By Staff
Take that, wait-'til-next-year Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers.
The Chicago White Sox swept the Houston Astros on Oct. 26.
While you wouldn't know it from the worst TV ratings for a World Series, only two teams in baseball history have won wire to wire, tallied the most victories in their league and also swept the Fall Classic.
The 2005 Chisox were one. The 1927 New York Yankees were the other.
You know, the famed Murderers' Row of Babe Ruth and Co.
Another achievement by the Sox is joining the 1997 Florida Marlins, that one-hit, wild-card wonder, as the only world champions without any 20-game winners or .300 hitters.
Perhaps one explanation for why viewers were so underwhelmed by the Pale Hose is that they also rank as the first team to sweep the Series while winning every game by no more than a run or two.
Their cumulative six-run advantage tied the '50 Yankees for the dinkiest sweep margin ever.
Chicago never beat a Houston starting pitcher.
The Sox tallied score-breaking runs in the fourth, ninth, 14th and eighth innings.
Game 3 didn't end until 1:20 a.m. Central time after 341 minutes, 43 players, 17 pitchers and 14 innings.
Visiting author Jeffrey Eugenides missed much less of that game than he thought he might and could see it conclude at the Wounded Minnow.
At Dowagiac Middle School he talked about postmodern writing.
Eugenides might have talked about postmodern baseball.
How ironic that Chicago and its cousin in futility and footwear , the Boston Red Sox, won back-to-back titles 365 days apart after waiting 174 years.
Sports Illustrated figured out that's a combined 63,554 days.
When the White Sox won their first World Series in 88 years, nobody talked about a curse breaking. Since they last won a championship in 1917, the South Siders had thrown as many World Series (1919) as they lost legitimately (1959).
Chicago joined the '62 Yankees as the only team to clinch the World Series by winning a 1-0 road game. It was the 20th time, including the postseason. Only the 1970 Orioles, a ball club that finished with 108 wins, enjoyed more such victories, 22. The 2005 Chisox also matched that mighty Baltimore squad by finishing with such a flurry - 16-1, including 11-1 in games decided by two runs or less. In the last 29 days, the Sox lost once, 3-2, to the American League Championship Series opener to the Los Angeles Angels. No other team except those '70 Birds claimed a world title by winning 16 of its final 17 games.
The White Sox and the 2004 Red Sox are the only teams to win eight straight postseason games.
Chicago's greatness emanates from how well they played the game together rather than individual stats.