The City Championship Series, Cubs vs. Sox (1903-1942) (Photo: City Championship Series, South Side Park 1909)

During nearly every one of the years neither the Cubs nor the Sox were in the World Series, the teams played against each other in a wildly popular crosstown series known as the City Championship Series. (Either the Cubs or the Sox were in the World Series during this time frame in 1906, 1907, 1910, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1929, 1932, 1935, and 1938)

The City Championship Series games attracted the biggest crowds of the year for both teams (and some unsavory characters too…Al Capone would wander from his Southside hangout to watch the White Sox play in Wrigley.) They didn't just play one or two games, they played a seven game series, World Series-style. Often this series was played the same week as the real World Series, and garnered far more attention in Chicago than the real World Series.

Thanks to inter-league play, Cubs and Sox fans today can get a fairly good idea of what this must have been like. While these modern-day inter-league games are hard fought and competitive (on the field and in the stands) and have a playoff atmosphere, imagine if they were played using the format of the World Series...at the end of an ultimately unsuccessful season. This series represented a chance at redemption.

Both teams took these games extremely seriously, and so did their fans. Unfortunately for the Cubs, in an era when the Cubs were a better overall team, they lost the series to the White Sox nineteen times, won only six times, and tied once.

The tradition ended during World War II.

AUDIO: Radio play by play of the Cubs vs. Sox in 1936, in Comiskey Park--the city Championship series