Introduction: The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox: Grinders and Gamers

Chicago is a city with many nicknames. Its “Windy City” moniker originated in the late 1800s as a comment on the city’s long-winded politicians, but if you stand on the corner of Jackson and Wabash downtown today, you might beg to differ when that wind comes off the lake. Famous poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago the “City of Big Shoulders” for its hard-working blue-collar citizens – a characterization that is still connected to many current South Side residents. Chicago was also called “The Second City,” a term first used as an insult that Chicago was “lesser than” New York by journalist A.J. Liebling of the New Yorker. Chicagoans now use the term with pride.

The White Sox are the Second City’s second team. We have a chip on our shoulder and for good reason. When you say you are a baseball fan from Chicago, many people assume you are a Cubs fan. The Cubs had the longest World Series drought, 108 years; the White Sox rank second at 87 years, but much less was made about that fanbase’s long suffering. When it comes to baseball curses, the curse of the Black Sox or the curse of Shoeless Joe is lesser known than the Curse of the Bambino, which the Red Sox allegedly suffered for selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. When Shoeless Joe Jackson was portrayed by Ray Liotta in the film Field of Dreams, they had him bat right-handed and throw left-handed. Jackson actually batted lefty and threw righty. Imagine any of the movies showing the great Ruth hitting and throwing from the right side! But this movie’s mistake went unnoticed.

In over 100 years of major-league baseball, only 10 teams have led their division from the first day to the last day of the season. This is frequently referred to as going wire-to-wire. Of those 10, only five went on to also win the World Series: the 1927 Yankees, the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, the 1984 Detroit Tigers, the 1990 Cincinnati Reds, and the 2005 White Sox. That is a rare group to be included in. The 2005 White Sox also went 11-1 in the playoffs, which is tied with the 1999 New York Yankees for the best postseason record in the wild-card era that began in 1995. Whether generally known or not, those are impressive accomplishments.

Finally, after coming up short in the playoffs in 1959, 1983, 1993, and 2000 – not to mention having the 1994 season lost while sitting with the second-best record in the AL – there was a championship baseball team in Chicago. The Cubs had come close in 2003 before their painful and famous collapse. The city was ready to celebrate the White Sox World Series victory with a parade that started at US Cellular Field and wound through many South Side neighborhoods including Bridgeport, Bronzeville, Chinatown, Pilsen, and Little Italy, eventually making its way to the Loop, where members of the team spoke in front of the Chicago Board of Trade. The players rode in double-decker buses waving to what seemed like half the city. Attendance at the White Sox victory parade was estimated at 1.75 million. Like all larger gatherings of people, estimate is a kind way to say they have really no idea. Don’t mention that number in earshot of a Cubs fan, though. They will remind you that when the Cubs finally won their elusive World Series title 11 years later, attendance at their parade was estimated at five million. Of course it was.

The Sox’ 2005 World Series title was truly a team win. Frank Thomas, at age 37, was, to date, the only future Hall of Famer on this team. And Thomas was only a minor contributor to the 2005 crown, limited to just 34 games that year in June and late July before refracturing the same left ankle that he had surgery on the previous year. Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, and Paul Konerko were named All-Stars. Scott Podsednik won the “All-Star Final Vote” in the first year text-message voting was allowed.

As a team, the 2005 White Sox did the little things right. They played “Ozzie ball.” Singles and bases on balls magically turned into runs with steals and sacrifices. The team’s pitching staff was fourth in the league in ERA and third in complete games. They had 35 one-run victories. The team’s average bWAR was 1.2, slightly better than an average player. But as a team, they were great.

With such a dominant regular and postseason performance, surely now the White Sox would get their due. An odd thing happened, however: The team seemed to disappear from baseball fans’ minds like a ghost returning to the cornfield. Would you believe ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports (so ESPN says), forgot to mention them as the 2005 World Series winner, not once, but twice, in back-to-back years, no less? If you are a White Sox fan, you believe it. We are used to it.

Twenty years after that memorable season, it’s time to give the 2005 White Sox their due. The contributions of 57 SABR members to this book produced many new SABR biographies, more than a dozen new games recapped, and a number of essays. This was truly a team effort on the part of the SABR Chicago chapter, as well as by members of many other SABR chapters. A big thanks goes to co-editor Bill Nowlin, for kick-starting the investigation into this project and finding time to guide this book, as he’s done for countless other SABR projects.

Completing this book would have been a much more difficult—if not impossible—task without the extraordinary support we received from the Chicago White Sox. Particular thanks go to Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who contributed the heartfelt and personal Foreword. Special thanks also go to Scott Reifert, Vice President of Communications for the White Sox, and to Megan Biasotti, Darren Georgia, Billy Russo, and the other members of the White Sox staff who provided us with photos and contact information, and who generously supported our project from beginning to end. Thanks also to SABR member Ken Smoller for allowing access to his own White Sox photos for use in the book.

This book was produced over the course of another historic White Sox season, but for the wrong kind of history. The 2024 White Sox set the modern-day record of losses with a 41-121 record, surpassing the hapless 1962 Mets. Many franchises’ worst records were broken, but that will have to wait for a different SABR project. After a season like 2024, the 2005 team doesn’t feel 20 years away, it feels much closer to 87 years.

With every spring training, there is always hope. A fresh season lies ahead; what if things break right this year? In 2005 they surely did for the White Sox. Here they were first, and this book is to make sure they are not forgotten. We hope you enjoy looking back on this truly unique season as you do looking ahead, where anything can happen.

• E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of The 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox for FREE from the SABR Store. Nonmembers pay $9.99. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
• Paperback: Get a 50% SABR member 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.)
• Biographies: Read biographies of the 2005 Chicago White Sox team online at the SABR BioProject
• Game recaps: Read stories of memorable games from the 2005 Chicago White Sox season online at the SABR Games Project
  
• Essays:
  • Foreword: Champagne Toasts and Cemeteries, by Jerry Reinsdorf
  • How the 2005 Chicago White Sox were built, by Jim Margalus
  • Grinding and Believing: A Recipe for Success on a Historic 2005 White Sox Journey, by Jeff Allan Howard
  • 2005 Chicago White Sox: Local and national media cover the breaking of another so-called curse, by Tom Shaer