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Chicago's series, sort of

The Cubs are dead. They have been for a very long time, buried in a cesspool of selfishness, immaturity and idiocy.

The White Sox are decomposing, having been dead since July.

But fortunately for Chicagoans, their legacy is living on in this World Series, giving the Chicago fan who has nothing to watch but Jonathan Quinn throwing like he is legally blind, something to do for the next week.

It's not the legacy of the most disappointing season finish since 1906, or the fact most Chicago fans are reveling in the misery of St. Louis, but of those who escaped and have gone on to bigger and better things.

Cubs fans watched two of their own decide game one when ex-scrub Mark Bellhorn hit the game-winner off of ex-Cubs starter Julian Tavarez. Chicago fans then watched as former White Sox pitcher Keith Foulke managed to get a few people out to seal the game, something he rarely did in Chicago.

Foulke has been dominant, while Bellhorn and ex-Cub Bill Mueller are a combined 6-of-12 with 7 runs scored and 5 RBIs in the first two games. Ex-Cubs also accounted for all four errors in Sunday's sloppy Boston victory.

Factor Cubs fans' long-time sympathy for the Boston cause, and those from upstate have plenty to care about.

There is also a mystique brought to the series, particularly important to those who believe in voodoo, hexes and Jobu. Boston's ex-Cubs have been masterful thus far, but they bring added baggage to an already curse-laden franchise.

In addition to the curse of the bambino and St. Louis' unbelievable 6-0 home playoff record, the Red Sox will also be dealing with a lesser known hex - the ex-Cubs curse.

This was brought up by Chicago columnists a few times in the late 1990s, pointing out at the time that no team with three or more ex-Cubs had ever won a World Series.

The curse, possibly, was broken in 2001 when four ex-Cubs managed by an ex-Cubs broadcaster led the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Promised Land. But that's still one year out of 99, and the Red Sox will have to deal with this when it comes time for someone to Buckner a baseball - as Mueller did three times Sunday night.

Boston has only two ex-Cubs - Bellhorn and Mueller - on its active roster. But the fatal blow to the Red Sox, should St. Louis come back from this 0-2 deficit, may have come earlier this year when Boston added former Cubs shortstop Ricky Gutierrez to its 40-man roster.

Clearly, Boston general manager Theo Epstein did not do his hex research. Gutierrez may not even play, yet cost them the World Series from the bench.

Bellhorn and Mueller are bound to have miserable times in St. Louis, a Chicago house of horrors for countless years. Mueller, in particular, has a bad history at Busch Stadium.

Mueller, at the time a productive and promising Cubs third baseman, broke his knee in Busch Stadium back in 2001. For whatever reason, there were no pads under one of those rolling ad cylinders on the third base line.

Mueller slid while attempting to catch a foul ball and broke his knee on a metal pole. He came back late in the season, but never seemed to recover, and the Cubs were left out to dry.

If Boston wants to win in St. Louis, it should not count on production from Mueller. That's not based on anything scientific, but then again, baseball is not always logical.

So there you go Chicago fans, something to root for. That is, unless Craig Krenzel suddenly turns into Tom Brady, the Bulls play like an NBA team and the NHL lockout ends, Bill Wirtz contracts a fatal illness and the Blackhawks are run like a professional franchise by his successor.

But we all know Wirtz will never die, the Bulls will never win and the Bears are doomed to mediocrity because of the McCaskeys - so go Boston. We need this.