While White Sox and Cubs fans argue constantly over which team is better, and why the other team sucks so much, we still interact with each other. We're friends, and like friends tend to do, we make fun of each other. We also place bets with one another on whose team will fare better.

That happened between one Cubs fan and a White Sox fan earlier this season, when two neighbors made a friendly bet before the two teams squared off for a three-game set at Wrigley back in June. The Cubs fan said that his Cubbies would sweep the Pale Hose, and the Sox fan told him he was nuts. They decided that the loser of the bet would by the other one dinner.

Well, the Cubs swept that series, and though the Cub fan got his dinner, it wasn't enough. That's why he snuck into the Sox fan's house and hid a broom in his kitchen doorway with a note attached that read "This is just a reminder of who the real team in Chicago is."

While Cubs fans are just kind of annoying with their smack talk and bravado, Sox fans are smarter. They're also more devious, and they know the right time to strike.

Now that the season has ended for the White Sox it's time for the organization to start looking towards 2009. Sure, the team won the AL Central this season, but their series against the Tampa Bay Rays helped expose quite a few flaws that the team had, and some changes will need to be made if the team is going to get back to the playoffs again next year.

Of course, if you're going to bring in new players that means you have to get rid of the ones you have. Whether or not Ken Griffey Jr. is one of the players to go, or if he'll be back remains to be seen, but we can be pretty sure Junior isn't going to retire and make the decision easy.

''I'm not retiring. I have things to do,'' Griffey said, already at 611 home runs and turning 39 next month.

''I'd like to come back [to the White Sox],'' he said. ''It was a great ride. A lot of fun. I've had more ups than downs. The city, the fans, it's been great for me. This team fought all year. They were fun to be around. We'll see what happens.''

Well it's nice that you want to come back, Ken, but I can't say I want you back. Seeing Junior play just about everyday for two months helped me see just how far he has fallen from greatness. I knew he wasn't the same player anymore, but I had no idea how bad things had gotten.

The truth is, Griffey is exactly the kind of player on the White Sox roster they need to replace. They have enough concrete footed sluggers in their lineup, and really, Griffey isn't much of a slugger anymore anyway.

The White Sox rode the left arm of John Danks to stay alive in their ALDS series with the Rays. Today, we see a matchup of two talented pitchers making their playoff debuts: Andy Sonnanstine for the Rays, Gavin Floyd for Chicago.

Who cracks? Who shines? Is this series going back to the Trop, or do the Rays start scouting that Angels/Red Sox game tonight? Find out along with us in a very special "FanHouse Live Chat"!

In the MLB regular season, "home-field advantage" is less about fans, and their energy, and much more about familiarity and comfort. Fans don't really get too crazy for regular season games, so any intangible little benefit from cheering and whooping is rare.

In the playoffs, though, the props come out. The Brewers and Angels have the thundersticks, the White Sox have their blackout, and the Rays, well, the Rays have cowbells. Not sure how that got started, but if the goal is to irritate rotund opposing closers, Rays fans can consider it a success:

''Dumbest thing I ever saw,'' he said Sunday of the fans' rallying tactic. ''Just annoying. Minor league.'' But the Sox' ''rolling blackout promotion'' for fans Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field? ''Whoever came up with that idea is a genius,'' Jenks said. ''It brings electricity to us and excites 25 players.''

In other words, Jenks's preferred regional team's fans are better than your preferred regional team's fans. I've heard this joke before.

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

The White Sox and Angels avoided playoff oblivion Sunday night, but the odds remain long that either team will be able to advance to the American League Championship Series. Still, it's been done before. The Yankees came back from a 2-0 deficit in the division series against Oakland and the very Red Sox that Los Angeles is facing have climbed out of a similar hole twice.

So which trailing team has the best chance at coming all the way back to win their series?

First, let's take a look at the Game 4 pitching matchups. Of course, the team with the best chance to win two games will have the best shot at coming back in the series, but Monday's games are of paramount importance. After all, there is no Game 5 without a victory in Game 4.

Well that was an interesting little flap that happened during the White Sox-Rays Game 1 tilt. And it came seemingly out of nowhere in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded, two outs and Orlando Cabrera up with the White Sox down three. Reliever Grant Balfour threw a pitch outside for ball one when Cabrera kicked dirt in Balfour's direction, and seemingly told Balfour to throw it where he could hit it.

