Chicago White Sox: A need for a real heated division rivalry

The Chicago White Sox need themselves a real rivalry within the division to help spark them into becoming a great team for a long time.

The Chicago White Sox have a chance to be a really exciting team once baseball returns, whenever that is. No matter what side of the fence you fall on as far as that, we can all agree that we just want to watch our White Sox play. If you are a die-hard fan of this team, then you want to see the players and owners figure it out.

Well, if baseball returns the White Sox needs to hit the ground running. That might be helped along if they can develop a true rivalry with one of their division rivals. They are pretty big rivals with the Chicago Cubs but that is simply because they both play in Chicago. The fans drive that rivalry but on the field, the teams mean very little to each other. When the White Sox win or the Cubs lose or vice versa, they don’t matter to each other at all.

The White Sox don’t really have a true rivalry with any of their division rivals. It was easy to hate the Minnesota Twins during the Justin Morneau/Joe Mauer days or the Detroit Tigers during the days of Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera leading them to an A.L. Pennant. The only reason we hated any of those teams is because of the fact that they were good and stood in the way of the White Sox being good.

The closest thing that White Sox have come to having a true division rivalry that was heated is their feud with the Kansas City Royals. The White Sox are on an upward trajectory while the Royals are going to be rebuilding for the foreseeable future so it is hard to see this rivalry booming into one of the league’s best right now. The Tim Anderson vs Brad Keller issue is the gift that keeps on giving but without both teams being good, it is hard for it to be that kind of rivalry.

The White Sox are very unlikely to ever have a Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees type rivalry but they can have a secondary level rivalry with one of their division opponents if they get really good. The Minnesota Twins are probably the best bet of that happening right now based on where we are at. You might remember the intensity of the “Blackout Game”. If they can recreate that level of passion for a matchup again, it would be a lot of fun.

The White Sox having that division rival that they hate with a passion would make things a lot of fun. There is a chance that it happens as they start to get good but the most important thing right now is getting baseball players back on the diamond at all.