Bo Jackson came up to bat in the sixth inning of Monday’s game at Comiskey Park with two men on base. I said something to my friend, as I sipped a cold one from the many taps at Molly’s.

I said, “I’ve got a feeling he’s due.”

The hipless wonder drove the very next pitch deep into left field, into the hands of a very lucky Sox fan.

Jackson’s round tripper, which brought a tear to my eye, put the Sox up 3-0 in a game where there was no turning back. The Sox went on to beat the Mariners 4-2 and clinch the American League’s Western Division for the first time in ten years.

After Bo’s home run there was some excitement in the air at Molly’s, but I realized it was mainly coming from our table.

I assumed that the people in the bar didn’t want to jinx the Sox by becoming overconfident, but I later realized that many of them just didn’t care.

When the game finally ended, my friend and I were the only two guys in the bar that celebrated the Sox championship with a shot. We were also the only two fools to take a victory ride around campus, honking the horn and screaming out the windows.

While sitting in Molly’s watching the victory celebration on television, I began to feel a little homesick.

I was born and raised on the South Side, and have been a Sox fan since birth.

I jokingly brought up the idea of going to Chicago to celebrate, hoping my buddy would take me seriously and decide to make the trip, but we both realized that it was too late.

We were just a couple of South Siders stuck in a North Side-like bar. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Even after the Sox clinched their spot in the playoffs, we found Cub fans who insisted on arguing that the Cubs are better than the Sox.

Talk about a buzz killer.

My personal favorite is when they try to convince me that Mark Grace, the Cubs’ pride and joy, is better than Frank Thomas, who will most likely (or “most definitely” as Thomas would put it) win the American League MVP.

Now the true Sox fans from the South Side are faced with a dilemma: Where is there a good South Side-like bar in DeKalb where Sox fans can watch the playoffs?

We’re not expecting a Rielly’s Daughter to pop up in DeKalb, just a place to cheer on the Sox without any Cub fans to give the place atmosphere.

We definitely don’t need a place full of band-wagoners, either. You know, those people who went out and bought Sox hats and jerseys when it was evident that they were going to win the West.

I know there is a place somewhere in DeKalb with South Side written all over it, and I’m not going to stop at anything until I find that one bar. This is for the good of all Sox fans at NIU.