Cubs vs. White Sox (South Side vs. North Side)

Lore & Background

The 2005 White Sox season was the team's 105th. Under manager Ozzie Guillén, the team finished with a 99–63 record, winning the American League Central by six games over the Cleveland Indians. In the playoffs, they swept the defending champion Boston Red Sox in the Division Series, defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 4–1 in the Championship Series, and swept the Houston Astros in the World Series, ending the 88-year-long Curse of the Black Sox championship drought.

In Their Own Story

October 2016. Wrigley Field. The stands are a single, heaving organism of red and white, and the air smells like deep-dish grease and cut grass. A Cubs fan in a faded '2016' jersey — one he bought on a whim in August, half-joking — is pressed against the railing in the third-base bleachers, his arms wrapped around the person next to him, both of them screaming at a pitch that is, impossibly, in the dirt. The Dodgers are out. The Cubs are champions. He is crying. He doesn't care who sees. Across the city, in a bar on Ashland Avenue, a White Sox fan in a 2005 cap watches the same broadcast on a small TV above the bar, raises his glass to no one in particular, and says, quiet and flat, 'See you next year.' The bartender, a Cubs guy, doesn't even look up. Outside, the October wind off the river carries the sound of someone's radio, still playing, still going, and neither side of the city is going to sleep tonight.

Reader's Guide

The White Sox play their home games at a ballpark on the South Side. The team's best hitter in 2005 was first baseman Paul Konerko, who hit 40 home runs, had 100 RBIs, and batted .283. Key offseason additions included Jermaine Dye, Dustin Hermanson, Scott Podsednik, Bobby Jenks, Orlando Hernández, A. J. Pierzynski, and Tadahito Iguchi.

Did You Know?

• The White Sox had a total attendance of 2,342,833 in 2005, 7th in the American League.
• The White Sox remained in first place in the division for the entire 2005 season, making their World Series victory a wire-to-wire win.
• Geoff Blum, acquired in a July 31, 2005 trade, hit the winning home run in the top of the 14th inning in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series.