Being from Chicago, I grew up watching Bears and Cubs games with my grandfather till he died in 1988. But during my lifetime, I guess you can say the “Second City’s” second team has had its fair share of ups, winning two World Series titles, and they had the “Go-Go” Sox making the Fall Classic in ’59, where they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They also had the “Winning Ugly” club in ’83, and with the “Big Hurt” Frank Thomas and Bo Jackson leading the way, they won the ’93 AL West title a year before both leagues birthed the Central Division.
With those highlights, there’s been a lot of downs post the “Black Sox” scandal, which devastated the franchise. They were largely bad to mediocre and had only won 100 games in a season a single time in their history. Even worse, any momentum they had after ’93 was destroyed by the 1994 strike. They remained steady, but they weren’t close enough to either match the Cleveland Indians or Minnesota Twins.
Thankfully, things changed with the arrival of former Sox player and fiery manager Ozzie Guillen. When he came back to Chicago in 2004, I knew they were soon going to be champions. This season marks 20 years since the Chicago White Sox capped off an amazing run with their third World Series title! Despite everything they’ve done in 2005, the Sox have largely been ignored. They shouldn’t be if you love Baseball, it’s time to give them their flowers.
My tribute to the 2005 Chicago White Sox!
Let’s get to the roster, shall we? Going by the lineup starting the World Series against Houston, the starting infield had catcher A.J. Pierzynski, team captain Paul Konerko at first, Tadahito Iguchi at second, Juan Uribe at short, Joe Crede at third, and the outfield had Scott Posednik, Aaron Rowand, and Jermaine Dye. I must note that, sadly for those not old enough to remember ’05, Frank Thomas couldn’t play in the Postseason as he had a foot fracture; so, Carl Everett took his spot as designated hitter. The defense can’t do its job without quality pitching, and the White Sox had it in spades! Mark Buerhle led the starting rotation, and following him were Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras, Jon Garland, and “El Duque” Orlando Hernandez. These gentlemen made the core of a rock-solid team.
Some of the key players mentioned either came via trade, like Scott Podsednik from the Milwaukee Brewers, along with Luis Vizciano, in exchange for power-hitter Carlos Lee. While Iguchi, Dye, Pierzyski, and “El Duque” were all free agents, and one more key piece was cleared off waivers, closer Bobby Jenks! Ozzie wanted a team that, instead of relying on home runs to win ballgames, would instead focus on playing small ball, smart ball. Simply, playing the game as it’s supposed to be played.
Playing rock-solid, textbook Baseball, the Sox got off to their best start in franchise history. They sent four players to the All-Star Game that season, which helped the AL win and thus guaranteed home-field advantage in the World Series, and more importantly, they had a 15.5 game lead going into August. The only other downers besides Frank being out were that they hid the skids during the month, including a stretch where they lost seven straight games while the Cleveland Indians were red-hot not only contributed to them falling just short of winning 100 games as their total ended at 99, and by the near-end of September, their insurmountable lead shrank down to just a couple games. Thankfully, they got it together and beat the Detroit Tigers on September 29th to clinch the AL Central Division title!
In spite falling one game short of winning 100 and tying the St. Louis Cardinals for the Major Leagues’ best record, they were solid on offense scoring almost 750 runs and leading the leagues in sacrifice bunts (53) while their defense gave up only 645 runs which ranked for the third best defense in MLB and their 3.61 ERA was tied for best in the league while also ringing up nine complete games. Jon Garland was awesome as he was sixth in wins for a pitcher (18) and was third in shutouts (3).
ALDS
In the ALDS vs. the defending champion Boston Red Sox, the ChiSox got rolling! They crushed Boston 14-2. In Game 2, I recall the 5th inning off Jerry Graffinino with one out and Tadahito Iguchi with two outs, hitting a screamer into the left field seats, giving the White Sox a three-run homer and a 5-4 lead. They held on to win that game, and in the 6th inning of Game 3 in Boston, with bases loaded with no outs, “El Duque got two pop-ups, and he got Johnny Damon to strike out! He followed that up with two strikeouts and a groundout to first in the 7th and essentially smothered the Red Sox rally for good.
ALCS
I was concerned about Game 1 of the ALCS vs. the Anaheim Angels. Even when they played three straight games in three days in a row in three different cities, they were still very dangerous. Jose Contreras had a solid pitching night, but it didn’t matter; the Sox lost 3 to 2.
The White Sox were in danger of going down 0-2, but they got a huge break with Pierzynski striking out, but awarded first base as the ball did hit the dirt and he wasn’t tagged. Joe Crede won the game with a double to left field! Starting with Mark Buehrle, the White Sox reverse-swept the Angels with their starting pitchers’ four complete games in a row! Just an amazing accomplishment!
