Baseball Tonight Extra

[knightni]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/bbtn/index

 

By Mark Simon, ESPN Research

 

Think about how dominant the White Sox were in 2005 in becoming the fifth "wire-to-wire" champion. They opened the season with a 1-0 win and maintained a lead in the American League Central for the entire regular season.

 

Their only significant gut-check game came in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, which they won, albeit in controversial fashion, scoring in the ninth inning after A.J. Pierzynski's apparent strikeout. They closed the season with four impressive wins, getting clutch hitting, pitching and fielding, particularly at the end of Game 4 of the World Series, also a 1-0 win.

 

If you were a White Sox fan, this season could not have been any more enjoyable or more perfect.

 

Won World Series

First place the entire regular season:

Year Team W-L Defeated in World Series

2005 White Sox 99-63 Astros

1990 Reds 91-71 Athletics

1984 Tigers 104-58 Padres

1955 Dodgers 98-55 Yankees

1927 Yankees 110-44 Pirates

 

 

"Who's on the clock next?" asked Baseball Tonight coordinating producer Judson Burch, which seemed like an appropriate question at the end of the final evening of the 2005 baseball season, considering that the last two World Series winners ended droughts and curses that lasted more than eight decades.

 

It promises to be another interesting offseason, with plenty of trades, signings, and retirements, and Baseball Tonight will help cover it throughout the winter. Come next spring, the Cubs figure to be the trendy pick, as their winter will ring with reminders that their neighbors in the city reigned supreme in 2005.

 

 

Home Run Note Of The World Series

The biggest home run of the postseason was Scott Podsednik's walkoff in Game 2 of the World Series. Podsednik became the first player to hit a walkoff home run in the World Series after not hitting a home run during the regular season.

 

 

Stat of the night

Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the three teams with the best records in the postseason are the 1976 Reds (7-0, 1.000), the 1999 Yankees, (11-1, .917) and the 2005 White Sox (11-1, .917).

[WCSox]

The '05 Sox were easily one of the most dominant teams over the past 30 years. Outside of the '98 Yankees and '84 Tigers, they match up well against the competition, with only the '99 Yankees being on the same tier (IMO).

 

It was nice enough that we finally got a winner, but the fact that they dominated makes me even more proud.

 

[elrockinMT]

It certainly was a magical year

[RME JICO]

Out of the 3 teams with the best postseason records, the Sox were the only one to go wire to wire in the regular season as well.

[YASNY]

Out of the 3 teams with the best postseason records, the Sox were the only one to go wire to wire in the regular season as well.

 

I believe the last team, prior to '05, to accomplish that was the '70 Reds.

[Steve9347]

2005

[jphat007]

And to think. We were a Tampa Bay away from not evening making the post season. I think the Rays went like 6-0 against the Indians in September or they could have been there instead.

[whitesoxfan101]

The most incredible thing about the 2005 White Sox is they were dominant without being dominant. They won 99 regular season games, led wire to wire from game 1 to game 162 on their way to beating out a very good Indians team for the division title, and went 11-1 in the playoffs on their way to a championship. So in that respect, the Sox were as dominant as any baseball team you will ever find. But at the same time, they played so many close games and won every time they needed to because they always managed to come up with the big play when it was absolutely necessary.

 

I think the World Series was a perfect summary of what the 2005 White Sox were. They were dominant in record, sweeping their opponent, yet all four games were close, and they won in every way possible (extra innings, great starting pitching, offense, bulpen, defense, managing, home runs, fundementals, at home, on the road, in good weather, in bad weather, etc) over that period of games.

Edited August 18, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[RME JICO]

Sox 2005 - 35-19 in 1-run games and 52-29 on the road.

[JohnCangelosi]

And to think. We were a Tampa Bay away from not evening making the post season. I think the Rays went like 6-0 against the Indians in September or they could have been there instead.

Well, that is arguable since we swept Cleveland at the end of the year but they were out of it at that point. I have a few favorite stats from 2005:

 

1) We won 16 of our last 17 games

2) We won the opener 1-0, the first game of the second half 1-0 and the WS clincher 1-0

 

And my personal favorite:

 

We won 15 (yes, fifteen!) games while scoring 2 runs or LESS

[Paint it Black]

"Stat of the night

Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the three teams with the best records in the postseason are the 1976 Reds (7-0, 1.000), the 1999 Yankees, (11-1, .917) and the 2005 White Sox (11-1, .917)."

 

Ummm.... I wanted to forget about that sweep in 2000 as well, but that should read 11-4. But it's funny, I was dozing off today in class today thinking about how much fun 2005 was.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Paint it Black

[YASNY]

The most incredible thing about the 2005 White Sox is they were dominant without being dominant. They won 99 regular season games, led wire to wire from game 1 to game 162 on their way to beating out a very good Indians team for the division title, and went 11-1 in the playoffs on their way to a championship. So in that respect, the Sox were as dominant as any baseball team you will ever find. But at the same time, they played so many close games and won every time they needed to because they always managed to come up with the big play when it was absolutely necessary.

 

I think the World Series was a perfect summary of what the 2005 White Sox were. They were dominant in record, sweeping their opponent, yet all four games were close, and they won in every way possible (extra innings, great starting pitching, offense, bulpen, defense, managing, home runs, fundementals, at home, on the road, in good weather, in bad weather, etc) over that period of games.

 

As an example to emphasize your point, even though the Sox swept the Astros they only outscored them by a total of 6 runs in the 4 games, iirc.

[Pants Rowland]

"Stat of the night

Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the three teams with the best records in the postseason are the 1976 Reds (7-0, 1.000), the 1999 Yankees, (11-1, .917) and the 2005 White Sox (11-1, .917)."

 

Ummm.... I wanted to forget about that sweep in 2000 as well, but that should read 11-4. But it's funny, I was dozing off today in class today thinking about how much fun 2005 was.

 

I think it was for the specific postseason in question, not overall since divisional play began. If that were the case, the 3-2 loss to Baltimore in the '83 ALCS and the 4-2 loss the Toronto in the '93 ALCS would also be factored into the equation.

[Pants Rowland]

As an example to emphasize your point, even though the Sox swept the Astros they only outscored them by a total of 6 runs in the 4 games, iirc.

 

I think it was the smallest total run differential ever in a world series sweep.