The only reasonable explanation for why Michael Barrett punched A.J. Pierzynski last Saturday is that Barrett was acting as one possessed by the bitterly frustrated spirit of Cubs fans. The White Sox entered the city series the defending World Series champions, and after winning Friday’s first game had a record as good as any in baseball. Add to the envy felt by Cubs fans the spectacle of their own team off to another difficult start: A quarter of the way through the season, the Cubs were six games under .500 and eight and a half games behind the Saint Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. Kerry Wood had been a loser in his season debut the day before, Mark Prior was still out, and Derrek Lee was still facing a month of recovery time from the broken arm that’s crippled the Cubs’ offense.
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Yet the collision underlined the widening discrepancy between the two teams. Not only were the Sox better, as they proved on Friday and Saturday by winning going away and even on Sunday, when they all but handed their crosstown rivals a victory, but they had more character–something the Cubs have always had in abundance even when their teams were bad. The Sox appeared loose and confident as the series began, but there was no swagger; they were simply good and knew it.
Meanwhile, the Cubs floundered. Embattled manager Dusty Baker did his best to keep the team loose–he was much more animated than usual around the batting cage before Friday’s series opener, hugging Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, smiling unguardedly, and at one point saying something that cracked up Jacque Jones–but the Cubs looked pale and limp next to the champs.
