The White Sox have done a yeoman-like job in sustaining their part of the quest, but to get it done the Cubs, who have been shaky at times, have to step up and do their share in the last two weeks of the season.

Entering Sunday’s games, the Cubs had only a game and a half advantage on Milwaukee for the honor of finishing in last place in the National League Central. The White Sox haven’t clinched last place in the American League Central, but before Sunday they had a more comfortable edge (5 ½ games) on Minnesota than the Cubs had on the Brewers.

The Cubs and the White Sox are not competing with each other; in tandem, they are chasing their 1948 ancestors. Sixty-five years ago the two Chicago teams finished last in the same season for the only time in the city’s mixed baseball history. Thus, if they finish where they are now, the White Sox and the Cubs will not make history but merely match it.

Even with divisions shrunk in size in the past 20 years to fewer teams than leagues used to have, same-city or same-area teams have rarely finished in last place in the same season.

Hall of Fame research found …

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In 2006, his rookie season, it was easy to like Francisco Liriano. The Dominican Republic native, 22 years old, pitched for the Minnesota Twins and reeled off a 12-3 record and 2.16 earned run average in 16 starts and 12 relief appearances. I didn’t just like Liriano. I really liked him.

That is, I thought he had a great future, and so did the Twins. But neither they nor I suspected that Liriano’s glowing future would be with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nor did anyone have any reason to think how instrumental Liriano would be in the Pirates ending the major league all-sports record 20 successive losing seasons.

Liriano, who signed as a free agent last winter, has become the leader of the Pittsburgh pitching staff, which has become one of the best staffs in the National League, allowing the fewest runs and home runs.

The left-handed Liriano has a 16-7 record and a 2.92 earned run average. Despite having started only 23 games, seven fewer than the league leaders, Liriano is …

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Bobby Sprowl was not at home Saturday; at least he didn’t answer his telephone. I called Sprowl because I wanted to talk to him about a game he pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 1978. It was probably the second most memorable game the Red Sox and the New York Yankees played that season, the most memorable being their playoff game for the American League East title.

The game Sprowl started was played Sept. 10 at Fenway Park. A 22-year-old left-hander, he had started one game for the Red Sox, his major league debut, which he lost five days earlier to Jim Palmer and the Baltimore Orioles.

His start against the Yankees, though, was as critical as critical can be, not to mention controversial as the choice of manager Don Zimmer. Fifty days earlier, the Red Sox had a seemingly insurmountable 14-game lead over the Yankees, and three games of that margin had disappeared in the first three games of the teams’ four-game series.

Now the Red Sox lead was down to a mere game, and the neophyte Sprowl was being asked to protect it. By the time he was finished pitching, though, …

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