SABR Digital Library: The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox: Grinders and Gamers
Add a new baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:
The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox: Grinders and Gamers
Edited by Eric Conrad, Mark Morowczynski, Bill Nowlin, and Don Zminda
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
Foreword by Jerry Reinsdorf
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-36-9, $9.99
ISBN (paperback) 978-1-960819-37-6, $34.95
8.5″ x 11″, 326 pages
The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox: Grinders and Gamers, published on the twentieth anniversary of the team’s historic World Series victory, celebrates the club that broke “the curse of the Black Sox” to finally bring the White Sox a championship after an 87-year drought. Featuring biographies of every player on the club’s roster in 2005—from the big stars like Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle to the “cup of coffee” players like Jamie Burke and David Sanders—the book also includes bios of owner Jerry Reinsdorf (who also contributed the Foreword), general manager Kenny Williams, manager Ozzie Guillén and his coaching staff, the team’s television and radio broadcasters, and the club’s home ballpark. More than a dozen articles cover key games, from Buehrle’s Opening Day 1-0 gem (in an hour and 51 minutes) to Game Four of the World Series against the Houston Astros—another 1-0 White Sox victory. Additional essays tell the story of how this club of “grinding and games” fought its way to the title.
The 2005 White Sox won their championship in truly dominating fashion. Only the fifth team in major-league history to win a World Series after leading their division or league every day of the regular season, the White Sox went 11-1 during their postseason run, finishing with a four-game sweep of the Houston Astros. A throwback to teams of the past that relied on durable starting pitchers, the team’s mound staff boasted four starting pitchers who worked 200 or more innings. In the League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Angels, White Sox starters worked all but two-thirds of an inning in the four-games-to-one triumph and finished the series with four straight complete-game wins—a postseason feat last accomplished in 1928. On offense the club was powerful enough to belt 200 home runs—fourth most in the American League—yet it also led the league in sacrifice hits and finished third in stolen bases. The multifaceted tactics known as “Ozzie-ball” resulted in a major-league-high 35 one-run wins—and an unforgettable championship season.
This book is a project of the Chicago chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, but members of many other local chapters contributed with writing, researching, fact-checking and editing. A total of 57 SABR members worked on the book.
Contributors include: Tom Alesia, Malcolm Allen, Phil Angelo, Doug Barker, John Bauer, Robert Bionaz, Alex Blair, Ben Blotner, Ken Carrano, Alan Cohen, Eric Conrad, Carter Cromwell, Richard Cuicchi, Tim Deale, Alex Edelman, Joey Elledge, J.P. Garrett, Jeremy Gibbs, Steve Ginader, Andrew Harner, Jeff Howard, Kenneth Huang, Mike Huber, Brian Jacoby, Ann S. Johnson, Christopher Kamka, Norm King, Sean Kolodziej, Gerard Kwilecki, Bob LeMoine, Len Levin, Will MacLean, Roby Mammon, Jim Maraglus, Michael Marsh, Chad Moody, Mark Morowczynski, Bill Nowlin, Richard O’Connor, Tony S. Oliver, Bill Pearch, Zac Petrillo, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, Juan José Rodriguez, Jason Scheller, Tom Shaer, Russ Speiller, Bill Staples Jr., Mark S. Sternman, Ryan Van Der Karr, William M. “Matt” Vines, Joseph Wancho, Kirk Weber, Bob Webster, Besnik Zekiri, and Don Zminda.
SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get a 50% discount on The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox paperback edition from the SABR Store ($19.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
Buy the book
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox for $9.99 from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get the paperback edition of The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox from the SABR Store ($39.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
About the SABR Digital Library
For more than 50 years, SABR and its members have led the way in publishing the best baseball historical and statistical research. Our publications program is shifting to take advantage of new methods of publishing. Not only will we continue to publish new books like Can He Play? A Look At Baseball Scouts and Their Profession (2011); Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (2013); Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox (2015); Jackie Robinson: Perspectives on 42 (2021), ¡Arriba! The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (2022); and Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan (2023); which showcase the best efforts of SABR’s members, chapters and committees, but new technology makes it possible for us to bring out-of-print titles like When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Champion Red Sox (2018); Green Cathedrals (2020); and The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World (2021) back again.
Visit SABR.org/ebooks to find all past titles and download your favorites. Books will be available in digital formats as well as paperbacks produced by “print on demand” (POD).
SABR members can download all Digital Library e-book editions for free and save 50% on purchase of the paperback editions. If you’re not a member, click here to join SABR.
Stay tuned throughout the year for new (and old!) titles that we’ll be adding to the SABR Digital Library. To learn more about SABR Publications, contact Publications Editor Cecilia Tan at ctan@sabr.org.
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Originally published: March 11, 2025. Last Updated: March 6, 2025.