World Series 2005 Discussion. White Sox vs. Houston.

pp2

They weren't choking, Cleveland was playing out of their minds. The Sox were playing around .500 ball (and not well, no doubt) but the Indians won something like 42 of 54 games or something...no lead can withstand something like that unless its huge to begin with. Keep in mind at the beginning of the year the Sox were playing like Cleveland was at the end, and most people dismissed it and instead focused on how the Yankees were doing.

Now, going to the playoffs...again, most people did NOT give the Sox a chance or respect. They were the underdogs in their ALDS series with Boston. Even after they bombed the BoSox 14-2 to open it, it became "Wells will right things in game 2". And? He didn't. Then it was the crafty Tim Wakefield who would wake up Boston, who btwincaseyoudidntknowandchancesareyouforgot came back from 0-3 against the Yankees last year. That is ALL we heard about this series was Boston's run last year. At the end of game 3, when it looked like the ChiSox were gonna end it in a sweep, did we hear about the ALCS or what a great job the White Sox did? Nope, we heard more about the 0-3 thing...we actually saw frgging footage from their sweep of the Cardinals...nothing about the White Sox.

So lets move on to the ALCS. After the media is over the shock of both its darlings being eliminated it was about Anaheim. They beat the Yankees for cryin out loud, they MUST be great. (Note: Anaheim IS a good team, not disrespecting them)

So the focus is on how they had to travel from NY to LA to Chicago in 3 days to play...gasp...a baseball game. What, did they travel by bus? Where's the hardship, really? So the Sox lose game 1 (if only Contreras had gone home instead of to second with the grounder...ah well) and its all about Anaheim and their gutty pitchers and GREAT bullpen. Then game 2 is about a bad umpire call. Never mind the fact Crede came up next and hit the double, or the fact that the Sox might have won it anyway in the 10th. And for the record, I still say the ball was trapped...its possible he did catch it clean, but from the angle the ball takes and the speed it bounces at, it looks to me like it hit something harder than leather. Plus Josh Paul (who sucked when he played here and obviously still sucks) should have known better and instead of being too lazy to put a tag on AJ just nonchalanted the ball to the mound.

So all through that series it was made to sound like the umps handed the games to the Sox. Then the whole Angels team went into a slump for the series. Nevermind the 4 complete games or the fact the Angles hit about .170 in the series...its wasn't the Sox pitching doing it, it was just bad luck for Anaheim. But I will say at this point the smarter members of the media were joining the few from the beginning, and I'm sure the fans who knew baseball (like several people here for example) saw what was happening and understood it.

Whatever anyone thinks of the Sox or the series, remember a couple things. First, no one here cares about it being the lowest rated series ever. Honestly, we don't care if anyone at all was watching. The end result is all that matters.

Second, our pitching shut down 2 high powered AL offenses and then handcuffed a decent NL offense with a .203 BA in the WS while hitting .268 as a team, about season average for them. Those 4 consecutive complete games? Not even Atlanta's staff of the 90s pulled that off, that alone was historical...the effort from those guys.

Third, the Sox are only the third team in history to lead their division wire to wire and win the WS.

All in all? Probably the best team no one heard of. Not the best team ever or one of the best, but still damn good and deserving of being champions.