Everyone doubted them all season. Now, the White Sox are the World Champions.
Wednesday night, the White Sox ended 88 years of baseball heartbreak for their franchise and for one of the most historic baseball cities in the nation by beating the Houston Astros 1-0 to claim their first World Series title since 1917.
And, boy, did they ever deserve it.
Unlike the Boston Red Sox, who rode a superstar lineup and high payroll to the World Series last year, the White Sox were true underdogs entering the season. The team lacked All-Star players, had a payroll that was in the middle of the pack and was coming off a mediocre 83-79 season in 2004.
There was no reason to believe that the Sox had improved during the offseason. The team's biggest signings over the winter were right fielder Jermaine Dye, who seemed way past his All-Star days with the Kansas City Royals, and catcher A.J. Pierzynski, whose potty mouth and team chemistry-wrecking prowess are more renowned than his hitting and catching skills.
ESPN's baseball experts felt the same way: When asked in April to predict the outcome of the regular season, only one of the 19 experts picked the White Sox to advance to the playoffs.
But then the season started, and the Sox shocked everyone in April by going a Major League-best 17-7. For that matter, the team continued to shock everyone in May, June and July as well. By the time the All-Star break came around, the South Side Hit Men - as they were referred to in the 1970s - still had the best record in baseball.
The White Sox got contributions from unexpected sources. Career underachiever Jon Garland finally found his groove and went 13-4 with a 3.38 ERA in the first half. Jose Contreras started to look comfortable for the first time since coming to the United States and became the stopper the Yankees always imagined he would be. Journeyman Dustin Hermanson finally found his niche in the bullpen and was arguably the most dominant closer of the first half. Dye found his home run stroke again, and Pierzynski somehow managed to shut his big mouth and hit for power at the same time.
Add that to the steady contributions of White Sox stalwarts Mark Buehrle and Paul Konerko, as well as the strong and often crass leadership of manager Ozzie Guillen, and you've got yourself a playoff team.
But still, people doubted, thinking that the Sox were bound to come down from their high, and it appeared that these doubters may have been right after all during the stretch run. Despite holding a 15-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the A.L. Central on Aug. 1, the team somehow managed to fumble almost all of that away. By Sept. 22, the White Sox's lead had dwindled to one and a half games, and the surging Indians showed no signs of slowing down. People in Chicago-land began to mutter about "those same ol' Sox" again.
"South Side sob story: White Sox on the verge of historic collapse," read the headline of an Associated Press article.
Fortunately for Chicagoans, the White Sox snapped back into form for the final two weeks of the season, winning eight of 10 games and sweeping the Indians in the last series of the year to gain home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
One would think that having the best record in the AL would command a certain amount of respect, but, again, these are the White Sox. At the start of the postseason, 16 of the same ESPN "experts" mentioned above were asked to predict the outcome of each playoff round. And this time, how many picked the White Sox to win it all? You guessed it again: absolutely none, and only one picked the team to even get to the World Series.
Well, today, the White Sox are finally able to say, "I told you so."
Hey Cubs, you're on deck.
In some Providence circles, Stu Woo '08 is known as the East Side Hitman.
