Cubs, White Sox Prepare For Meaningless Game

MLB slogan for today's Cubs-Sox showdown: This Time It's Meaningless.

The City of Big Shoulders can just brush this one off.  The Cubs and White Sox square off one last time, but at this point of the season, it is nothing more than a glorified audition for next year's game.

Once upon a time, both of these team's were contenders for their respective division championships.  Had each team held up its own end of the bargain, today's game at Wrigley Field would have turned into some over-hyped game-for-the-ages spectacle featuring two teams fighting for a playoff spot.  And even though they don't play in the same division, let alone the same league, it would not have stopped anyone from playing the "my team's gonna knock your team out of playoff contention" game.

The only bragging rights here are as follows:

• If the Cubs win, it means the series is tied up at 36-36.
• If the White Sox win, it gives them a 37-35 lead and will go into the winter with something for White Sox Nation (really, is that what they call themselves?) to hang its inferiority-complex ridden hat on.

Couple that with its win in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes and the fact that the Cubs will need to rely on the smarts (bursts out in laughter) of Jim Hendry to re-tool this team in the offseason, it looks to me that White Sox fans already have a lot to brag about.

Then they'd look at their 65-69 record and hang their head in shame.  If only they could read, of course.