The Chicago Cubs’ and White Sox’s playoff woes make the 60 mile distance between Chicago and DeKalb seem a lot closer for many students and faculty.

Feelings of anger, disappointment and sadness were displayed by students and faculty Tuesday as they tried to cope with their teams’ 2008 season being over.

Janet Rintala, kinesiology and physical education professor, believes these feelings are associated with identity.

“How closely fans identify themselves as fans of the Cubs or White Sox will help determine the feelings they have about their performances,” Rintala said.

White Sox fan Wynstin Scott, a freshman business major, sat in the Holmes Student Center feeling disappointed about the Sox’s early exit in the American League Divisional Series.

“They disappointed me because I thought they could win it all like they did in 2005,” Scott said. “I just hope they can come back next year and finish the job.”

Feeling the same disappointment was John Miller, a graduate student in music. Sitting outside the Founders Cafe in the Founders Memorial Library (FML), Miller just shook his head.

“It’s pretty disappointing. I think a lot of the problem lies with [manager] Ozzie Guillen.

Sometimes it just seems like the Sox don’t give a [expletive], like they don’t want to play sometimes,” he said.

One floor above Miller was Joel Cochrane, security supervisor of FML, who was frustrated with the Cubs.

“I blame everything but managing. [Manager] Lou Pinella can’t go out there and play for them. When you get four errors from your infield [in Game Two], you will never win games,” Cochrane said. “I just turned on XBox Live when it was over to get my mind off it all.”

Sophomore finance major Kevin Hickman coped with the Cubs’ loss in a similar fashion.

“I couldn’t even finish watching [Game Three] because I was so disgusted. I just turned on South Park,” Hickman said as he walked to his Spanish class.

Junior economics major Josh Brigl walked through Gabel Hall reeling in anger with the Cubs’ early exit.

“It makes me sick to my stomach. Game One, bad pitching; Game Two, bad defense; Game Three, bad hitting,” Brigl said.

Jim Nagle, a senior special education major, had his own theory as to why Chicago suffered so much this year.

“There is way too much bad karma in Chicago,” Nagle said. “Don’t start talking ... until the World Series. The fans jinxed everything by talking too much.”

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