October 26, 2005: ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ — White Sox complete sweep of Astros to win first World Series in 88 years

The Chicago White Sox celebrate on the pitcher’s mound at Minute Maid Park in Houston after winning Game Four of the 2005 World Series. (Courtesy of Ken Smoller)

People kept talking about the history. Eighty-eight years since the White Sox last won the World Series in 1917. Eighty-six since the Black Sox Scandal “cursed” them to lose forever. One year after the Red Sox, whom the White Sox swept in the first round of the playoffs, swept the Cardinals to end their own 86-year championship drought and cured their own “curse.”

They even threw some rock history into the mix. After winning the AL pennant over the Angels, catcher A.J. Pierzynski blasted Journey’s 1981 hit, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” in the locker room. Then the team adopted it as a theme song and invited the vocalist and co-songwriter of the tune, Steve Perry, to join the scene for the World Series.1

As Tim McCarver framed it in the pregame telecast, “The White Sox have been playing a relentless brand of baseball in the postseason. It’s been so good that a lot of people feel they can beat any team from any era.”2 He never said who “a lot of people” actually were.

Game Four of the World Series. Up three games to none over the Astros. On the verge of a sweep. A team that had long been the Second City’s second team – where no fans figured they’d see a World Series championship in their lifetime. Chicago knew the stakes.

As Chris Myers said in the game telecast, “[Before the game] I talked to A.J. Pierzynski. He said, ‘We have to take care of business. We don’t wanna give them any life. We got ’em down. We wanna stomp on ’em. We wanna crush ’em.’ I said, ‘OK, I got the idea.’”3

The Astros had other plans. They fought hard. Both teams did. With neither team relenting, it was a fantastic game – a classic pitchers’ duel. The starting pitchers had done well during the season. Both right-handers, the Astros’ Brandon Backe was 10-8 for the season, and the White Sox’ Freddy García was 14-8 with a 3.87 ERA.

And both starters threw masterfully that night. So many chances, so many zeros.

In the top of the first, with two out, White Sox right fielder Jermaine Dye hit a double. In the bottom of the first, Astros second baseman Craig Biggio singled, then moved to second on a sacrifice by center fielder Willy Taveras. In the top of the third, speedy White Sox left fielder Scott Podsednik stretched a double to a triple. In the bottom of the sixth, Taveras singled, then went to second on walk to Lance Berkman. They executed a double steal. An intentional walk to Mike Lamb loaded the bases. In the top of the seventh, Aaron Rowand singled, then went to third on a double by Joe Crede. Some scary moments to score on both sides and all of them failed to score. Neither team could pull the trigger – nothing but doughnuts.

For seven innings, Backe and García traded zeroes like baseball cards.

In the eighth, the Astros brought in closer Brad Lidge. The first White Sox batter he faced was Willie Harris, pinch-hitting for pitcher García. Harris singled. Podsednik sacrificed Harris to second. Carl Everett, pinch-hitting for Tadahito Iguchi, grounded out, moving Harris to third. Up came Dye, who with two hits already had twice as many as anyone else in the game. He singled to center, scoring Harris with the first run of the game. Paul Konerko struck out, ending the top of the eighth, but the damage was done: White Sox 1, Astros 0.

In the bottom of the eighth, right-hander Cliff Politte came in for García. The first batter, Biggio, grounded out. But Taveras was hit by a pitch. A bit unnerved, Politte threw a wild pitch to the next batter, home-run threat Lance Berkman, and Taveras took second. With first base empty, the White Sox walked Berkman. Morgan Ensberg flied out, and Taveras moved to third. Left-hander Neal Cotts relieved Politte and José Vizcaíno pinch-hit for Lamb. Vizcaíno grounded out to end the threat.

In the top of the ninth, Pierzynski led off with a double, but was left stranded as Lidge struck out Rowand and Crede, then got Uribe to ground out.

Bobby Jenks, with a 2.75 ERA and a 1.246 WHIP earning him the closer role at season’s end, came in in the bottom of the ninth to finish the job. He gave up a leadoff single to center field by Astros right fielder Jason Lane. Lane went to second on a sacrifice by catcher Brad Ausmus. Chris Burke pinch-hit for shortstop Adam Everett and popped a foul down the third-base line almost out of play – but Uribe made a miracle catch, falling into the crowd, for out number two. Orlando Palmeiro pinch-hit for Lidge.

