Chicago fans in danger of being doubled off

CHICAGO - White Sox fans are laughing about the Cubs' misfortunes, and Cubs fans are laughing about the White Sox' problems. Put them together and you have one sad baseball city.

The South Siders thought they'd be watching exciting baseball with home runs flying out of U.S. Cellular Field, while the North Siders tried desperately to break a 100-year curse and maintain the feeling that this was The Year.

But the White Sox have run into Cinderella (the Rays) and the Cubs ran into King Kong (Manny Ramírez). How can you beat Cinderella and Manny?

"It's not going to be over for us until we've lost the series," said White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. "We're back at our home ballpark, and this is where we feel the most comfortable.

"We've won three games in a row before. It's not like it's out of the realm of possibility. It's very possible if we start playing our game, stop leaving runners on base and pitch well.

"We've had our backs against the wall a few times here lately and we've always responded positively. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't respond again."

The journey might have been more exciting than the arrival, however.

The White Sox beat Detroit in a makeup game on the last day of the season to tie the Minnesota Twins for the AL Central lead. Rookie of the Year candidate Alexei Ramirez broke a deadlock with a grand slam in that 8-2 win over the Tigers.

Deadlocked, the White Sox and Twins faced off in a one-game playoff the next day to determine the division champion. The man who will start today, John Danks, spun a 1-0 win over Minnesota, giving the White Sox the right to face Tampa Bay in the Division Series.

"I like pitching in these kind of games," said Danks, who held the Rays to a .219 average in three starts this season. "Obviously, we didn't want to be in this situation. We wanted to take at least one.

"I like being relied upon in a game like this. And, you know, I think I did pretty well the other time and hopefully I can continue to pitch that way."

The great thing about Danks is that he's not running away or downplaying this sudden-death situation. Some players might try to take the heat off themselves by spreading out the responsibility. But Danks realizes in most cases it's about pitching, and he knows from shutting out the Twins that he has the power to control the White Sox' destiny.

"This is the exact same thing as what we had on Tuesday," he said. "You know, Tuesday was a playoff game for us. This is the same thing. So win and we get a Game 4 and get to get Gavin [Floyd] in there. Lose and, you know, we go home.

"So, you know, we're going to approach it like we have the last three must-win games we've had, and, you know, we'll see how it goes. But we're definitely going to try to approach it the same way."

The Cubs booted a few balls in their Game 2 loss to the Dodgers at Wrigley Field, and the spin was that they were playing tight at home because of the pressure. And that maybe playing in Los Angeles would bring out their true ability. That didn't happen, and their season ended last night.

This afternoon, we're going to find out whether Cinderella has the ability to go for the jugular. We're going to find out if the White Sox have any fight left. We know their manager, Ozzie Guillen, does - just as we knew that the Cubs' manager, Lou Piniella, was full of fight.

If the two teams share a common theme, it's that they have strong, opinionated, spirited leaders - managers who are either going to kick their team's behinds and get them back on track or create tightness that might spill over onto the field.

"I think we're hungrier than [the Rays] are because of their opportunity to win more over the years," Guillen said. "We've got a couple guys whose career is almost over and then they'll never win the World Series - [Ken] Griffey and [Jim] Thome - and I think they should be more hungry because they don't have too long a career.

"Tampa Bay has a chance for a long time. They're young, they have maybe another 10 shots to be out there. But I don't think they're excited about it. I think they play all year the same way. They treat each other like brothers.

"They're just a bunch of kids having fun. Nothing better. If you play good, you have fun. And that's what those guys do all year long. It's a different ball club, but, you know, we've got the same enthusiasm, the same hunger."

They'd better have the hunger, because the fans here are starving. Expectations for the White Sox weren't quite as high as those for the Cubs, but neither did anyone think the Kid Rays could sweep them.

This could wind up being a very sad weekend for baseball fans in Chicago.