The famous Chicago major league baseball rivalry dates back to the first decade of the 1900s. Now known in Chicago as the Crosstown Classics or The Windy City Showdown, the rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox started when the two teams played each other for the first time in the 1906 World Series.

The Cubs entered that series with 116 wins in the regular season, while the White Sox “Hitless Wonders” had the worst batting average in the season. Still, the Sox took the World Series Championship in six games. For most of the subsequent history, with the teams in different leagues, he rivalry was limited to an annual exhibition gam.  Then, in 1985, that exhibition was given the name “Crosstown Classic” and the game was played as a charity event through 1995, with the Sox winning 10-0-2. More fuel was added to the fire as the crosstown teams began to play during the regular season, thanks to the change in 1997 in MLB’s rules allowing interleague play. Now, every year a 3 game series is played between these two teams at least twice a yea,  alternating between Comiskey  Park (now U.S. Cellular Field), and Wrigley Field (Home of the Cubs).

Comiskey Park, built in 1910 on 35th Street right off of the Dan Ryan Expressway, was demolished in 1990 and moved across the street to better fit the modern age of baseball stadiums. The cost of the stadium, finished in 1991, was $167 million.  Since the move to U.S. Cellular Field, the Sox hve represented the Southside of Chicago well with a overall record of 1,844-1,682, a .523 win-loss ratio. They also ended a 88-year losing streak by winning the 2005 World Series Title.

The Chicago Cubs home stadium is Wrigley Field, which along with Boston’s Fenway Park, is one of the two oldest stadiums still in use in the MLB. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park and has been home to the Cubs since 1916. The team had been originally established in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings (an irony not known to many Chicago fans). The Cubs won the World Series in 1907 and 1908 and last played in one in 1945 (against the Detroit Tigers), making their post season record the most dismal in all of baseball.

The last time they won a divisional championship was 2003, the year of the infamous Bartman incident. The Cubs have also had to deal with the “Billy Goat Curse” arising from the 1945 World Series game. Allegedly, the owner of a Chicago restaurant placed an eternal curse on the Cubs’ World Series chances because of their failure to admit his pet goat into the stadium. Apparently the curse is still in effect 105 years after  the Cubs’ last World Series title win.

The Crosstown Classics is a memorable rivalry for any north or south side fan. As of now the White Sox are winning in the Crosstown Rivalry with a record of 12-1-6 (going back from 2002). At the end of the 2013 baseball season the rivalry is still going with the Sox signing Cuban baseball player Jose Abreu and keeping 2005 World Series hero Paul Konerko on the team, while the Cubs have  signed prospects like Javier Baez and Albert Almora in the hopes of restoring their winning ways. The rivalry never stops and now it just got more interesting.