Eh, It's Better Off Without Sammy

I don't know about you, but my interest in the Yanks-Sox feud is wearing thin. Actually, I don't ever remember it being very thick. The midwest gets no love since every team is boring and unappealing and full of players who just go out there and do their jobs. The Cubs are nothing but lovable losers. The Cards aren't 'sexy' enough. The Reds won't ever be anything worth noting without a healthy Griffey Jr. We'll just look the other way on the Brewers... Where's the drama? Big time sports writers insist the nation will never rally behind a central team until they induce some controversy. They don't call each other names or flip flop back and forth via free agency. Where's the drama? Oh right, it does exist. They just keep it on the field.
I've been reading Three Nights in August, the biography of Tony La Russa written by Buzz Bissinger, and the first passage I will share couldn't make my above point any more clear.

"The rivalry between the Cubs and the Cardinals is probably the oldest and perhaps the best in baseball, no matter how the Red Sox and Yankees spit and spite at each other. That's a tabloid-fueled soap opera about money and ego and sound bites. That's a pair of bratty high-priced supermodels trying to trip each other in their stilettos on the runway. But the Cards-Cubs epic is about roots and geography and territorial rights. It's entwined in the Midwestern blood and therefore refreshing and honest and even heroic. It isn't simply two teams throwing tantrums at each other but two feudal city-states with eternal fans far beyond their own walls..."

I suppose this is a good time to throw out my thanks to those damn White Sox for returning the midwest to glory through dominant, smart, hard-working baseball. Can't wait til spring training...