On 1/13/2020 at 3:18 PM, wegner said:

I hope it goes on long enough to read some of those

I haven't pulled up my 17-page opus, but here's one that came back to me for Haikus.

Great Ozzie man say
Pitching and defense the way
To World Series play!

This was written early in the season, mind you. I wrote at least a dozen more. They were super fun to write. 

Another tidbit about 2005. Wire to wire. In first place from the first game to the last. 

SOX HAIKUS from the middle of the 2005 season

Ya gotta believe
In this torrid White Sox team
To go all the way!

Great Ozzie man say
Pitching and defense the way
To World Series play

Lee for Podsednik?
Add AJ and El Duque
Play Ozzie ball. Win!

Little Boat afloat
Sailing on to yonder shore
Where White Sox are Champs

Kenny man, he say
Power ball is not the way
Go-go Sox are best

Garland, Buehrle pitch
Fifteen and one and counting
Sox duo kick a$$!

Big Frank coming back
Adds thunder to Sox attack
Best team gets better

Nineteen seventeen?
White Sox fans can't wait to see
Champs at Comiskey

Thirty-fifth and Shields
U.S. Cellular team fields
Baseball's supreme team

U.S. Cellular,
Not Wrigley Field, is home to
Chicago's best team

McCarthy's the man
Filling in for El Duque
To mow the Cubs down

All the way this year
Eighty-eight year jinx over
White Sox are World Champs

Bosox won last year
Now it's time for the ChiSox
To wear Series crown

 

I found my 17-page opus, 12 pages of which were almost a play-by-play of the playoffs. I could go into a lot, but I'll only add a few things I had forgotten.

1. The Sox had the lead in their first 37 games. 

2. Jon Garland started the season 8-0. El Duque started 8-1. 

3. Scott Podsednik gets voted to the All-Star team as the last guy by the fans. Mark Buehle starts and gets the win, securing home field for the WS. 

4. Our 15-game lead over Cleveland got down to 1-1/2 games near the end of the year (after Cleveland went 24-4 in one stretch), but the Sox were saved by a clutch Joe Crede HR, and a Cleveland loss to KC when their outfielder lost a ball in the sun. 

5. Freddie Garcia - Mr. Day Game and Mr. Road Win - wins the AL Central clinching game in Detroit, the ALDS clinching game in Boston, and the WS clinching win in Houston. 

6. The Sox have 5-run rallies in game two against Boston and game 3 against Houston to take 5-4 leads, both times in the 5th inning.

7. Paul Konerko hit the biggest HR in Sox history - a grand slam in the 7th inning of the second game of the WS to take a 6-4 lead. But it was eclipsed 2 innings later when Scotty Pods hit a walk-off HR (he hit no HR in the regular season, but a 3-run bomb in the first game against Boston) off Brad Lidge, the Houston closer, after Houston had tied the game at 6. 

8. In game 3 against Houston - both the longest in WS history by time, and tied for the longest by innings - Jason Lane got a hit for the Astros in the 8th to tie the game. It would be the last hit by an Astro even though 29 more Astros would come to the plate in that game!

9. Geoff Blum, who had 1 HR for the Sox in 95 bats after being acquired at the trade deadline - one of the Group 4 scrubs - hit the winning HR for the Sox in that game. The Sox also got an insurance run on a bases loaded walk by Chris Widger that inning, another Group 4 scrub. Pablo Ozuna stole second and scored the winning run against the Angels in game 2 of the ALCS. And Willie Harris pinch hit and later scored the only run in the 1-0 WS clincher. 

Now, let the 2020 White Sox create some new memories!!

Edited January 15, 20206 yr by VAfan

20 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Watching the playoffs and World Series made me miss Hawk. Chris Berman was openly rooting for the Red Sox and Joe Buck sounded disappointed calling the Sox the 2005 World Champs after the last out.

Berman showed more enthusiasm in HR Derbies at All Star games than he did in the El Duque inning. It's glaring. That's as tense as a playoff moment gets, and he shows zero excitement.

i didn't mind Buck as much, but I watched my VHS tapes of the games a few years ago and had to laugh/shake my head when he was going on and on about Clemens and Pettite's special relationship and workout regimen.

9 hours ago, VAfan said:

4. Our 15-game lead over Cleveland got down to 1-1/2 games near the end of the year (after Cleveland went 24-4 in one stretch), but the Sox were saved by a clutch Joe Crede HR, and a Cleveland loss to KC when their outfielder lost a ball in the sun. 

The Rally Crede.

11 hours ago, VAfan said:

8. In game 3 against Houston - both the longest in WS history by time, and tied for the longest by innings - Jason Lane got a hit for the Astros in the 8th to tie the game. It would be the last hit by an Astro even though 29 more Astros would come to the plate in that game!

I knew all the other little tidbits listed but this is a new one for me. I never knew this!

On 1/13/2020 at 3:26 PM, MEANS said:

I still remember being in my car listening on the radio as El Duque got out of that jam on my way home from work.

Same for me but it was an hour commute down mostly country roads. Luckily I had a strong signal from 670 the whole way home. Then got home in time to see the last inning or 2 on TV.