Basics loaded

CUBS

Cubby occurrence Manager Lou Piniella’s term for injuries befalling Cubs players under random circumstances. Examples include Kerry Wood’s hot-tub injury (2007), Sammy Sosa’s sneeze-induced back spasms (2004), Carlos Zambrano spitting out a bloody tooth while on the mound (2008) and—though no one has the balls (so to speak) to ask how it happened—Felix Pie’s surgery to repair a twisted testicle (2008).

Curse of the Billy Goat Billy Goat Tavern then-owner Billy Sianis put a hex on the team after being ejected from the 1945 World Series for trying to share box seats with his pet goat. The Cubs have not played in a World Series since.

8-8-88 The night the lights went on at Wrigley Field, the last major-league stadium to introduce night games

Ex-Cub factor The theory that any team entering the World Series with three or more ex-Cubs on its roster will lose. The only deviations since 1946 were in 1960 (Pittsburgh) and 2001 (Arizona), both against the Yankees.

Merkle’s boner Not a physical condition but embarrassing nonetheless. During the 1908 pennant race, 19-year-old New York Giant Fred Merkle made a ninth-inning base-running error that negated the Giants’ win, eventually leading to the Cubs winning the pennant and later, their last World Series for 100 years.

The Stanky maneuver The (in)famous ploy of 1940s Cubs second baseman Eddie Stanky. He distracted opposing batters by leaping up and down behind the pitcher.

Tinker to Evers to Chance A recurring line in New York Evening Mail columnist Franklin Pierce Adams’s 1910 poem “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” which paid homage to the double-play prowess of Cubs infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance

Urine therapy Closer Wood has said he followed ex-Cub Moises Alou’s practice of peeing on his own hands, which purportedly toughens the skin and heals those pesky blisters.

WHITE SOX

Bill Veeck Colorful former Sox owner (1959–61 and 1975–81) responsible for such promotions as exploding scoreboards, Disco Demolition Night and placing names on the backs of jerseys. His legacy is evident at Wrigley, too—in the 1930s, when he was the club treasurer for the Cubs, he planted the outfield ivy and brought in the manual scoreboard that’s still used there today.

Harry Caray The microphone-swinging broadcaster known as “the Mayor of Rush Street” started his tradition of singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during his 1970s pre-Cubs tenure with the Sox.

Richard J. Daley “Hizzoner” was such a fan that after the Sox won the ’59 pennant, he set off the air-raid sirens. Some Chicagoans, amid Cold War fever, thought the Russkies were attacking.

Disco Demolition Night The Sox forfeited a 1979 game against Detroit after a pregame stunt during which local DJ Steve Dahl set off a bomb atop a pile of disco records as more than 75,000 fans stormed the field—setting fires, (literally) stealing bases and hurling leftover records like Frisbees.

The Joan Another nickname for the Cell, inspired by U.S. Cellular’s spokeswoman, Chicago native Joan Cusack

William Ligue Jr. The 34-year-old, bare-chested numskull who rushed the field and attacked Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa during a home game in 2002, along with a tag-team partner—his teenage son

Minnie Minoso All-star center fielder known as “Mr. White Sox,” who played from 1949 to 1964 (1951–57, 1960–61 and 1964 with the Sox). Then-owner Bill Veeck reactivated Minoso in 1976 and 1980 as publicity stunts, increasing Minoso’s major-league service to five decades’ worth.

Pale Hose A Sox nickname only the media use. If you drop this term in conversation with Sox fans, they’ll know you’re a poseur.

The Big Hurt The nickname broadcaster Ken Harrelson bestowed on ’90s Sox MVP Frank Thomas, who intimidated opponents with home-run power (448 while with the Sox from 1990 to 2005) and sometimes by swinging a rusty iron pipe in the on-deck circle

Sports editor Tim McCormick gives the lowdown on the playoffs at timeoutchicago.com/blog, and numbers guru Nate Silver weighs both teams’ championship chances here.