I’ve been talking to myself a lot lately.

“Just keep repeating it. You’re taking the high road. Don’t clench your teeth when you say it.”

You’ve got to believe that these White Sox are for real. They are coming off playoff series against two pretty good teams, the Red Sox and Angels, and the White Sox made them both look like the Pee Wee squad at the Special Olympics.

They also got a bit of help from the worst umpiring I’ve ever seen in playoff baseball, but the bottom line is that the White Sox didn’t need that help.

It pains me, as a lifelong Cub fan, to admit this, but this year’s White Sox team deserves to go all the way. They are a great bunch of guys.

It’s their fans I can’t stand.

As I said, I’m taking the high road. I’d like to see a Chicago team win the World Series. And I’m sure, if the situation were reversed, and the Cubs were in this position, our friends on the South Side would do the same.

And if you believe that, please check my eBay listing for a bridge I’m selling.

We got to see how the Sox fans responded in 2003, when the Cubs were thisclose to a Series berth. I poured all my frustration into an essay at the time. No sense repeating myself.

Early this morning, the White Sox returned home after destroying the Angels in five games, and a big crowd of fans turned out at Midway Airport to cheer them, as devoted fans should.

During the celebration, a Chicago Tribune truck drove past. The Tribune owns the Cubs. The truck was roundly booed and jeered.

See? Even in what should be their finest moment, the no-class Sox fans can’t let go of their well-deserved inferiority complex. And until they can, they will always be losers, regardless of how their team performs.

And that’s why it pains me to see the Sox win. Because I hate to see that ignorant, boorish behavior rewarded.

Even Sox fans will agree that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf is one of the most despicable members of an already bad lot. Who wants to see him soaked in champagne, unless it made him flammable?

They don’t deserve a World Series champion, dammit.

Sigh.

Anyway, the White Sox will be facing either the Cardinals or Astros, two teams that have consistently stomped the Cubs into the ground over the years. So there’s no doubt that I’ll be cheering for the Sox in the Series. But I’ll do so in the privacy of my own home, with the blinds drawn. And I’ll thank my friends and family who are Sox fans to not rub my face in it.

Someday, I’ll ask you to return the favor.

I hope.