Cubs, Sox on rare collision course? It’s only April, but …

Don’t look now, but the only two big-league Chicago pro sports teams still playing in late April also happen to be the two teams leading their respective leagues early in the race for October.

Anybody up for a rematch of 1906?

Too soon? Maybe. At least by a few months.

But the competitive synchronicity the Cubs and White Sox have pulled off barely three weeks into the season already is a rarity.

The Cubs (15-5) and Sox (16-6) took the best records in their respective leagues into their games Thursday.

The last time that happened this late in the season was May 29, 1973, when the Cubs were 29-18 and the Sox 26-14.

“Diggin’ it,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon.

His team has been widely considered a World Series favorite since spring training.

The same can’t be said for the Sox, who stumbled to a fourth-place finish last year, endured the strange Adam-and-Drake-LaRoche follies during spring training, and opened this season with several new pieces and a lot to prove.

“Where we’ve been the last couple years, just for us – not necessarily for [the Cubs] – you’re happy for our fans that we can play a better brand of baseball,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “You hope there can be meaningful games later in the year and make the playoffs.”

And if that eventually leads to a collision course with the Cubs a few months from now? Ventura knows firsthand what that’s like, as the New York Mets’ third baseman during the 2000 Subway Series against the Yankees.

“It’s an exciting atmosphere for a city when it has two teams capable of [playing in the postseason],” Ventura said.

The last time the Cubs and Sox both made the playoffs was 2008, when both were bounced in the first round – the Sox by Maddon’s Tampa Bay Rays.

The only other time both made the playoffs the same year was 1906, when the Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series.

“I think it’s great for the city,” said Maddon, who professes longstanding respect and admiration for Ventura. “I know he went through a tough gig this past spring training, and I thought he handled it great. I’m really happy for him and their success.”

If you’re looking for an excuse to believe the two Chicago teams can sustain a summer-long ride toward the same fall destination, just look at the pitching staffs that rank 2-3 in the majors in team ERA – both anchored by early Cy Young frontrunners in Chris Sale (5-0, 1.66 ERA) of the Sox and Jake Arrieta (4-0, 0.87 ERA) of the Cubs.

“They’ve made some really nice additions this last season,” Maddon said. “They’ve done some really nice work. And they have outstanding pitching. That’s why they’re good.”

On the other hand, if you’re looking for an excuse to flush the whole idea before May, just look at how that fast-starting 1973 season turned out. Both teams slumped to 77-win seasons, both finishing fifth in their divisions.

Which offers just another reminder how seldom both teams are even good at the same time. In Chicago’s previous 115 seasons as an American League-National League city, the Cubs and Sox have both finished with winning records only 20 times – only seven since the 1930s.

Check back in July for a better idea what to expect this time around. That’s when the Cubs and Sox play a pair of games in each park over a four-night stretch, July 25-28.

“If we could both sustain this kind of play, it could make for a very interesting summer,” Maddon said. “I think you live in this city, and you have that stuff going on, what could possibly beat that?”