The typical Cubs fan watching a game at Wrigley Field is a beer-swilling frat boy. Using a cell phone. Sitting next to a young woman in a tube top.

That's what many White Sox fans would tell you -- if you could get the old geezers to put down their meticulously kept score cards or stop rummaging through their lunch pails.

As the Sox and Cubs prepare to meet this week at Wrigley Field, it's time to examine the stereotypes that the teams' fans have invented about each other. Things they just know are true.

"As a Sox fan, I picture the obnoxious drunk fraternity guy Cubs fan and generalize that to all them, just assume that's how they all are," says Joe Santeler of Chicago, a White Sox fan. "I want to think that's how Cub fans are because it makes it easier to dislike them."

"There are a lot more females who are Cubs fans," says Robert Daniels, a West Sider who cheers for the Cubs. "Maybe because I'm always with Cubs fans, but I very rarely see female Sox fans. All the Sox fans I see are men. And Cubs fans are ... younger. Sox fans, they've been Sox fans their whole lives."

Oh, the misperceptions.

In more ways than these sniping fans would want to admit, they are alike. Or at least they're in the same ballpark.

White males with good incomes are the rule on both sides of town. Cubs crowds are a little more male than Sox crowds, have a little higher household income and are somewhat whiter. Their percentages of fans who have children, live in the suburbs, and are Hispanic are almost identical.

Politically, there's not a huge variance, either. The Cubs have more Republicans, while the Sox had more Democrats.

That age gap between the teams' fans? Not there. According to a Scarborough Research survey of Chicago-area adults who had attended a major pro sports event in the last year, the average age of Cubs and Sox fans was virtually identical.

All in all, there are more similarities than differences between the Cubs and Sox fans, especially after you factor in the 2.3 percent margin of error.

"I think the misconception probably comes from the fact that you probably want to focus on the type of fan you hate the most," Santeler, the Sox fan, said after seeing some of the survey numbers.

"I don't think the average Cubs fan is any different from the average Sox fan," said Kathy Busanic, a lifelong Cubs fan from Munster, Ind. "It's the old perception -- North vs. South, Republicans vs. Democrats. White collar vs. working class. And these are perceptions that will stick."

There are, of course, some interesting differences -- new bar fights, if you will. Sox fans are more likely than Cubs fans to donate to a religious organization (43.8 percent to 39.9 percent). Cubs fans are more likely to own cats. And as for the beer-swilling image, Sox fans shouldn't point fingers. More Sox fans (72.4 percent to 70.6) drink beer, both figures well above the survey's overall average (54.9 percent). The fan figures for other Chicago pro teams -- the Bulls, Bears and Blackhawks -- are in line with the Sox-Cubs numbers, although baseball fans tend to be a few years older. When it comes to the number of married/single fans. there's a range of only 5 percentage points among the teams. And the numbers are close when it comes to city-vs.-suburban fans, with about 63 percent of each fan base living in the suburbs.

The similarities among fans is something that marketing people are aware of.

"For us at Gatorade, we don't differentiate," said Jeff Urban, the company's senior vice president for sports marketing. "A fan is a fan, an athlete is an athlete. For us, any demographic breakdown -- Chicago versus national [fans], Chicago versus Chicago -- that's not critical for us."

But demographics -- or stereotypes -- are critical for some fans.

J.R. Nelson, a Pilsen resident who grew up in Crystal Lake following the Sox and Cubs, said it wasn't until his family moved to Chicago in the early '80s that he chose sides and became a Sox fan.

"I didn't realize, until I moved to the city, what a big difference there was," he said.

His conclusion: "I think Sox fans ... the better-looking women are Sox fans. Maybe that's just my opinion."

Nahum Herrera, a Cubs fan from San Antonio, was in town to visit relatives and catch a game at Wrigley. He sees Cubs fans as younger than Sox fans.

"Since we've been here," he said, "I've seen more young [Cubs] fans than older ones."

Despite what the Scarborough statistics reveal, it would be silly to expect any slowdown in Cubs-Sox fan typecasting.

"People pour a lot of energy into it, and I think it represents mythologies about who we are and what we are," said Irving Rein, a professor of communications studies at Northwestern University and co-author of "The Elusive Fan."

The rivalries, as evidenced in the differing opinions the fans have, are "about escape, about family relationships and connections and grandparents who were Sox fans and are now dead. And it's about place, a sense of place. That's powerful stuff."

Rein said doesn't believe this Us vs. Them gap exists anywhere else in pro sports as it does in Chicago.

"This is a very special place. It's very clear here," he said. "And it's based on a kind of fallacy, a huge fallacy. It's in the interest of everyone to perpetuate it. It's in the interest of the media to perpetuate it, the professional clubs, obviously, the managers, the agents. Everybody. People who've lost their jobs or are worrying about their medical care, they're able to move their feelings into this rivalry. It's a great escape."

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About the numbers

The numbers in this report come from Scarborough Research, a market research firm that surveyed nearly 4,000 Chicago-area residents over the last year. Participants were asked a variety of questions about demographics, lifestyle, shopping patterns, media consumption -- and sports.

This analysis includes only those who said they had attended a Sox, Cubs, Bears, Bulls or Blackhawks game in the previous 12 months. (Countless other people cheer their favorites via TV, radio or the Internet or offer support by wearing team gear, but for our purposes, fandom is defined as having gone to a game.)

The survey includes people 18 and older. Because of that, the average age of the fans skews a little high. That also has an impact on other numbers, such as education level and marital status.

The survey has a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.

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whageman@tribune.com

Fans: We've got your numbers

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