I still can't believe it happened. The White Sox are World Series champions.
After all the years of being second fiddle to the Cubs, playing second place to the Twins or Indians and signing big-name free agents more than a second late in their careers, the White Sox have finally reached the Promised Land. And from start to finish, it was a magical ride.
It began when general manager Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen decided to de-emphasize the power-oriented offense in favor of a fresh, yet back to the basics approach. "Smart ball" is what they called it.
They traded power hitting Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik. They unchained power-hitting and poor-fielding shortstop Jose Valentin for Juan Uribe and his great glove and solid bat. And Williams signed Japanese second baseman Tadahito Iguchi even though no one on his scouting staff had seen him play in person.
The result? A fast start where the White Sox won 24 of their first 31 games, and led the American League Central wire to wire.
From the beginning, there was something special about this team. Unlike past teams who were good enough to contend, these White Sox had something special. They came up with big hits in the clutch, came from behind late, and their bullpen made games hold up. With a history of futility, it probably wasn't until mid-June when fans started to realize their team had the right stuff.
Aside from being good, the White Sox also got most of the breaks. Both the Red Sox and Yankees had major injuries to their pitching staffs. The Angels lost their ace, Bartolo Colon, right before the American League Championship Series. Almost every call in the playoffs went the White Sox way, including the infamous "mechanical error" by umpire Doug Eddings that allowed A.J. Pierzynski to steal first and eventually score the winning run against the Angels in ALCS Game 2.
That's not to say this championship run was an easy ride. The team went through three different closers. They became almost the first team in major league history to blow a 15 game lead after August. The starting pitching, besides Jose Contreras, struggled in the second half of the regular season. And Injuries to Frank Thomas and Scott Podsednik brought the offense, at least for a time, to a halt.
Ozzie Guillen nearly lost his mind as his team struggled and Cleveland kept winning and wouldn't go away.
But he didn't lose his team. The White Sox found the lightning in the bottle magic baseball teams get - those teams that win championships. And they rediscovered clutch hitting and clutch pitching.
Whenever your team suffers a long championship drought your thinking as a fan becomes twisted. You always expect something to go wrong. The other team either makes the necessary play or your team makes some kind of blunder. Even when your team seems to do nothing wrong, deep down in your mind you wonder if they blow it.
As a fan, I never thought I would see the White Sox win the World Series. Red Sox fans thought the same way. If you're a Bills, Bruins, Cubs, Eagles, Indians, Jets, Knicks, Steelers or San Francisco Giants fan, you can relate. You probably wonder if your team is ever going to win it all.
But don't lose hope. Any long-suffering team can win a championship. After seeing first the Red Sox, and now the White Sox rise to glory, it's stupid to sell any team short.
