Finally — the kind of Cubs-White Sox series we’ve been waiting for

Ozzie Guillen has essentially been a Chicagoan for, oh, four decades. So of course he found himself the other day on a double-decker bus taking a tour of the city he came to as a White Sox rookie shortstop in 1985.

The bus rolled to Wrigley Field, where Guillen piped up to those around him that the Cubs were busy losing a series in Atlanta.

“You go to Chicago, you have to go to Wrigley,” Guillen acknowledged Friday before the opener of a Sox-Cubs series at Rate Field.

The bus later motored outside Soldier Field, home — for the time being, anyway — of the Bears.

Any other sports stops?

Certainly not at the Rate. Although, according to Guillen, the tour guide at least halfheartedly noted the city’s other ballpark wasn’t too far from Soldier. A wave in its general direction would have to suffice.

“I’ve never seen any double-decker bus here,” Guillen, leaning against a dugout rail in a sharp, pastel suit, said with only a trace of lament.

Two ballparks, two fan bases, two very different experiences. Same old story.

Speaking of old stories, there’s also the latest series between our two baseball teams, to be contested throughout the weekend. If you listen to those directly involved in the action, it’s only slightly more exciting than wringing out a dish rag and watching it dry.

“These guys will play with everything they’ve got like they do every night,” Sox manager Will Venable promised, “but it’s one baseball game and we’re going to try to win tonight and go from there.”

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was asked if his team being in first place and the surprising Sox bringing a winning record into the series, too, made this kind of a big deal.

“No,” he said. “Same old stuff. I mean, it’s Game 50-something [of the season] or it’s 60-something. I could be wrong about that. But it’s just another day.”

Armstrong was indeed wrong, and not only because “Game 40-something” would have been far more accurate. There’s also a different sort of vibe surrounding this year’s Crosstown Whatever-We’re-Calling-It. If the teams themselves don’t feel it, that’s OK because the fans — who managed to flock here from all directions even without double-decker accommodations — do.

And though some Cubs and Sox teams have had stronger senses of intra-city rivalry than others, this rivalry has always been about the fans.

There was a jump in the crowd when Ian Happ singled home Alex Bregman to put the Cubs ahead 1-0 in the first inning. But it was electric when Sox up-and-comer Colson Montgomery tied it with a long ball in the second, again as the Sox staged a rally in the fifth and even more so when Miguel Vargas homered to tie it again in the sixth.

There might not be a moment in this series that’s as momentous as Carlos Lee’s 2001 walk-off grand slam for the Sox at what was then known as the Cell, or as pulse-raising as the year after that when Paul Konerko homered twice to rally the Sox from 8-0 down for an epic home win. Perhaps nothing could top Michael Barrett cold-cocking A.J. Pierzynski in 2006, setting off a Black-and-Blue brawl. That happened on the South Side, too, as did then-Sox-manager Guillen’s ejection and swift kick to Cubs catcher Geovany Soto’s mask — not on Soto’s face at the time, thank goodness — in 2011. Cubs catcher Willson Contreras’ soaring bat flip after homering off Dylan Cease during the 2020 pandemic season would be high on the list if only fans had been in the seats to witness it.

But this thing appears to have some juice again. That must be what happens when both teams come in with winning records — and fans in attendance — for the first time in 18 years.

The Cubs arrived having owned the rivalry in recent seasons, winning 13 of the last 16 meetings overall and six of the last seven at the Rate. There is, of course, no doubt which of these teams is better in 2026 — there’s a lot of green between the Cubs’ 28-16 and the Sox’ 22-21. One team is smack in the middle of a winning window; the other can’t possibly be quite yet.

“If the White Sox win three games against the Cubs, I guarantee all the fans will go, ‘Wow, get your tickets for the playoffs,’ ” Guillen said. “I guarantee you that. If they get swept by the Cubs, people will say, ‘I told you it’s a fluke.’ ”

The Sox don’t stink, though, and that’s not nothing. They were 15 games under .500 through 43 games last year, 17 under the year before that and 13 under the year before that. The wafting scents of budding talent, general competence and actual hope are far sweeter than being dead on arrival by the start of May.

Guillen lives in Homer Glen, where he estimates 90% or even 95% of people are Sox fans. If you can’t trust Ozzie’s math, what can you trust?

Again, though — the juice is loose.

“Why are [people] excited? Because a lot of people never thought the White Sox were going to be who they are right now,” Guillen said.

“I know for a lot of people, .500 is nothing. ‘Oh, wow, look at .500. This [other] team is 10 games over .500, another team 13 or 14. Why are you guys happy about .500?’ Because I know how hard it was to get there.”