2005 White Sox — the overlooked championship season
The start of 2024 Spring Training is only three weeks away, and you can almost hear mitts popping and bats cracking with the sounds of summer in winter. Every MLB team is 0–0 and while there are betting favorites to reach the World Series at the end of the coming season, there are other teams that are maybe not favored but hopeful that 2024 will be the season in which EVERYTHING goes right. Less than 20 years ago there was a team and its fans that had that exact experience.
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The 2005 Chicago White Sox. You remember the 2005 World Champion White Sox, right? It was only 19 years ago but for some reason I had trouble remembering specifics from that season. I am probably not the only one. The White Sox special season seems to get lost in the afterglow of the Red Sox 2004 championship ending 86 years of World Series futility. Other World Series of that decade like the 2001 Diamondbacks surprising win over the Yankees, or the rally-monkey 2002 Angels are better remembered as are the Phillies for winning in 2008 and losing to the Yankees in 2009. The thing is that before 2005, the White Sox had not won a World Series since 1917–88 years! Sure the Cubs had waited longer but that was well understood on the South Side of Chicago, not as much outside of the Windy City.
When they reached the World Series in 2005 the White Sox had not appeared in a World Series since 1959–46 years. In their entire history, the White Sox have won the World Series three times (1906 was the first, 1917 the second), lost it twice including the Black Sox series of 1919. That’s it. Fortunately, their crosstown rivals the Cubs had a longer stretch of World Series championship futility than even the Red Sox until that albatross was finally lifted in 2016.
The White Sox championship of 2005 is underappreciated and too often overlooked. For fans of teams that were good in recent years (think Dodgers, Twins) but not quite good enough, the White Sox 2005 season story is one to savor and behold. There really are seasons for a team in which everything can go right! It’s not as if the White Sox were lousy before 2005. They’d finished second three straight years to the Twins from 2002–2004. But they couldn’t get over the top nor were they expected to win the AL Central in 2005.
A 2000’s White Sox championship. Wouldn’t you think Hall-of-Famer Frank Thomas HAD to be a star on that team? In fact, Thomas was on the team but at 37 his best years as a White Sox player were behind him and he would depart after that season. Still, the ‘Big Hurt’ in only 34 games and 105 ABs, smashed 12 home runs, drove in 26 runs and had an OPS+ of 131 despite a batting average of .219 which was the lowest of his illustrious career. Sadly, Frank Thomas was injured and was not on the White Sox roster that magical postseason. Thomas would never play in a World Series.
No White Sox regular player finished with a .300 or above batting average. On the other hand, no regular player had less than a .251 batting average. The team batting average was .262 which is not bad, but the team on base average was .322 and team OPS+ 95 — below average. One of the biggest assets of the offense was that the team could hit home runs. Eight of the nine regulars had 13 or more home runs led by Paul Konerko’s 40. The other, left fielder Scott Podsednik, had zero home runs. They hit 200 HRs as a team, good enough for fourth in the American League. They could mash plenty.
The season began with a 1–0 shutout played in 1 hour 51 minutes. The final game of the World Series (game four) also ended as a 1–0 win for the White Sox but that one lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes. How about that for season bookends!
Charging to a 16–4 start, the ChiSox went wire-to-wire in 1st place never looking up in the standings. They swept the AL Division series 3–0 over the Red Sox, allowed the Angels a courtesy game winning the AL Championship Series four games to one, then swept the Astros in the World Series winning four tight games by a total of six runs. They won World Series games started by the Astros best — Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Roy Oswalt.
Were the White Sox a pitching-centric team or hitting-centric team? Being in the World Series requires both, but the pitching on the 2005 White Sox was both excellent and consistent. Six starters combined to make 162 starts. Current HOF candidate Mark Buehrle and Freddy Garcia each started 33 games. Jon Garland and Jose Contreras started 32 each, Orlando ‘El Duque’ Hernandez 22 started games, and 21-year-old Brandon McCarthy had 10 starts. Four of the starting pitchers tossed more than 200 innings. The pitchers pitched to contact with no pitcher striking out more than Jose Contreras’ 154. Three of the starters had WHIP’s (walks plus hits per innings pitched) of under 1.19. Former Expos starter, 32-year-old Dustin Hermanson, who had only been a closer the season prior for the Giants, led the team with 34 saves. Hermanson wouldn’t ever record another save (or win) after that 2005 season. It all came together so perfectly.
Manager Ozzie Guillen led a team that did all the little things the right way. Based on the teams actual run production (scoring 741 runs allowing 645 for the season), the White Sox would be projected to win 91 and lose 71. They finished the season 99–63 and won the division by six games over a very good Cleveland team.
Catcher A.J. Pierzynski had a great year defensively and was a force in the lineup. Speedy leadoff hitter Podsednik stole 59 bases and batted .290. Tadihito Iguchi, (tell me who outside of Chicago remember him playing second base?) finished fourth in the AL Rookie-of-the-Year race stealing 48 bases. These White Sox could run! DH Carl Everett put up 23 homers and 87 RBI’s in 135 games. First baseman and All-Star Paul Konerko had an excellent season playing in 158 games and plating 100 RBI’s. Right fielder Jermaine Dye who had come over from Oakland, hit 31 HRs and drove in 86 runs for an OPS+ of .846. He’d be even better the following year. CF Aaron Rowand, playing in 157 games, had another solid season which proved to be his final one in Chicago. Joe Crede was solid at 3B defensively, and a reliable bat in the 8th spot in the lineup. Shortstop Juan Uribe played in 146 games and had one of his best seasons defensively and batted .252
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Team health plays such an important role when having ‘that championship season’. Yet the following season in 2006 the White Sox added HOFer-to-be Jim Thome, lost Aaron Rowand, added Javier Vasquez to the rotation, and the team was healthy but faded to a 90–72 record good for only third place in the AL Central behind Minnesota and Detroit. They had health, and some good individual performances, but not the mojo of 2005.
For fans of the Pale Hose as they are sometimes called, the 2005 championship both exorcised the demons from the 1919 Black Sox, and at the same time put added pressure to end the longest championship drought in professional sports squarely onto their crosstown rivals. The victory was that much sweeter!
So, with spring training merely a few weeks away, fans that hope for everything to go right for their team can look to the 2005 White Sox for hope that sometimes everything CAN go right in a baseball season!
About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and now Substack.com.
