Cubs-Sox Feud: Healthy Competition or Class War?

July 30, 2008 — -- Some call it the Crosstown Classic, others the Windy City Showdown, but no matter what the nickname, one thing is for sure: It's always intense when bitter rivals Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox face off.

And as was the case a few weeks ago, the bad blood doesn't just play out at the teams' stadiums or on the baseball diamond.

On July 19, three Cubs fans allegedly beat up a White Sox fan at a toddler's birthday party so severely that the man lost his eye, according to the Associated Press.

According to the report, the fight allegedly started with the Cubs fans teasing Robert Steele for being a Sox fan, claiming that the team's fans "had missing teeth."

And while sports historians told ABCNews.com that this type of violence between Chicago baseball fans isn't all that common, insults like the one used at the party are symptomatic of a baseball rivalry that has deep roots in the fans' varying socioeconomic status.

"You have this class and cultural clash between blue-collar and white-collar fans," said Richard Davies, a professor of history at the University of Nevada–Reno and a sports historian for more than 15 years.

"What you have is the upper-middle-class professional group who is located near Wrigley field on the north side of town and are Cubs fans," said Davies, "And on the South Side you have minorities, ethnics and working-blue-collar folks who root for the White Sox."

"So what you get is this underlying cultural conflict that is probably behind [a lot of the fights]," added Davies, who wrote "Sports in American Life: A History."

Benjy Lipsman, a native Chicagoan and sports blogger for Chicagoist.com, told ABCNews.com that much of the interaction between Cubs and Sox fans is based on preconceived stereotypes, many of which may not even be true.

"Cubs fans tend to be more upper-class and yuppie types, and the Sox fans are more blue-collar, mullet-wearing and tattoo-wearing types," said Lipsman, who said that despite growing up on the North Shore of Chicago, he is a tried-and-true Sox fan.