Why Balfour would do that is beyond me ... but he went all Rick Vaughn on Cabrera's Jack Parkman and threw fastballs at him in a location where Cabrera could hit them. Only Cabrera didn't hit them, he struck out swinging. Balfour let out primal screams, the Rays bench let Cabrera have it, Ozzie Guillen raced out to face trouble, Dave Martinez yelled at Guillen, Willy Aybar chirped at A.J. Pierzynski, and the crowd all grabbed torches in anger and Tropicana Field burned to the ground.

All right, maybe not that last part ...

The question that everyone has been asking about the Rays prior to these playoffs is whether or not their young roster can overcome their lack of experience to perform well in their first postseason appearance. Those questions won't go away no matter how they perform in the ALDS, but Evan Longoria went a long ways towards answering them this afternoon when he whacked a home run on the first playoff pitch he saw.

He didn't stop there either; he homered again in the third inning and doubled in a run in the fifth to give him a 3-for-3 day with 3 RBI in his first career postseason game. In case you've somehow forgotten, Longoria's 22 years old and had a total of 881 minor league plate appearances before being called up to the Rays this year. So much for experience, because Longoria is just good.

Maybe Longoria's just too young to understand the pressure, or maybe he's just this good. Some of the other young Rays struggled today (B.J. Upton was 0-for-5 and the team only managed eight non-Longoria hits), but Longoria provided enough offense on his own to help the Rays out of an early 3-1 hole and to a 6-4 Game 1 win. Underestimate the talent of the Rays all you like, but they certainly don't seem to be intimidated.

Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Tom Fornelli and Eamonn Brennan discuss the ALDS between the Rays and White Sox.

Eamonn and I took a look at this series and broke it down into six key areas: Starting rotation, Bullpen, Defense, Lineup, Bench, and Manager. Then for good measure we throw in our five-star lock of the week predictions, because we're psychic mediums in our spare time.

All of the debating goodness after the jump.

After losing their best hitter, Carlos Quentin, for just about all of September, the White Sox nearly missed the playoffs this season, and needed to win three straight games against three different teams to get to Tampa. The reason for this is because the White Sox offense lost any kind of consistency it had while Quentin has been relegated to the bench.

They're a team that relies heavily on the home run, and without Quentin in the lineup they've become more long ball dependent than ever before. While Carlos still lead the team with 36 homers this season, he's the one White Sox slugger who decides to throw some doubles, singles, and walks in his arsenal as well, and when Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome hit their moonshots, he's usually on base.

Of course, not having Quentin available for their series against the Tampa Bay Rays won't help their chances to get by the young upstarts, but should they pull it off, Carlos thinks he might be available for the ALCS.

But the subsiding pain has raised Quentin's confidence to the point where he thinks he could be ready should the Sox advance to the AL Championship Series.

While there were plenty of big plays to go around in last night's AL Central playoff game, the one most people want to talk about today is the play at the plate in the 5th inning. After Michael Cuddyer doubled to start the inning -- it was Minnesota's first hit of the evening -- he moved to third on a fly ball to centerfield.

Apparently this was enough to convince Cuddyer that he could beat Ken Griffey Jr, so a few pitches later on a pop up to shallow center, Cuddyer decided to test Griff again. Griffey's throw home beat Cuddyer, and despite Michael's best efforts to take A.J. Pierzynski out, the lovable Sox catcher held on to the ball and Cuddyer was out. Considering the final score was 1-0, it turned out to be a pivotal play, but not one that Cuddyer regrets.

"Obviously once (Griffey) caught that ball it was a play we had to make," Cuddyer said. "We had to take a chance right there. We weren't getting much done offensively, we were at the bottom of the order. We had to take a shot. ... Unfortunately A.J. made a hell of a play. I don't know how he held onto the ball. I thought I knocked his arm off, not just the ball, but he made a great play."

I understood the Twins logic in sending Cuddyer then, but I still don't agree with the decision. Griffey's arm may not be what it once was, but most MLB outfielders will throw you out from that depth, so I thought it was a mistake. Not one I minded of course.

Now, about A.J. showing Cuddyer the ball afterwards...