NOW , seventeen days after the conclusion of the 2 0 0 5

WORLD SERIES , some retrospective . . . .



Who could have foreseen the BOSTON RED SOX and

the CHICAGO WHITE SOX , both into their ninth decade

of championshipless baseball , winning the World Series

in successive years ? What kind of astronomical odds

would bookmakers have offered the wagerin ' Fool

who picked this particular ' Quinela ' ?



As a Fan , I understand well the disappointment other

Fans endure . I comprehend the delerium of long -

suffering Fans of ( fill in the blank ) when at last

their ballclub reaches the summit . When the

White Sox , as the most compelling example ,

FINALLY win a World Series after eighty - eight

( 8 8 ! ) years without , I am mindful that many ' s

the ChiSox fan lived and died without ever seeing

their team reach the pinnacle .



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Certain remarkable parallels become apparent when one

compares the 2 0 0 5 Chicago White Sox , American League

Champions , with the last previous White Sox team to take

the Pennant . ( 1 ) - - THE VENEZUELAN SHORTSTOP /

Actually , manager OZZIE GUILLEN is no longer an active

Major League ballplayer , butt he IS from Venezuela , he did

play shortstop , and he played much of his career with the

White Sox . Forty - six years earlier ( 1 9 5 9 ) , LUIS

APARICIO , Venezuelan National , shortstop , played for

the last White Sox team of the Twentieth Century to reach

the World Series .



( 2 ) - - CUBA / The 1 9 5 9 ChiSox had ORESTES

" MINNIE " MINOSO in the outfield . Minoso was a

native of Cuba , as are two contemporary White Sox

pitchers , JOSE CONTRERAS and ORLANDO

" EL DUQUE " HERNANDEZ .



( 3 ) - - AL LOPEZ / During the decade of the 1 9 5 0 ' s ,

only two teams prevented the NEW YORK YANKEES

from monopolizing the American League pennant ,

the 1 9 5 4 CLEVELAND INDIANS and the 1 9 5 9

ChiSox . Al Lopez managed BOTH of those teams .

Now this , to be sure , is a tenuous connection between

the White Sox of ' 5 9 and the White Sox of ' 0 5 ,

butt is nevertheless worth mentioning . Al Lopez ,

still alive ( Ninety - Seven ! ) at the time of the

2 0 0 5 Post - Season , lived JUST long enough to

see the White Sox win the 2 0 0 5 Series .

( Lopez died 3 0 October 2 0 0 5 . )



( 4 ) - - UNIFORMS / During my Youth the

White Sox wore some of the BUTT - UGLIEST

uniforms in memory ; one writer , R . D . ROSEN

if memory serves , said of the White Sox that they

were baseball ' s version of the Woman who could

never decide what to wear , so often did their

ensemble change , generally for the worse . To

the credit of the White Sox - - and a number of

other Major League teams - - they returned to

their roots ; the Sox reinstated the uniforms of

five decades earlier , white with black pinstripes .



( Why the hell would anyone design a uniform - -

such as that worn by the White Sox in the early

1 9 8 0 ' s - - with numerals on the player ' s

THIGH ? ! Why would anyone need to look just

left of the player ' s CROTCH for his number ? )



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The Chicago White Sox are now the most recent

of the " Second City ' s " ChampionShip teams ,

supplanting the CHICAGO BULLS , whose last

N . B . A . ChampionShip run concluded 1 9 9 8 .

Prior to the White Sox and the Bulls , the N . F . L . ' s

CHICAGO BEARS won their lone Super Bowl

appearance , 2 4 January 1 9 8 6 , over the

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS , 4 6 to 1 0 .