World Series
I’ll be short and sweet with the World Series recap. Houston had a deadly pitching staff of their own with the “Rocket” Roger Clemens starting Game 1, Andy Pettitte in Game 2, 20-game winner Roy Oswalt, and Brandon Back, who had a magnificent Game 4. Joe Crede gave the Sox a lead, 4-3, and flashed his glove in the 7th. After Neal Cotts helped in relief for Jose Contreras in the 8th, in comes the big closer Bobby Jenks!! Then, after he struck out Jeff Bagwell, he locked Houston up in the 9th to win Game 1!
Game 1 marked the first time the city of Chicago had seen any World Series game since 1959, and for Houston, it would be their first appearance in the Fall Classic. And Game 3 would mark the first World Series game ever played in the state of Texas. I thought St. Louis would play the Sox in the World Series, but the Astros were very dangerous. Besides Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, they had Brad Ausmus, Lance Berkman, Mike Lamb, Willy Tavares, Jake Lamb, Morgan Ensberg, Adam Everett, and Jason Lane to complete their starting lineup.
Game 1 started off exciting! Jermaine Dye hit a home run in the 1st inning against the legendary Roger Clemens, while Lamb hit his homer off Contreras to tie it at one. After Juan Uribe hit a two-run double in the 2nd, Berkman did the same to lock it up at 3-3. Unfortunately for the ‘Stros, 54 pitches that early would ground the Rocket. Joe Crede was clutch in that game, scoring two more runs and playing All-Star defense led to Neal Cotts coming in to relieve Contreras in the 8th inning before Bobby Jenks shut down Houston, getting the last four outs!
Game 2 started off very differently. First, it was raining and Morgan Ensberg hit a home run, giving Houston their first ever lead in the World Series, but I then remember Aaron Rowand being confused at Pierzynski’s shot to left field, thinking it was going to be caught, and as a result, he was at second, not third. But up came Joe Crede, who hit to right, and on the next bat, I also remember Biggio dropping the ball, allowing Pierzynski to come home. In the 5th inning, the dangerous Lance Berkman got a clutch hit with two men on base.
After going down 4-2, the Sox would get a double whammy of good fortune with a walk to Jermaine Dye, and Paul Konerko would hit a Grand Slam for the ages! The Sox took the lead 6-4 in the 7th inning! After Houston tied the game up in the 9th inning, Scott Podsednik, who didn’t have any home runs in 2005, nailed one in the bottom of the 9th to walk off Game 2!
After trailing 4-0, the Sox really took it to Oswalt, and Iguchi, followed by Dye, and then Pierzynski scored key RBIs and gave them the lead 5-4! Houston tied it up in the 8th, but a former Astro would decide the fate of both teams with a massive swing. I knew Geoff Blum from seeing him play with the Astros against the Cubs; I had just gotten a pizza for a midnight snack while watching the game, and had a feeling he would hit a home run to give the Sox the lead. Sure enough, he did in the top of the 14th inning! Buehrle would come out of the pen to shut down the Astros to lock up Game 3. The game would become the longest World Series game in terms of the length (5 hours and 41 minutes), and it tied for the longest in number of innings with 14 until that was broken in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series.
Game 4 was incredible. Freddy Garcia and Brandon Backe gave us one of the most underrated pitching battles we’ve ever seen, and it wasn’t till the 8th inning that Jermaine Dye hit a rock-solid shot up the middle to score Willie Harris from third did we see a score. Watching in the living room with my mom resting on the couch, with one out, Bobby Jenks got a much-needed foul pop up with Juan Uribe going into the stands, and he would have one of the best catches ever! Following that, Jenks thankfully would get a chopped curveball off of speedster Orlando Palmeiro, who could burn it, and Juan Uribe was able to get the ball and throw it to Konerko for the final out! The White Sox win the World Series!!!
That night was also MLB’s celebration of its Latino Legends from the past, such as Roberto Clemente, Pedro Martinez, Fernando Venezuela, and Rod Carew, and on that night Venezuelan Ozzie Guillen became the first Hispanic manager to win a World Series.
I didn’t go to the parade but watched it on TV; it was fun seeing the city of Chicago celebrate a World Series title. Unfortunately, the Sox haven’t been back to the Fall Classic since, and the 2005 Championship team has largely been forgotten; but they shouldn’t be, as they weren’t a collection of All-Stars; but they were a real team. Plus, even though they didn’t win a hundred games, they became the fifth team to go wire-to-wire, being in first place every day to winning the World Series, and they also went 11-1 in the Postseason.
