The 2005 White Sox — a bittersweet celebration of a random, but worthy, championship team

The White Sox celebrated the 20th anniversary of their 2005 AL Central championship team last weekend at Rate Field. And was a typically glorious event — what celebration of a championship team isn't? — it was more bittersweet and melancholy than those celebrations usually are. Kind of typical for the White Sox. The highlight was the unveiling of a statue honoring a player — Mark Buehrle — who prefers anonymity to fame and is notably uncomfortable in the spotlight.

It came at at time when the Sox had little else to celebrate. They're 32-65 (.330) this season — on a pace to lose 100 games (53-109) for the third consecutive season. Their 134-421 record (.318) since the start of the 2023 season is the worst in the major leagues. After going 41-121 i 2024 and 61-101 in 2023, the Sox are on a pace for the worst three-year run in major-league baseball since the expansion Mets in 1963-65 (154-332, .317).

And sadly, the reunion came just a week after the death of closer Bobby Jenks, who died on July 4 of stomach cancer. Jenks' demise was particularly tragic. He died less than six months after being diagnosed in January. He had no medical insurance and was struggling to pay the bills for his care, according to this story by Sam Blum in The Athletic. If Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf or the teammates who revered Jenks stepped up to pitch in, it didn't make the papers.

The reunion was at least an opportunity for teammates to honor to their beloved teammate, whose emergence that season typified what the 2005 White Sox were all about. That team was put together on the fly, with Jenks and 10 other key contributors joining the Sox that season.

The 2005 White Sox started out red-hot — 16-4, 27-9, 41-19 and 62-29 on July 19 after a five-game winning streak following the All-Star break. They coasted to the finish — 37-34 — but re-ignited in the playoffs, going 11-1 to win the World Series for the first time since 1917, though it should have been since 1919, but that's literally another story.

The postseason was loaded with memorable moments and events. Sox starters Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia and Jose Contreras pitched four consecutive complete game victories in the AL Championship Series against the Angels after losing Game 1. In the World Series against the Astros, Paul Konerko hit a grand slam in Game 2 to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 Sox lead — U.S. Cellular Field was shaking like no Chicago stadium had shook before on that hit. Scott Podsednik topped that with a walk-off home run to win Game 2, 7-6.

Continuing the litany of unheralded heroes, Geoff Blum hit a tie-breaking home run in the 14th inning to win Game 3. Mark Buehrle, who had pitched seven innings in Game 3, got the final out in relief to put the Sox on the brink of winning the series. And World Series MVP Jermaine Dye — one of the 11 who joined the team in 2005 — drove in the only run in a 1-0 victory in Game 4, with Jenks getting the final three outs to clinch it.

The 2005 White Sox were a fun team with an engaging manager in Ozzie Guillen and an interesting, eclectic roster, from the steady Paul Konerko, Dye, Buehrle and Joe Crede to the irascible A.J. Pierzynski and Carl Everett to role players Tadahito Iguchi, Juan Uribe and Podsednik. When Frank Thomas was limited to 34 games (hitting a career-low .291), Everett stepped up with 23 home runs and 87 RBIs. When closer Dustin Hermanson went down with a back injury, Jenks stepped in with five saves in September and four in the postseason.

My favorite quirky stat of the 2005 season: Blum, who was acquired from the Padres on July 31, (for left-handed minor-league pitcher Ryan Meaux), presumably received two playoff checks in 2005 (the Padres won the NL West). Yet, the Padres and White Sox were a composite 81-81 with Blum and 100-62 without him.

The Sox were 69-35 when they acquired Blum, but slumped in the second half, going 30-28 after the trade deadline. In fact, the Sox nearly collapsed in August and September. Their 15-game lead over the Indians in the AL Central was pared to 1 1/2 games with 10 to play on Sept. 23.

Just as panic mode was setting in, the Sox righted the ship. On Sept. 25, the Sox, still up 1 1/2 games in the division, beat the Twins 4-1, while the Indians — who had won 17 of 19 — lost to the Royals 5-4 when center fielder Grady Sizemore lost a fly ball in the sun in the ninth inning, allowing the winning run to score. The Indians ended up losing six of their final seven games and the Sox won the AL Central by six games.

If the second-half slump to a little of the sheen off the Sox's magnificent season, the 11-1 postseason and World Series sweep re-established them as a championship team to remember. As my good friend Jon Greenberg of The Athletic put it, "A one-hit wonder was still a hit."

In a larger perspective, the Sox 2005 championship pales in comparison to the Bulls' six titles in eight years, the Blackhawks three Stanley Cups in six years and the singular championships of the Bears (1985) and Cubs (2016). The Bears made the playoffs five times in the next six seasons, reaching the NFC Championship Game in 1988. The Cubs had four consecutive winning seasons and won a playoff series in 2017. The Sox by comparison were a one-off. They made the playoffs just once in the next 14 seasons (and lost 3-1 to Joe Maddon's Devil Rays in 2008).

Unlike the ultimately disappointing Bears and Cubs, at no point was the 2005 White Sox team considered the start of a championship run. The Sox's championship team was built quickly and faded just as quickly. The core of players in their prime — Konerko, Buehrle, Pierzynski, Crede and Aaron Rowand — didn't last long. Only nine of the 25 biggest contributors in 2005 were on the team in 2003. Only nine were on the team in 2008. So where do the 2005 White Sox rank among Chicago's 12 championship teams over the last 40 years? That's up next in markpotash.net.