CHICAGO | As a mixed group of Cubs and White Sox fans in her party stoked up the tailgating on a beautiful summer Friday in Lot C northwest of U.S. Cellular Field, Munster resident Donna Wuchter could have started with the argument how her beloved Sox were better and more noble.
Ah, but this is the 13-season-long interleague rivalry and always a sideshow is available for fans to chow down along with their beer, burgers and brats. In the past it was Sox manager Ozzie Guillen lambasting Wrigley Field, or Cubs catcher Michael Barrett punching Sox counterpart A.J. Pierzynski.
Friday it was Cubs manager Lou Piniella's admission he once tried marijuana -- and he didn't care for it. That got tongues clucking as the two teams prepared to play the first of three games on the South Side.
"It doesn't matter to me," Wuchter said. "If he smoked pot when he was younger, who cares? What does that have to do with him now? Maybe he needs to get high (due to the Cubs' frequent slumps). Of course, I like the Cubs losing, so it's all right."
Beer, not a descendant of Piniella's one-time experiment, appeared to be the big emotional lubricant of choice throughout Lot C. Mellow was the order of the day as hordes of tailgaters featured apparently friendly mixed groups of Cubs and Sox fans, like Wuchter's party.
Kim Kosinski, also of Munster, was garbed in Cubs apparel.
"We get along fine as long as we don't talk about the Cubs and Sox," Kosinski said of Wuchter. "You avoid it. She's a Cubs hater. I'm not a Sox hater."
Hmmm, Kusinski spoke to the heart of the matter in the fans' rivalry.
"I don't like the North Siders and the way they act," Wuchter said. "I'm not jealous of the Cubs at all. I like our players and I'll take our players over theirs. I get sick of Cubs fans saying their team is the best in the world.
"They haven't done anything. I hear this all the time."
Wuchter has intra-family arguments. Niece Michelle Knappe wore a blue T-shirt emblazoned with "You're cute. Too bad I don't date White Sox fans. Bye-bye."
"I'm the only diehard Cubs fan in the family," Knappe said. "She (Wuchter) said she wants to disown me."
The rest of Wuchter's group had their own twisting fan angles to tell.
Beth Prigge of Schererville, dressed in a Sox apparel, was initially raised a Cubs fan, but converted to the Sox by her stepfather in 1977. Sox-garbed Cindy Bogucki of Hammond watched the Cubs on TV in the afternoons as a kid, but fell in love with the Sox earlier in this decade.
"Sox fans feel like red-headed step-children," Bogucki said of the fans' rivalry.
Wearing a Cubs shirt, Peg Haney of Calumet City once rooted for Sox legend Luis Aparacio, but became a Cubs fan via the old free Ladies Days at Wrigley Field.
