E-Mail This Article to a Friend Another splendid weekend in Wrigleyville BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

This city is infested with Red Sox fans!

— A Chicagoan greeting a disembarking friend at O’Hare Airport

And so it was. Just as Baltimore was inundated with Sox fans the final regular-season weekend in 2004 (as documented here), the Windy City was overrun this past weekend by red-jerseyed backers of the world champs. It wasn’t quite as obvious on Friday afternoon, when the hometown Cubs ran roughshod over the Sox, 14-6, but you could tell that the locals were shocked by the tumultuous cheering when Trot Nixon’s homer lifted the visitors into a (short-lived) 3-0 lead in Saturday’s nationally televised contest. At the time, the Wrigley Field denizens were on their feet hoping for a punch-out of the Sox right fielder. When Nixon launched his bomb into the center-field bleachers on a 3-2 pitch, however, the Red Sox fans in attendance finally had something to cheer about. Cubs backers are accustomed to St. Louis fans turning out in big numbers when the Cardinals come to town, but the fanaticism and passion displayed by Boston’s rooters caught the Wrigley loyalists totally off guard. I’d guess that at least three-eighths, if not half, of the crowd all weekend long were Sox fans — many visiting the fabled North Side ballpark for the first time.

So how did the Cubs’ home get commandeered by so many New Englanders? How did Boston fans get a hold of those coveted ducats, which many Cubs backers claimed were the toughest tickets in years? Credit the Internet: in the old days, only Chicago residents got Cubs seats because they were the ones that who could wait in line at the box office when the tickets went on sale. In this day and age, though, Red Sox fans had just as much chance as Cubs fans did when the 2005 tickets went on sale. Apparently Sox fans got online in droves and snatched up a good chunk of the seats for the first regular-season meeting ever between the 1918 World Series participants.

If Bostonians couldn’t land those tickets ahead of time, they flew out west empty-handed, but armed with pocketfuls of cash to unload on Waveland Avenue’s all-too-happy scalpers. Sox fans weren’t tough to pick out of the crowd; none too subtle, the hordes of Boston backers made sure that they were bedecked in their usual Fenway finest, and if it had a World Series champ logo on it, well, all the better.

It was no secret that Cubs fans were supporting Boston in its playoff quest last fall; not only were Chicago and Boston kindred spirits and "cursed" franchises, but once the NL representative was set — the hated Cardinals — it was natural for Second City hardball fans to jump on the Boston bandwagon. This past weekend, though, the Red Sox and their fans weren’t quite as lovable, even though they were more welcome than the much-despised Yankees would have been. Whenever Sox fans launched a "Let’s go, Red Sox!" chant, Cubs fans would quickly move to drown them out with a chorus of boos. There was also friendly one-upmanship during the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (led by former Cub hurler Rick Sutcliffe on Saturday and by "The Coach," Mike Ditka, on Sunday) during the traditional seventh-inning stretch, as each team’s contingent tried to outdo the other when it came time to sing "Root, root, root for the Cubbies/Red Sox."

Not much has changed at Wrigley since I last visited in the fall of 2002, and why should it? It remains one of the crown jewels of the American baseball landscape, and everybody seems happy to be there whether the Cubs win or not. The past few years of late-season choke-artistry by the hometown team (along with the Sox’ 2004 success) has made the locals a little more desperate for a winner, but as a rule, they still don’t let winning or losing interfere with a great time at the old ball yard. Miller Lite erected for the weekend a billboard beyond the right-field bleachers that read "ONE CURSE DOWN; ONE TO GO"; fans still wander in fashionably late (after imbibing at the myriad watering holes in the surrounding area); and the closest thing to controversy from a spectator’s perspective is the proliferation of rooftop seating sections beyond the outfield bleachers — which team ownership is fighting in hopes of obtaining a cut of the profits from the enterprising rooftop hosts. Some, like ivyleaguebaseballclub.com, are endorsed by the franchise, while others are wildcat operations reluctant to adhere to the Tribune Corp.’s demands for compensation for watching Cubs games from across the street. It used to be just a friendly neighborhood thing, but it’s obviously big business now; there are at least 14 rooftops with actual bleachers installed, which host corporate parties during home games.

As if that mattered to the sun- (and moon-) splashed fans inside Wrigley this past weekend. They were there to see the Cubs and the Sox match wits on the field, and the Cubs organization and its fans proved to be worthy hosts (even going so far as to play the Fenway sing-a-long anthem, "Sweet Caroline," during one between-innings break).

They just didn’t expect so many heathens to drop by.

Coming Friday: what Sox ownership can learn from the folks running Wrigley.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com