CANARYVILLE — Everybody knows Kelly's Tavern is deep in the heart of White Sox country, and Bill Babuskow flies his favorite team's victory flag right there behind the bar.
But it ain't the Sox he's rooting for. It's that other team: The Cubs.
The ones playing in the World Series.
Bill Babuskow standing outside his bar, Kelly's Tavern, 4403 S. Wallace. [Photos by DNAinfo/Ed Komenda.]
As a boy, the bar owner went to White Sox games at Old Comiskey, sitting in the left field bleachers with his dad and six brothers. But while the rest of the family cheered for the South Siders, Babuskow was bleeding Cubbie blue.
A half-century later, he's still a soldier behind enemy lines.
In his backyard in the 4400 block of South Normal St., Babuskow flies two flags. One sports the Cubs logo. On the other pole flaps the "W."
"Everyone knows I'm a Cub fan," Babuskow said, parked on a barstool wearing a Cubs hat and sweatshirt. "I let everyone know."
Especially now, with his team three wins away from its first World Series title in 108 years. The last time the Cubs won the World Series, Mark Twain was still writing, and Geronimo wandered the Western Plains.
Babuskow's allegiance to the Cubbies has turned Kelly's Tavern into a refuge for South Side Cubs fans. At 4403 S. Wallace St., less than 2 miles from U.S. Cellular Field, Cubs fans don't have to worry about harassment from disgruntled White Sox fans.
Cubs fans watch Game 2 of the World Series at Kelly's Tavern.
A year ago, DaMari Davila left Wrigleyville and moved to Canaryville. She was nervous about showing her team's colors in the neighborhood.
"When I moved to the South Side wearing my Cubs stuff, I thought I was going to get shot," said Davila, sitting at Kelly's Tavern Wednesday to watch the Cubs' 5-1 Game 2 win over the Indians. "Sox fans are intense."
What she found was the opposite. Kelly's Tavern took her in. No one gave her grief.
"I was shocked," she said.
DaMari Davila watches Game 2 at Kelly's Tavern.
At Kelly's, there's respect between rivals.
"It's good fun ribbin'. You know how that is: Cubs and Sox fans go back and forth," Babuskow said. "A lot of my good friends wish me well. They know what we've gone through and all that. They're all die-hard Sox fans, but it's our time. It's time."
Janet Galvin and her daughter, Julie Galvin, sat over a bucket of beers Wednesday night and watched the game in Cubs gear.
"I'm a Sox fan," Janet Galvin said, wearing a Cubs jersey. "I would never cheer against a Chicago team. The only way I would cheer against the Cubs is if they were playing the Sox. What irritates me are these Sox fans that are the haters. Stop!"
Though they're from Sox families, Julie Galvin and her mother, Janet Galvin, root for the Cubs.
It's been difficult for some Sox fans to deny the magic of this Cubs season.
On Wednesday, hours before Game 2 against the Indians, a lifelong Sox fan rolled into Kelly's Tavern with a few too many drinks under his belt before noon and asked for a cup of water.
"Man, them Cubs," the man mused. "They're a bomb squad."
BLEEDING CUBBIES BLUE
Born in 1957, Babuskow is one of eight kids, seven of them boys. Five of his brothers — Bobby, Jimmy, Pat, Tom and Paul — still live in Canaryville. Babuskow grew up in hostile territory. His dad was a blue-collar Sox fan. And all his brothers — except Pat — are Sox fans.
After coming home from school and finding the family's television set tuned to the Cubs game, Babuskow fell in love with the North Side team.
"I just started watching the ballgame and became a Cubs fan," Babuskow said. "I was a Cub fan my whole life."
Babuskow holds up a Kris Bryant jersey he plans to raffle off.
In 1983, he bought a house in Chandler, Ariz. — just so he could go to Cubs spring training games. He’s made the trip every year since.
Babuskow bought Kelly's from Bobby Kelly in May 1985. He kept the name, because "Babuskow's" didn't sound right for a bar in the heart of an Irish-Catholic neighborhood.
In the 32 years since the sale, Babuskow has hosted neighborhood folks for many of Chicago's historic sports moments.
"I went through the Bulls championships, the Hawks championships, the White Sox championship," Babuskow said. "It's been phenomenal."
In 2005, Babuskow hosted World Series parties at his bar to celebrate to White Sox sweeping the Houston Astros in four games. Kelly's Tavern was so busy during that World Series run that Babuskow had to have a Chicago Police officer stationed outside the bar every night.
Babuskow was happy to see the South Siders win. He's not out to alienate his customers.
“I’m a businessman first,” Babuskow said. “We have to let the Sox have their good time and 'Rah-Rah-Rah!'"
Now it's the Year of the Cubbies.
'I'LL NEVER FORGET'
The barkeep's loyalty has come with plenty of heartbreak.
Babuskow was 12 years old when the 1969 Cubs won 92 games and fell short of the playoffs after a late-season slump. "I watched them blow it," he said.
In 2003, Babuskow was at Kelly's when the Steve Bartman incident unfolded in the eighth inning of the sixth game of the 2003 National League Championship Series.
The next night, Babuskow went to Game 7. The heartbreaker left the city speechless.
"I'll never forget walking out after the game," Babuskow said. "It was stone silent. That's all I can remember. All the streets were shut down. People are just walking down the street. You could hear a pin drop. It was so eerie."
'HERE WE ARE NOW'
For many Cubs fans, those difficult years seemed like a purgatory, but the last season has been one of redemption.
Babuskow was at Wrigley Field for Game 1 of this year's National League Division Series. He watched Miguel Montero crack a grand slam in the eight inning to down the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I thought the stands were gonna come down,” he said. “I mean, it was actually vibrating. We were on the first base side, and that ball seemed like it was going in slow motion when it was hit.”
After a long, painful journey, Babuskow's team is at the stoop of Major League Baseball's Promised Land.
"We haven't been there in 71 years. Think about how many people have come and gone in 71 years that haven't seen them in the World Series," Babuskow said. "Here we are now. We're there."
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