The final out, called by White Sox radio play-by-play voice John Rooney:

“From the stretch, with a runner at second, here’s the 1-and-2 pitch to Palmeiro – a groundball past Jenks, up the middle of the infield. Uribe has it. He throws. OUT! OUT! A White Sox winner, and a World Series championship! The White Sox have won the World Series, and they’re mobbing each other on the field!”4

As the mob ruled, celebrating on the mound, radio analyst, Southside Chicago native and 1980 White Sox All-Star closer Ed Farmer5 continued, “This is as good as it gets. The Sox are world champions in Chicago. Go crazy! … Enjoy the celebration, Chicago! This is looong overdue.”6 Soon sports journalists wandered out onto the field, looking for interviews with whomever they could. And they found a team that kept coming back to the chemistry.

Bobby Jenks, on how the team welcomed him during his midseason call-up from Double-A ball: “That’s what this team is all about all year long is just being one. It wasn’t ever just one hero all season it was … just pick somebody out of this crowd now and that was the hero of some day of the season.”7

General manager Ken Williams didn’t really like being asked if he considered himself MVP for putting the team together, and gave all the credit to the players: “There’s a whole bunch of MVPs and all of them are in the lineup … or coming off the bench.”8 When asked how they built the team, Williams replied, “For us, the foundation had to be the pitching. And Ozzie [Guillén] and I and the coaches, we just felt we wanted to be in more games. We’ve had a lot of talent here in the last few years, but we had to sacrifice a little bit on the talent end to get a lot of character people in here.”9

Future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, who was injured most of the season: “I gotta thank these guys, man. They put me on their back and carried me across the finish line.”10

Steve Perry, co-author and singer of the Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’,” said, “You have no idea what these guys have done for me emotionally.” He had stopped singing since leaving Journey, and was again feeling inspired.11 World Series MVP Jermaine Dye, from up on the podium: “We don’t have any egos on this team, I think what was what’s really special about this club. Every got along with each other and everybody just wanted to win.”12

Manager Ozzie Guillén, holding the World Series trophy in his hands, said: “I’m just happy for Jerry [Reinsdorf, team owner] and the Chicago fans. … They’ve been waiting for so long, so many years. … This is for Venezuela!”13

Both Guillen and Game Four winning pitcher García were from Venezuela. The major leagues had become more international – the 2005 White Sox also included two players from Cuba, six from the Dominican Republic, and two from Japan. The Japan Times wrote that second baseman Iguchi became the first Japanese to play on a World Series champion.14

And to everyone who celebrated around the world, as Pierzynski said, “I hope they lived it up and partied like it was 1917.”15

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and several YouTube videos containing copies of the original broadcast.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU200510260.shtml

Fox Sports broadcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaAsMEN7qbA

NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast: https://youtu.be/HaAsMEN7qbA?si=Vw2L25qY2gO41RSD

WMVP ESPN 1000 Radio World Series Game Four radio broadcast (partial): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRf4N4peXC8

2005 Chicago White Sox World Series Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNkHOvPGl0o

Notes

1 Terry Armour, “Don’t Stop Believin’ This,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2005, https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/10/18/dont-stop-believin-this/.

2 Fox Sports World Series Game Four broadcast, October 26, 2005.

3 Fox Sports World Series Game Four broadcast.

4 WMVP ESPN 1000 Radio World Series Game Four broadcast, October 26, 2005.

5 Phil Rosenthal, “White Sox Broadcasters John Rooney and Ed Farmer Call Game Action in the First Inning Against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 7, 2000,” Chicago Tribune, April 2, 2020, https://www.chicagotribune.com/2020/04/02/ed-farmer-the-voice-of-the-chicago-white-sox-for-almost-30-years-dies/.

6 WMVP ESPN 1000 Radio World Series Game Four broadcast, October 26, 2005.

7 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast, October 26, 2005.

8 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast.

9 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast.

10 2005 Chicago White Sox World Series Documentary DVD, MLB Productions, 2005.

11 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast.

12 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast.

13 NBC World Series Game Four postgame broadcast.

14 Kyodo, “Dream Come True for Iguchi as White Sox Win World Series,” Japan Times, October 28, 2005, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2005/10/28/baseball/mlb/dream-come-true-for-iguchi-as-white-sox-win-world-series/.

15 Doug Padilla, “Believe It!” White Sox: 2005 World Series Champions (Chicago: Chicago Sun-Times, 2005), 117.