Chicago's Civil War

The Cubs decided not to challenge the White Sox for Chicago supremacy in 1943, and the city series was never played again. For the next half-century, though, the two teams found ways to keep the rivalry afloat until interleague play found its way to the regular season in 1997. Current broadcasters Pat Hughes of the Cubs and Jason Benetti of the White Sox help to wrap up the series as they chime in with their thoughts on how the crosstown series is viewed today.

During the 1930's, the White Sox rediscovered American League relevance and then lost it again, the Cubs won three pennants but ended the decade wandering through the desert, and through it all, the south siders continued their reign of city supremacy. By the early 1940's the steam had run out of the crosstown rivalry. This episode will take you through the final decade of the fabled city series before it all ended in 1942.

In 1929, the Cubs lived up to everything they had been building towards, setting attendance records and winning the national league. Their magical season was sandwiched between some of the most exciting municipal series ever played in Chicago. Historian Ed Hartig returns to discuss how the Cubs took over as the city's darlings while the White Sox stumbled. And the early 30's also marked the deaths of a few Chicago legends, who are remembered in this episode.

After a four year hiatus, Chicago's Major League Baseball teams resume their annual challenges and the White Sox try to resume their annual domination, but get a little pushback. Both the Cubs and the Sox had their share of success stories between 1921 and 1926, and their share of tragedies. The tales of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dickey Kerr and Frank Chance are explored, among others. As are the blow by blow recaps of the annual city series.

Between 1917 and 1920, there is no city series. That's because both the Cubs and White Sox have built pennant winners. But with the country on the brink of war, controversy surrounds the 1918 and 1919 seasons. Sean Deveney breaks down a potential fix in the 1918 World Series and Jacob Pomrenke and Richard Lindberg try to make sense of the confirmed fix of 1919.

After the Cubs moved to the North Side of the city, a strong geographic rivalry took hold between the north side Cub fans and south side White Sox fans. In this episode, we take a look at how that rivalry developed and how each region of the city began to round into shape. Peter Alter of the Chicago History Museum and historian Richard Lindberg join in to break down the history of Chicago and how baseball fits into all of it.

While the White Sox build a new contender, turmoil in the Cubs' front office sours their play on the field in the 1910's. A new challenger takes the opportunity to steal some of the west side fans as the Federal League pops up and builds a stadium on Chicago's north side. Sportswriter Sean Deveney joins the show to examine the impact of the upstart league and Kent State history professor Leslie Heaphy discusses some of the star Negro Leaguers who never got a chance to play in the city series.

The Cubs bounce back from their disappointing 1906 World Series loss to establish perhaps the greatest team in National League history. Cubs historian Ed Hartig joins the show to talk about the end of that great dynasty as the White Sox recapture the city's interests with a brand new stadium and one of the great postseason performances of all-time.

The rules are codified to ensure a World Series is played every year. That means an annual city championship series in Chicago too. In 1906, the two ideas merge as the record-breaking Cubs and the "Hitless Wonder" White Sox meet in the first ever crosstown World Series.

In 1903, after three years of trying, the Cubs and White Sox get on the field together to play a best-of-15 series. In this episode, you'll get a front row seat to every game (in your imagination, that is). Then, in 1904, the peace established between the leagues is in jeopardy. Thanks to one of the biggest cheating scandals seen in early baseball, so is the city series.