Chicago White Sox fans have a well-known and well-worn chip on their shoulder because their team always seems to be second in attention to the Cubs in the Second City. Their team doesn’t have a charming ballpark in a charming neighborhood. It doesn’t have celebrity fans. It doesn’t attract out-of-town tourists. Its long World Series drought hasn’t featured losing in ways bizarre and interesting enough to merit a curse. And it certainly doesn’t get a fair shake at media attention, as Chicago mayor — and Sox season-ticket holder — Richard M. Daley will tell you.

“How can you compete with . . . Tribune [Company]?” Daley asked at an Oct. 6 news conference, regarding the Cubs’ media-company owner. “I mean, give me a break. They own the Cubs, they own WGN Radio (and) TV and [cable news outlet] CLTV. [Not to mention the Chicago Tribune.] Come on. You think you are going to get any publicity for the White Sox? You can't. Let's be realistic.”

But the South Side team’s first appearance in a World Series in 46 years — heck, Chicago baseball’s first Series appearance in 46 years — has a way of drawing a little attention to your team. That attention comes with some risk. White Sox fans deep in celebrating their American League championship probably don’t realize this yet, but the Sox’s success is threatening to make their favorite team something it’s never been — trendy.

You become trendy when you haven’t won a World Series since 1917. You become trendy when you seem like a very interesting group of characters, with the likes of catcher A.J. Pierzynski, whose amazing ability to get himself in the middle of about every controversial play in the Sox-Angels League Championship Series makes him some sort of deliciously evil Forrest Gump.

World Series Red Sox sweep Rockies 4-0 Red Sox win second title in 4 years  |     Opinion: This mix could make Red Sox dynasty Rockies have bright future  |  Dream ends     Lowell named Series MVP  |  Deserving? Red Sox spend big, and win big  |  Mismatch Rockies magical run ends  |  Red Sox repeat? Boston zoo greets baby giraffe named ‘Sox’ Results |   Discuss World Series

You become trendy when your fan base comes off as truck-commercial caliber working people, the type more likely to carry a union card than a college degree. You become trendy when fans realize that if they don’t root for you, they’ll have to root for the comparatively colorless St. Louis Cardinals or Houston Astros.

To understand why trendy would be a problem for Sox fans, you have to understand that when it comes to Chicago baseball, trendy has always been associated with that National League team on the North Side of town, the one Sox fans call the (fill in obscene adjective here) Cubs. Cub-by-association is never a good thing for a Sox fan. If blue skies were associated with the Cubs, Sox fans would pray for rain. Someone who throws an opponent’s home run back onto U.S. Cellular Field is likely to be told, and not too nicely, to go back to Wrigley, you stinkin’ Cubs fan.

The White Sox weren’t always second in the pennant race for the heart of Chicago baseball. Until the early 1980s, the White Sox usually outdrew the Cubs. Remember manager Lee Elia’s 1983 rant about the Cubs fans who did show? With expletives redacted: “Eighty-five percent of the world goes to work. The other 15 percent come here." The Wrigley crowd was called "Bleacher Bums" for a reason.

But thanks to the aforementioned WGN and the late announcer Harry Caray popping up on cable networks all over the country, usually during the daytime when the only viewing alternative was soap operas, the Cubs became associated with a good time, no matter what the score. Now a visit to Wrigley Field is as de rigueur for Chicago visitors as Broadway in New York, a movie studio tour in Los Angeles, and Wall Drug in South Dakota.

But as the Cubs showed, with attention comes bandwagon-jumpers, people who don’t know better about baseball scarfing up seats and crowding the ballpark. You get a nation pitying your long streak of bad luck, hoping you win because it would just seem so darn nice.

MORE FROM BASEBALL

Baseball Section Front

Francona's Dice roll just might pay off   Live updates: Dodgers vs. Phillies in Game 2 Celizic: Youthful Rays wise beyond their years Rays ready for ALCS, and rivalry with Red Sox Red Sox vs. Rays: You pick ALCS winner   Manuel to manage Phils despite mom's death Phillies power past Dodgers, win Game 1 Opinion: Phillies fans pump up the volume Ramirez can’t carry Dodgers in Game 1 Phillies vs. Dodgers: You pick NLCS winner Baseball Section Front   Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: