In 1997, the White Sox marketing team put up a billboard in Wrigleyville, reading “Major League Baseball: 8.1 Miles South.” This was a slight exaggeration of the discrepancy between the teams: The Sox might have finished second that year, but at 80-81 were only hanging around due to a rare off-year by Cleveland. The Cubs were coming off a bad stretch, but we were in the tail end of a Terry Bevington malaise.
And then 1998 was, in some ways, an exciting year on the northside. I guess. Some guy hit a lot of homers.