CHICAGO -- As sleet and snow fell on Monday, there was time to huddle beside a warm fire and the light of a television screen and ask that ageless question: Is this finally the year?

For the first time since who knows when, fans of Chicago's two baseball teams greet the spring with realistic hope that the season won't end with the 162nd game. This is a city that can't take respectability for granted, but 2002 is about more than saving face.

	Sammy Sosa has heard plenty of cheers, but has experienced little team success with the Cubs.

With the Bears coming off a playoff march of their own, you should forgive the true Chicagoan if he experiences sensory overload at the chance for a September that mixes playoff races at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park with interest in 'Da Bears.

"That would be great for Chicago," says John Madigan, chairman of the board for the Tribune Co. "The best environment is when both (baseball) teams are successful. We've found that out over the last 20 years. ... It's good for both of us. I think we can both be successful."

That premise hasn't changed since Ronald Reagan was in the White House. But let's check the scoreboard totals in the two decades that Tribune Co. has owned the Cubs and Jerry Reinsdorf's partnership has owned the White Sox:

No runs (at the top of the standings), no hits (to deliver a World Series) and two disappointing eras.

The Reinsdorf group and Tribune Co. rank fourth and fifth among major-league owners in seniority. With World Series appearances as the measuring stick, no ownership groups have been as unsuccessful for as long as the two in Chicago.

It has been 85 years since Chicago's last World Series champion, the 1917 White Sox. Forty-two years have passed since the last Series appearance by a Chicago team, the '59 Sox. The Cubs haven't been to a Series since 1945 or won one since '08.

This was the legacy that the Tribune Co. was going to change. Instead, like Reinsdorf's ownership group, it has fallen short of the standard by which all baseball franchises are ultimately judged.

"I'm disappointed we couldn't have won more," Madigan says. "Winning two division championships is fine, but we expected to do better. We have the ingredients to win (the World Series). I'm just disappointed that we haven't."

When the Tribune Co. purchased control of the Cubs in the summer of 1981, ending an ownership by the Wrigley family that dated to 1916, fans couldn't have been any happier.

"We had been through so many years of the Wrigleys," says talk-radio host Mike North, a former stadium vendor. "With the Wrigleys gone, we thought they would win."

Reinsdorf, Eddie Einhorn and their many partners had purchased the White Sox from Bill Veeck in 1980, landing them on the rebound after the American League rejected a sale to Edward DeBartolo. At that time, the major-league fraternity consisted of 26 ownership groups, including the grand names of baseball like the O'Malleys and Yawkeys.

The only other non-expansion franchises not to win a league pennant since '81 are Anaheim, Houston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Texas. Each of those franchises has had at least one ownership change in the last two decades, meaning nobody has tried longer, without getting onto baseball's biggest stage, than Reinsdorf and the Tribune Co.

They have been unable to end the city's cycle of losing the big one, which began when Eddie Cicotte and other White Sox players conspired to throw the 1919 World Series. The Sox and Cubs have combined to lose their last 14 postseason series -- a run that makes Boston's "Curse of the Bambino" look like self-absorbed pity.

The Tribune Co.'s legacy is seen in the bottom line of its annual statements, not championship trophies. Helped by at least three critical mistakes by Reinsdorf (running off Harry Caray; taking games off WGN to put them on a short-lived pay cable venture, and settling for an unimaginative design in building the new Comiskey Park), it has succeeded in making Chicago truly a Cubs' town.

	Nothing But Losing Times
	The Cubs and White have combined to lose their last 14 postseason series. Below is a rundown of each series:
	Team	Year	Series	Opp.	Result
	Sox	2000	Div.	Sea.	L, 3-0
	Cubs	1998	Div.	Atl.	L, 3-0
	Sox	1993	ALCS	Tor.	L, 4-2
	Cubs	1989	NLCS	S.F.	L, 4-1
	Cubs	1984	NLCS	S.D.	L, 3-2
	Sox	1983	ALCS	Bal.	L, 3-1
	Sox	1959	W.S.	L.A.	L, 4-2
	Cubs	1945	W.S.	Det.	L, 4-3
	Cubs	1938	W.S.	NYY	L, 4-0
	Cubs	1935	W.S.	Det.	L, 4-2
	Cubs	1932	W.S.	NYY	L, 4-0
	Cubs	1929	W.S.	Phi.	L, 4-1
	Sox	1919	W.S.	Cin.	L, 5-3
	Cubs	1918	W.S.	Bos.	L, 4-2

Anyone 40 or under might think it always has been one. But in 55 of the previous 65 seasons before Tribune Co. purchased the Cubs, the Chicago team with the best record also had the better attendance.

The Cubs currently have outdrawn the White Sox eight years in a row, even though the Sox had better records in five of those seasons. The ultimate slap in the face for Reinsdorf came two years ago. The Sox had the most wins in the American League (95) and the Cubs the most losses in the National League (97). Yet the Cubs outdrew the Sox by almost 800,000, and that difference could have been bigger. Three of the seven sellouts at the new Comiskey Park were for the crosstown series against Sammy Sosa's Cubs.

