Chicago ? Leroy Brown, where are you?

As thousands gathered in the baddest part of town in the rain and cold Sunday, the baddest man was nowhere to be found.

In fact, if you traipsed the neighborhood around Comiskey Park, you’d have noticed a shortage of abandoned buildings, gunfire, burning cars and corpses with stab wounds. Could it be the South Side of Chicago isn’t as bad as the stereotypes make it out to be?

“Nah,” Larry Weiske said. “Those are pretty much true.”

He’s been a South Sider for all of his 23 years, and pretty much looks like it. Whiskers, cigarette and faded White Sox sweatshirt. The hood kept the cold rain off his head before Game 2 of the World Series.

The big sign nearby may have said U.S. Cellular Field. But this place always will be Comiskey. I was one of 4,298 reporters who’ve tried to define the 100 Year Baseball War of Chicago, and how it affects this year’s World Series.

It’s not really the White Sox vs. the Astros. It’s the White Sox vs. History and The White Sox vs. The Cubs.

Since the Tribune Co. owns the Cubs and the Orlando Sentinel, I must say my fellow employees who toil at Wrigley Field comprise a superior product. But the fact is, it’s hard not to pull for the White Sox.

Their fans have suffered more than Red Sox and Cubs followers. But their team never turned into a cuddly fad or concocted a voodoo Babe Ruth hex. If Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox scandal isn’t the stuff of curses, nothing is.

White Sox fans never wrapped themselves in victimhood. They just took a drag off their cigarettes, went to one of the 14 bars on every corner near Comiskey and drank whiskey until it was time to report to their gritty union job.

Oops, there we go with the stereotypes again. A recent study actually showed there’s not that much difference between Cubs and White Sox fans. At least when it comes to per capita age, income, education and NRA membership.

The demographics probably have changed a bit since Richard Daley came out of the South Side to be elected mayor-for-life by all those dead people. He was a Sox Man, of course. He had the fire commissioner ring all the air-raid sirens the last time the Sox won the pennant, a mere 46 years ago.

The neighborhood won’t remind you of Beirut with better saloons. There are certainly some areas and people to avoid, but real estate is too expensive to let warehouses sit empty.

Nice new condo developments are springing up. There might even be a Starbucks around here somewhere. Though you might want to keep it down if you order a mocha latte with sprinkles. That’s so very North Side.

“This is serious baseball,” said Ron Weiske, Larry’s dad and Sox fan for 57 years. “This is where you grit your teeth.”

Wrigley is where you buff your toenails. It’s where celebrities go to be seen and heard singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” The Cubs have Bill Murray. The White Sox were happy Shoeless Jesse Jackson showed up for Game 1. The entire nation is starting to get into Ozzie Guillen’s merry band. But in Chicago, there are no Trans-Soxuals. Baseball isn’t just a game, it’s a way of life.

If the White Sox win the World Series, the air-raid sirens will roar again. And Cubs fans will never hear the end of it.