deceive

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Now, to the big let down in Chicago. Hopes were high with the two teams in the major league baseball playoffs. There were dreams of a rematch of the 1906 World Series between the White Sox and the Cubs. But both teams are now out. Chicago Public Radio's Ammad Omar reports on how fans are dealing with disappointment.

AMMAD OMAR: Late Saturday night, things were looking grim for Cubs fans. Their team had posted the best record in the National League, raising hopes that they'd finally break their much talked about 100-year championship drought. But suddenly, the Cubs were facing the unthinkable, getting swept out of the playoffs in the first round. And when the L.A. Dodgers finished the job, heads in bars across the north side dropped, showing the frustration brought on by a century of losing.

(Soundbite of applause)

Mr. BART BITTELINGMEIR: It's like you're in a relationship with a girl, and you started out, and you're like, you know what? This girl is going to leave me. And you think to yourself, you know what? If I just love her, this will work out. And then, she leaves you.

OMAR: Long time Cubs fans, Bart Bittelingmeir (ph).

Mr. BITTELINGMEIR: I don't blame her. I don't blame the Cubs. But the next girl I meet, the next Cubs season, it's going to work out. And I believe that.

OMAR: There were still hopes for this season across town on the south side, where more than 40,000 fans packed the U.S. Cellular Field to watch the Chicago White Sox play Tampa Bay, but that wasn't meant to be either. Tampa Bay won the game six-two, knocking a second Chicago team out of the playoffs in under 48 hours. Still, much of the reaction on the south side was more subdued. Sox fans say winning the World Series just four years ago took the sting out of this season's results.

Unidentified Man: We went out fighting. It's all we could ask for, you know? We love the Chicago White Sox. So next year, 2009, baby!

OMAR: Missing on this side of town were displays of sorrow like the makeshift memorial Cubs fans made for their team outside of Wrigley Field. A local paper called it the Cub shrine to futility, where mourning fans piled flowers, candles, and other mementos outside the stadium, along with one note that reportedly read, dear Cubs, thanks for nothing. For NPR News, I'm Ammad Omar in Chicago.

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