Cheering for both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox is indefensible in Chicago. During the White Sox 2005 playoff run, the term bisoxual developed to define Cubs fans that rooted for the White Sox at the time. In fact, this is the official definition of “bisoxual” according to urbandictionary.com:

Bi-sox-u-al [bai-sahk-shu-ul]
-adjective.
1. State of being for Chicago Cubs fans who root for the Chicago White Sox when they reach the postseason.
-noun.
2. A fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. A virtually indefensible position in the bitter rivalry of Chicago baseball.

I myself fall into the bisoxual definition to the dismay of the Ultimate Sports Wife (a diehard Cubs fan). Although I am a Cubs season ticket holder, I will mosey down to U.S. Cellular Field anytime I can. I justify it by the fact I grew up in San Francisco and the hatred between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics was in no way as great as it is in Chicago. Thus, I grew up cheering for both teams (although I did root for the Athletics in the 1989 World Series) and have applied that strategy to the Chicago teams (just to be official, I cheer for the Cubs when the two teams play each other).

However, this definition should apply to beer vendors as well. For some reason, even though I have attended 330 Cubs games since becoming a season ticket holder in 2002, I do not have a regular beer vendor. However, I have a group of friends who sit in the upper deck down the left field line that do – his name is Glenn. They are so loyal to Glenn that they only buy beer from him. And, in return, Glenn holds out “last call” beers for them before beer sales are cut-off. But, this group of friends is also die-hard Cubs fans. There are no bisoxuals in this group.

Yet, tonight I spotted Glenn selling beers at U.S. Cellular Field. This is not the first Wrigley Field beer vendor to cross the lines, but would my buddies be so loyal if they knew he had another loyal following on the Southside.

I understand beer vendors need to work more than 81 dates during the summer. But, these vendors are definitely bisoxual. If they were forced to choose, beer vendors would always work at Wrigley Field over U.S. Cellular Field. First, attendance is always greater (White Sox attendance last night was 19,260. I dare you to find the last time the Cubs attendance was under 20,000, let alone under 35,000). Second, people drink more. These two reasons combined make Wrigley Field much more lucrative to beer vendors and who would not be a fan of that? Thus, all beer vendors are bisoxual – they prefer to work for the Cubs, yet, find themselves on the Southside to make an extra few bucks. What’s my excuse?

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I arrived at the ballpark a few minutes late but still went on my usual walk from the subway train, past Gate 5 on my way to the main U.S. Cellular Field box office. On my way past Gate 5, I saw a man put at least one ticket into his pocket and hand another ticket to the woman he was with.

This is where my “skill” comes in with regards to buying tickets. I knew he had at least one extra and hoped I would receive the ticket for free as he was entering the stadium. I ran up to him and asked if he had an extra ticket. He got out of the line and said he did. However, he wanted $5 for the ticket. It was a lower level seat with a season ticket face value of $32 ($39 face value for individual sales). $5 was the most I wanted to pay for a ticket so I agreed.

Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox
The White Sox were facing the Rays for the first time since Mark Buerhle threw his perfect game last season. Tonight, White Sox pitcher, John Danks shut down the Rays – giving up only two hits (one a home run to Carl Crawford) and two walks over eight innings. The White Sox defeated the Rays 4-1.

Rays’ manager John Maddon was wearing his hoodie-pullover. Major League Baseball reversed its ban on the manager’s sweatshirt Tuesday afternoon.