2005 World Series Championship
The 2005 Chicago White Sox ended an 88-year championship drought with a wire-to-wire division title and a World Series sweep.
The 2005 Chicago White Sox season was the White Sox's 105th season. They finished with a record of 99 wins and 63 losses during the regular season and won the American League Central six games over the Cleveland Indians. In the playoffs, they won the American League Division Series 3–0 over the defending World Series Champions the Boston Red Sox; the American League Championship Series 4–1 over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; and swept the Houston Astros in the World Series, ending the 88-year-long Curse of the Black Sox championship drought.
- Series Result
- 4 games to 0
Lore & Background
The White Sox ended an 88-year World Series drought, last winning in 1917. Manager Ozzie Guillén, in his second season, pushed for a small-ball makeover. Key offseason additions included Jermaine Dye, Dustin Hermanson, Scott Podsednik, Bobby Jenks, Orlando Hernández, A. J. Pierzynski, and Tadahito Iguchi. The team led the division wire-to-wire, finishing with the best record in the American League.
In Their Own Story
The October night in Houston was humid, the kind of air that makes a baseball feel slick in the glove and turns a 90-mph fastball into a 95-mph fastball. Konerko stood in the box, chewing on his chin, watching the Astros pitcher wind up. He had been waiting his whole career for this — not the World Series, not the trophy, but this single pitch, this single moment where the 88 years of silence in Chicago would crack open like a bat hitting a ball at the perfect angle. He swung. The sound was not a crack but a thud, the kind that you feel in your sternum before you hear it. The ball cleared the fence and hung in the humid Houston sky for what felt like a geological age. Back in Chicago, on a thousand South Side porches and in a thousand living rooms, the sound of a bat hitting a ball had just become the sound of a city exhaling after nearly a century of holding its breath.
Reader's Guide
The White Sox began the season 17–7 in April and were 53–24 at the end of June. After a mid-summer slump, they finished strong, winning 8 of their last 10 games. Their best hitter was first baseman Paul Konerko, who hit 40 home runs, had 100 RBIs, and batted .283. In the postseason, they swept the Red Sox in the ALDS, beat the Angels 4–1 in the ALCS, and swept the Astros in the World Series.
Did You Know?
- Jermaine Dye hit 31 home runs in the 2005 regular season, not 49.
- A. J. Pierzynski batted .257 in 2005, not .327.
- The White Sox' last World Series win before 2005 was in 1917, not 1919.
- Scott Podsednik hit his first home run of the season in Game 2 of the ALDS.
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