It's time for another insufferable crosstown series

When the 2018 baseball schedule came out, I cringed.

I saw that the White Sox's last home weekend series of the season was against the Cubs, and I immediately thought "conspiracy."

Jerry Reinsdorf must have known the Sox were going to field a terrible team this season, and perhaps he wanted some September gate. Is it unreasonable to think he asked the league office to schedule the crosstown series on the South Side in September, just to bump up the attendance figures at the end of a miserable Sox season?

Given that a crosstown series this late in the season is unprecedented, it wouldn't surprise me.

Obviously, these games mean a lot to the Cubs (89-63), who enter Friday's game with a 2.5-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central. Their magic number is 8 with 10 games to play. At least it is mathematically impossible for them to clinch their division at Guaranteed Rate Field, even if they sweep the Sox (and I wouldn't be surprised if they do). We would never hear the end of it if the Cubs clinched on South Side soil. Thank goodness that will not happen.

The Sox (60-92), of course, have been out of the pennant race since about Mother's Day. I sold my tickets to this weekend's series on StubHub for about double the face value. I figure the tickets were purchased by an enterprising Cubs fan, and I'd like to congratulate him or her for contributing to my fund for a deposit on next year's Sox season tickets.

Sure, I'll miss out on the "fun" this weekend, but with that money I can go to five or six games next season, when hopefully the Sox are fielding a little bit more watchable team.

If the Sox somehow manage to hold their own in this series, I'm sure someone will start a narrative about how this is "like the World Series" for the Sox and their fans. Hell, actually, someone will probably say that even if the Sox get swept.

That's simply not the case. If this were "like the World Series," trust me, I would not be selling my tickets for profit. This series is just three more games at the end of a lost, disappointing season. Even if the Sox win, that would not redeem the season. If the Sox lose, well, just throw these games in the pile with the other 90-some losses.