Everyone knows February and August are the slowest sports months of the year.

February has the post-football downer and the NBA is mired in the mid-season. No one cares about hockey so let’s move on.

August has similar problems.

Football is on everyone’s minds, but the season still is a month away and baseball is preparing for its pennant races.

So you can see why August is usually particularly slow for sports, especially in the Chicagoland area.

But this year is different.

To the surprise of most of the country, and even Chicago, the Sox and Cubs are smack dab in the middle of the aforementioned baseball pennant races.

After last night’s action, the Sox find themselves with a 58-54 record and three games out of first place.

The Cubs, who had an off day Monday, are 56-54 and 3.5 games behind the first place Houston Astros.

This simple set of data raises one of the longest running sports dilemmas.

Do people like teams that win or teams that finish first?

Would Cubs fans be as happy if their team had an identical record as this season but were 10 games out of first place?

The same goes for the Sox.

If the South Siders had this same record last season they would be miles behind the Minnesota Twins.

Fortunately, for Midwest baseball fans, the quality of both Central Divisions in baseball is poor.

Granted, there is star power.

Sosa, Pujols, Bagwell and Sexon are all top-tier baseball players.

But the fact remains, the only reason people still are interested in Chicago’s two baseball teams this year is because they are in below-par divisions.

Throw the Sox in either the American League East or West and they are six games out – of second place.

If the Cubs were to be in another division, they would be in worse shape.

Switch the Cubs to the East and they fall to fourth place, a whopping 16.5 games out of first.

In the West, the Cubs would look up at San Francisco from 12.5 games out.

And who wants to follow a team that’s 10 games out.

Just a few pieces of advice for Cubs and Sox fans: The next time you’re out thanking Mark Prior and Esteban Loaiza for saving the season, be sure to thank the Astros, Cardinals, Pirates, Reds, Brewers, Royals, Twins, Indians and Tigers for giving you a shot.