While the resources of Reinsdorf's ownership group are limited by the Cubs' broader appeal, he's consistently made more with less. The White Sox have had 12 winning seasons in 21 years under Reinsdorf, compared to only five by the Cubs in 20 years under Tribune Co. direction.

For Cubs fans, it's been maddening to watch this media giant refuse to unleash its full resources for the good of its baseball team. After all, it swallowed the Times Mirror chain for $8 billion in 2000. So why should Sosa be the only top-of-the-scale superstar on the payroll?

"They're not a baseball team," agent Barry Axelrod complained after the Cubs opted not to re-sign first baseman Mark Grace after the 2000 season. "They're a tourist attraction."

In his first season away from Chicago, Grace not only went to the World Series but also started Arizona's rally with a leadoff single in the ninth inning of Game 7. According to figures released by Major League Baseball, the Diamondbacks lost $44 million while winning it all.

Grace never saw such daring from his old team. "It's the almighty dollar (with Tribune Co.), let's not kid ourselves," he said. "The Cubs are a very small part of a very big company."

Cubs president and general manager Andy MacPhail tracks how the payroll and revenue rank among other franchises. According to figures released by MLB, the Cubs were 12th with a $78-million payroll and 11th with revenues of about $130 million in 2001.

While four teams operated with payrolls above $100 million last season, MacPhail believes he should be able to win with a payroll in the range of $70-80 million. He also knows there's no way to sell that belief to fans, who often complain that the Tribune Co. is cheap. "People are going to sing that tune even if our payroll is $148 million," MacPhail said. "It will never be enough."

MacPhail's bosses deny any sense of corporate complacency. "We're in this to win," Tribune Co. President Dennis FitzSimons said after the late-spring trade that brought pitchers Antonio Alfonseca and Matt Clement to the Cubs for Julian Tavarez and three minor-leaguers.

For the first time since 1993, both Chicago teams are coming off winning seasons (the Cubs were 88-74 while the White Sox were 83-79). If they do as expected and finish above .500 again, it will mark the first time since 1936-37 that the Cubs and White Sox have had back-to-back winning seasons at the same time.

This is a great time to argue the relative merits of the two teams. It's guesswork as to which Chicago team will win more games -- the Sox with one of baseball's most dangerous lineups or the Cubs with a superior starting rotation and potential future All-Stars Mark Prior and Bobby Hill available as reinforcements?

One thing that is not arguable is that the White Sox should have an easier route to the playoffs in the underwhelming AL Central. Despite horrid pitching and fielding in Arizona, 10 of 18 ESPN.com prognosticators (yours truly not included) tabbed the Sox as the Central favorites. That compares to six first-place picks for Minnesota and only two for Cleveland, which has won six of the last seven titles.

	At the age of 23, Mark Buehrle is the ace of a promising starting staff for the White Sox.

Only one of the soothsayers (minor-league guru John Sickels) listed the Cubs as his choice in the NL Central. That's a result of the perceived strength of St. Louis and Houston.

Thirteen of the 18 ESPN.com pickers predict that a team from the Central will represent the NL in the World Series. But the Astros (seven) and the Cardinals (five) were the choice for 12 of those 13, with only Sickels having the nerve to go with the Cubs.

Sickels, by the way, also picks the White Sox to win their division. His background as an evaluator of minor-league talent no doubt influenced both choices.

Two years ago, Baseball America rated the White Sox as having baseball's best farm system. While lefty Mark Buehrle -- a winner on Opening Day in Seattle -- is the only one of its young pitchers to firmly establish himself, there's hope that Jon Garland and Dan Wright, perhaps even 6-foot-11 Jon Rauch, will before the season's over.

Manager Jerry Manuel currently has a veteran lineup, but there's help in the wings in third baseman Joe Crede, outfielders Joe Borchard and Mario Valenzuela, catcher Miguel Olivo, second baseman/center fielder Willie Harris and infielder Tim Hummel. That group combined to hit .316 with six homers and 50 RBI in 260 at-bats this spring. "They have gained confidence, and that is very big for young players," Manuel said.

When the Sox vacated the top spot in Baseball America's rankings, it was the Cubs who moved in. MacPhail and lieutenant Jim Hendry have invested in Latin America and used the chance to pick near the top of several recent drafts to overhaul a farm system that had atrophied since the early-'80s, when Dallas Green's regime brought guys like Greg Maddux, Shawon Dunston, Rafael Palmeiro and Grace to Wrigley Field.

Prior, a USC wunderkind who appears poised for a long run of winning seasons, and skinny Dominican Juan Cruz are the crown jewels of the system. Hill, a switch-hitting second baseman compared to a young Chuck Knoblauch, and Korean first baseman Hee Seop Choi aren't far behind. The depth of talent behind this foursome seems certain to give MacPhail plenty of options in the near future.

The idea of hope floats on both sides of town. But you can't blame Chicago fans if they will believe good times are coming only when they're living them.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a web site at www.chicagosports.com.