After an 88-year dryspell the Chicago White Sox have won the World Series:
HOUSTON — This one’s for you, Chicago. Old Chicago, new Chicago, and all of Chicago that cares about the Chicago White Sox.
Make that the world-champion Chicago White Sox. They earned that distinction for the first time since 1917—that’s 88 years if you’re counting, and most Sox fans most assuredly are—by besting the Houston Astros in the World Series, completing an improbable four-game sweep Wednesday night with a 1-0 victory that literally came down to the final pitch.
Series MVP Jermaine Dye singled home the only run of the game, Freddy Garcia and three relievers combined on a five-hit shutout and shortstop Juan Uribe made two remarkable fielding plays to end it, touching off a wild celebration among team members who knew it wasn’t as easy as they might have made it look. Two of the games were decided by one run and the 14-inning Game 3 marathon was a two-run affair.
“I congratulate the Chicago White Sox,” Astros manager Phil Garner said. “They played well all year, and they deserve to be called world champions.”
Sox fans from Bourbonnais to Barrington joined the party vicariously, as did the few hundred who had made their way to Minute Maid Park. After watching so many fans in so many other cities celebrate so often, it was almost as if they didn’t know what to do with themselves besides smile, shout and hug somebody.
Congratulations, South Siders!
With Boston’s win last year and the White Sox’ win this year all we’ve got left are the victims of the only genuine curse in the major leagues: the Cubs.
It was a great, exciting series and nowhere near as one-sided as the simple fact of the White Sox win in 4 would seem to imply. Every single game was a nailbiter that could have gone either way.
With this win, BTW, the Sox became the only team in major league history to win the World Series by winning two games back-to-back in a single day.
As I was preparing this post I went first to the Sun-Times and was stunned at the incredibly poor, vapid article that was on the site. The first three paragraphs are a salute to multi-culturalism/multi-nationalism. The remainder of the article is an intercutting of anecdotes and quotes on the game, continued emphasis on the multi-national quality of the White Sox roster, and a litany of great White Sox players of the past. The article ends with a criticism of the Sox’ performance in the World Series.
This might conceivably have been a good article a month ago or a month from now. But for the first White Sox world championship in 88 years? C’mon, now. The focus should be on the game itself and, possibly, the reaction in Chicago. Leave the peripheral stuff for another day.
Oh, for the days of who-what-where-when! Check your point-of-view nonsense at the gate.
