ONE MORE WIN

The following sentence has not been written in 88 years:

A CHICAGO BASEBALL TEAM IS NOW ONE WIN AWAY FROM CAPTURING THE WORLD SERIES TITLE.

Think of all the great players who have donned the pale hose: Luis Aparicio. Nellie Fox. Minnie Minoso. Chico Carrasquel. Dick Allen. Robin Ventura. Bo Jackson. Carlton Fisk. Harold Baines. Billy Pierce. Luke Appling. Wilbur Wood. Goose Gossage. And, think even of Shoeless Joe and Buck Weaver.

The Sox have tradition. They just, unlike their Northside brethren, refuse to allow the notion that it is cursing them from beyond the grave. Year after year of Sox failure has been explained by the actual rationale of any sane baseball player and fan: "We simply don't have what it takes." Unlike Wrigley and Fenway, the population of Comiskey has no belief that they are simply meant to suffer. They recognize a terrible team when it walks up and introduces itself.

And more often than not, the Sox have over the past 88 years been a terrible team. The bright flashes of '59, '83, '93, 2000. Snuffed out by one cold dose of reality after another. Not a hex or a fluke fan deflection of foul ball, just reality.

And now, in October of 2005, the White Sox are ONE WIN AWAY from a whole new era of Chicago baseball. A CHAMPIONSHIP era.



Oh, by the way...Sox win tonight 7-5 in 14 innings, the longest game in World Series history at 5+ hours. Woo hoo.