For the first time since the shortened 2020 season, both of the Windy City’s baseball teams have nabbed a spot in the Major League Baseball postseason. Fans across Chicago, from the North Side, South Side and beyond, are ecstatic. No one, however, is more eager than the local sports bars.
“It’s amazing,” said Carolyn Mitchell, who owns Mitchell’s Tap.
The White Sox and the Cubs had their first games of the wild-card series on Tuesday, with the Sox playing the Houston Astros and the Cubs playing the San Diego Padres. Both games were away, sending fans flooding into local drinking spots.
For two decades, Mitchell’s Tap, a sports bar in Bridgeport about a half mile west of Rate Field, has served fans. In recent years, though, as the Sox struggled, the summer crowds at the bar had thinned.
A different story emerged this season when the team defied expectations and clinched a playoff berth for the first time in five years.
“The last two years, if there was an away game, there wouldn’t be a single person around,” bartender Vince Marzano said Tuesday afternoon, while tending to two regulars as ESPN played on the TV behind the bar. “When they play away this year, with all the stuff that’s been on the line, people have been all over it.”
The walls of Mitchell’s Tap are festooned with beer signs, sports memorabilia, tinsel and twinkle lights, and the bar’s backyard patio is equipped with another big-screen TV.
Mitchell said she expects to fill the place with an extra 30 to 40 visitors when streaming postseason games for both teams.
“I think they’re going to want to watch and see how the Cubs do as well,” she said.
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“I’m prepared for a full bar,” said Freddy Fagenholz, general manager of Murphy’s Bleachers, as he got ready for Tuesday’s games.
Right across the street from Wrigley Field, Murphy’s Bleachers has been an iconic Cubs bar for close to 80 years. For Fagenholz, the Sox also making it to the postseason only adds to the excitement.
“It’s great to have both Chicago teams in the playoffs. I’m not even sure when the last time this happened is,” said Fagenholz. “It’s a plus for all the bars and restaurants.”
Downtown, Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap is about halfway between Chicago’s North and South sides, and is right off a stop on the Red Line, which runs to both Wrigley and Rate fields.
“We’re a Chicago sports bar, so we celebrate all of the teams,” Kelly Wilson, general manager of Jake Melnick’s, said ahead of Tuesday’s games. “We get an awesome mix of both fans, a little playful fun of rivalry, but then, you know, everybody’s there to see their team do well.”
None of the bars could say exactly how much food or beer they were projected to sell. The general consensus was clear: A lot.
Mitchell’s Tap already has doubled its weekly order of alcohol since the season started, said Mitchell.
Uncle Mike’s Sports Bar on the Northwest Side usually only sells drinks but was contemplating bringing in complimentary pizza ahead of the games, said owner Steve Rivera.
A smaller establishment in Hermosa, Rivera guessed that they would get an extra 15 people for Tuesday’s games.
“It’s a great thing,” he said. “The new people who do come in tend to come back.”
Murphy’s Bleachers beefed up personnel ahead of the wild-card series.
“I’m staffed up really well,” Fagenholz said. “I have no idea if 100 people are going to show up, or if 50 people are going to show up.”
Some bars, like Jake Melnick’s, extended their hours Tuesday so fans could finish the late-night Cubs game.
“As long as we have people in the building, we’ll stay open,” said Wilson.
Mitchell suspected a lot of Sox fans would be taking off work early to make Tuesday’s late afternoon game.
“I think a lot of bosses are probably like, go home, you got your work done,” said Mitchell. “Go watch our team.”
Whether both teams advance remains unseen. When it comes to business, however, the longer the Cubs and Sox keep in the fight, the better, owners say.
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“We’re already pretty busy for football season, and you know, as Chicago teams do well, the interest grows and people get excited,” said Wilson. “And everybody wants to watch it with other fans.”
For bars in Bridgeport, this season has been particularly high stakes as debate swirls around a potential move by the White Sox to the South Loop to make space for a 24-hour Amtrak maintenance facility.
“You could walk up to anybody in the neighborhood and probably talk about how they don’t want Amtrak (maintenance facility) to go through here,” Marzano said. “It would hurt big-time.”
“It’s gonna be a little upsetting to have it end,” said Mitchell of this year’s season.
Amtraks and rivalries aside, bar owners are hoping that either team lands a home playoff game this season.
“If the games are sold out, which usually the postseason ones are,” said Wilson, “people want to look for places to come in and sit down together and cheer on their team.”
“I think everybody’s just happy about Chicago,” Mitchell said.
“It’s great for everyone,” said Fagenholz. “I mean, we hope they both make it in the World Series, right?”
“As long as Chicago teams keep winning,” Wilson said, “we’ll be full for all of the games.”