That leaves the CHICAGO CUBS ( 1 9 0 8 ) and

the N . H . L . ' s CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

( 1 9 6 1 ) as the ChiTown teams denied the

longest . The Cubs , ninety - seven years without

a World Series Championship , have no peer in

North American Major Professional Team Sport

for haplessness . The BlackHawks , whose loyal

Fans include this Typist , actually hadn ' t gone

without as long as the NEW YORK RANGERS

and the DETROIT RED WINGS , butt the

Rangers took the STANLEY CUP in 1 9 9 4 ,

their first in fifty - four ( 5 4 ! ) years ,

whereas the forty - two seasons of Cup -

lessness ended for the Wings in 1 9 9 7 .

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Chicago ' s American League Pennant makes a liar of

PETER GAMMONS , who picked the MINNESOTA TWINS

to win the American League in 2 0 0 5 . I don ' t mean to

pick on Peter Gammons , for whom I have a high regard - -

something I VERY seldom say about sportswriters . Rather ,

I mention it because Gammon ' s prediction

seemed so astonishing to hear .



I believed the Twins were NOT a significantly better team

than the White Sox in 2 0 0 4 , and that Chicago improved

its ballclub considerably prior to 2 0 0 5 . As it is , not only

did the Twins finish behind the Sox , they ended WELL -

BACK of the first - place Sox AND the second - place

Indians . Really , the Twins were not much of a factor in

the 2 0 0 5 campaign , in which six very good teams - -

the ANGELS , the ATHLETICS , the INDIANS , the

RED SOX , the WHITE SOX and the YANKEES - -

competed furiously for the four post - season berths .



Chicago ' s playoff run was tremendous - - twelve

games , just one more than the minimum , every one

a White Sox victory save the opening game of the

2 0 0 5 American League Championship Series .

Only the 1 9 9 9 New York Yankees , also 1 1 and 1 ,

have a comparable record in the era of the eight -

team Major League tournament .



Seeing the A . L . C . S . vis - a - vis the World

Series was a very notable contrast : the White Sox

received FOUR ( 4 ! ) successive Complete Games

from their rotation against the Angels . Thus ,

MARK BUEHRLE , JON GARLAND , FRED

GARCIA and aforementioned Jose Contreras

pitched nine innings apiece in games Two ,

Three , Four and Five . Against the Astros in the

World Series , manager Guillen made use of his

bullpen in every game , particularly the fourteen -

inning ordeal of Game Three .



Now , the teams with the lengthiest schneids are :



The CHICAGO CUBS ( 1 9 0 8 )

The CLEVELAND INDIANS ( 1 9 4 8 )

The SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS ( 1 9 5 4 , at which

time they were the NEW YORK GIANTS )

The PITTSBURGH PIRATES ( 1 9 7 9 )

The PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES ( 1 9 8 0 )

The ST . LOUIS CARDINALS ( 1 9 8 2 )

The BALTIMORE ORIOLES ( 1 9 8 3 )

The DETROIT TIGERS ( 1 9 8 4 )

The KANSAS CITY ROYALS ( 1 9 8 5 )

The NEW YORK METS ( 1 9 8 6 )

The LOS ANGELES DODGERS ( 1 9 8 8 )

The OAKLAND ATHLETICS ( 1 9 8 9 )

The CINCINNATI REDS ( 1 9 9 0 )

The MINNESOTA TWINS ( 1 9 9 1 )

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS ( 1 9 9 3 )

The ATLANTA BRAVES ( 1 9 9 5 )

The NEW YORK YANKEES ( 2 0 0 0 )

The ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS ( 2 0 0 1 )

The ANAHEIM ANGELS ( 2 0 0 2 )

The FLORIDA MARLINS ( 2 0 0 3 )

The BOSTON RED SOX ( 2 0 0 4 )



Counting the 2 0 0 5 White Sox , some NINETEEN

different franchises have won the World Series at least

once since 1 9 7 9 , over a twenty - seven season span .

This abundantly reaffirms GEORGE WILL ' s observation ,

in his excellent baseball essay book titled BUNTS , that

Major League Baseball entered its most competitive era

by far with the advent of FREE AGENCY . The

reactionary folk who insisted Free Agency would

benefit just a select few teams , would badly erode

competitiveness , have been proven amply wrong .



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