When I first started following baseball, back in the day, the two Chicago teams were known, in particular, for specific playing styles. The Cubs were a power-hitting team, and the White Sox were a pitching-rich ballclub. The Sox, in fact, spent the first seven decades of their history without a 30-homer season by anyone, the last of the “Original 16” teams without one, until Bill Melton hit 33 in 1970. Cubs hitters had 26 30-homer seasons before Melton’s broke the Sox drought.
It seemed as if the Sox were trying to make up that deficit all in one game Friday night at Wrigley Field, as they smashed six home runs en route to a 10-1 dismantling of the Cubs.