As a born and raised St. Louisan, Cardinal Opening day is quite possibly the third biggest holiday of the calendar year. (Right behind Christmas and St. Patrick's Day). Baseball isn't just a pastime in St. Louis. Cardinal baseball is a way of life. Cardinal fandom is a birthright. Even if you can't spit Kyle Lohse's ERA from memory and David Freese's batting average doesn't roll off your tongue, if you were born in St. Louis you are expected to, "root, root, root for the home team." And while the Cardinals have a few friendly rivalries in the NL Central, none has loomed larger through the years than their friendly rivalry with the Cubs. So much so, that when friends and family members learned we were moving to Chicago their first words were, "As long as you don't become a Cubs fan."
I made promises that I intend to keep. I do not plan to cheer on the Cubs. But nobody ever mentioned anything about the White Sox. So today as my original home team plays the Cubs in St. Louis, I'm taking an opportunity to declare my (secondary) allegiance to a new home team.
Cheers to a great season, White Sox! Any enemy of the Cubs is a friend of mine.
Who are you "root, root, rooting" for this summer?
