Good Things Come To Those That Wait

This blog is, undeniably, a political blog. Even when I've posted some of my personal photographs I've tried to find a topical context in which to place them.

However, occasionally I allow myself the right to go a little off topic. After all this is a blog, and as such by nature, unrestricted by publishing rules, other than my own.

Yesterday was one of those days because something remarkable, if unpolitical, happened: the Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 to complete a sweep and win the World Series for the first time in 88 years.

As a White Sox fan that was a very sweet moment.

I became a White Sox fan for as silly a reason, yet as good a reason as any 9 year old really needs: my father had a Sox cap, and I loved wearing it. Growing up in Europe meant that I followed the team from a distance. In 1980 I saw my first White Sox game at old Comiskey Park against the Detroit Tigers. My family was taking a long vacation trip around the U.S.A. and we spent a few days in Chicago and the game was a special treat for me.

Later that decade, having just graduated from college, I took a job in Chicago, and my affection for the team was a factor in my feeling comfortable moving to the Chicagoland area, but I almost never got to enjoy rooting for the "good guys" as the team almost moved to Florida that year.

Fortunately the move was averted in the 11th hour, and new Comiskey Park, now U.S. Cellular Field, was promised and built to keep the team in Chicago.

So I settled into watching this Chicago team that had last been to a World Series in 1959, and hadn't won it since 1917.

For the most part they had average to good teams. In 1989 they went 69-92, their worst year in the past 29, and barely broke 1 million in attendance. I remember sitting in a meager crowd of perhaps 7,000 fans - but I was just happy to be able to watch the team live and in person after so many years of following them in newspapers, or the rare Armed Forces Radio game in the middle of the night.

However since 1990 they've had only 4 losing seasons, and two of those were 80 win years, so this hasn't been a team that just plain stunk. They were always competitive, but couldn't make it over the hump, only winning their division 4 times in that span.

In 1993 they went 94-68, but crashed out 2-4 to Toronto in the ALCS. I attended a couple of the three home games that series, and the Sox lost them all (both of the games they won were in Toronto). The next year they were even better, with a 67-46 record when the last baseball strike wiped out what many felt was their best chance to win a World Series. How much of a downer was that? The next year they ended up 32 games behind a 100-44 Cleveland team, in a season also shortened by the strike.

By the year 2000, when they next made the playoffs, I had already moved to the Seattle area. Yet while I embraced all this great things this region has to offer, I wasn't about to suddenly become a Mariners fan, and it pained me when Seattle swept the Sox in 3 games in the Division Series.

Every year the Sox came to town I would find myself a lone Sox fan sitting in the stands, invariably watching the "good guys" losing to the players with the "SoDo Mojo". When the Sox managed a rare win, it was such a great feeling to be one of the few to be able to walk out of Safeco Field with a smile on my face. However, like I said, that rarely happened, and Ichiro played a large part in breaking my heart.

This year seemed magical from the very beginning. The Sox got off to a great start and had a lead in every one of their first 37 games - a most remarkable acheivement. By the All Star game they were 10 games ahead of Minnesota and destined to cruise on into the playoffs. But August was a losing month and while Minnesota crumbled, Cleveland started playing out of their minds. On Aug 17 the Indians were 64-56, 11 games behind the Sox. Before they had lost 8 more games, which wasn't until September 25, the Indians had won an incredible 28, and Sox lead had shrunk to 1½ games. Although the Sox had gone 19-17 in that same period, people were saying they were choking, and everyone was worried that they might not even make it into the playoffs as a wild card team.

But Cleveland never got closer, and instead appeared to choke themselves and the Sox were able to clinch a division win in Detroit the day before a season ending 3 games series in Cleveland, which had previously looked destined to decide the season. With Cleveland still fighting for a playoff spot, the White Sox mercilessly swept the Indians, which eliminated their rivals.

Then came the 3 games against the Red Sox, last year's miracle team. The White Sox won playoff games at home for the first time since 1959. After a series beginning loss to the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) in the ALCS, they swept the next 4 games - all complete game pitching performances by their starters. Finally, they swept the Astros in 4 close games. All told they ended the season winning 16 of 17 games, 11 of those wins on the road, winning all 6 of their road games in the playoffs.

In 1918, the year after the Sox last won the World Series, the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series (losing to Boston). Few will know that the White Sox actually won another World Series in 1906, beating the Cubs, who again the following year made it to the World Series (a win against Detroit). In 1908 the Cubs again won the World Series against Detroit, their last win, leaving their 97 year futility streak as the longest running in American professional sports history. Since 1959 no Chicago team had been in the fall classic, making the wait a shared misery for fans of both teams.

Last year was the Red Sox's year. This year was the White Sox's year. If history holds true, next year could see the Cubs in the World Series for the first time since 1945. As a White Sox fan I'm hoping the bragging rights period in Chicago can last longer than one year, and knowing the Cubs, it is highly unlikely they'll be snapping out of their funk any time soon.

And who knows, after waiting 88 years and watching new franchises left and right winning so soon after their inception (Florida in 1997 and Arizona in 2001), this Sox team is good enough that it might find its way back to the World Series next year.

If that happens, I have a hunch that would be a great story too.