The World Series!

[Narachon]

Yes, It's that time again......

THE WORLD SERIES!

( No Yankees or Red Sox this time?

Oh my!

I wonder how the rating will be? )

Yes, It's official! The National League champions Huston Astros will be playing against their rival American League Champions, the Chicago White Sox!

Those White Sox hasn't hosted a world series in 46 years ( 1959 ), and haven't one one since World War 1......Maybe this is their year? But the Astros have NEVER won a world series at all in their 44 year history...

So, which baseball team will most likely win the Fall Classic?

( No poll this time, I'm afraid... )

I think It's going to be more of which team's pitching is better, as opposed to good hitting.The White Sox and the Astros fielded pretty much average offense during this past regular season. Roy Oswalt is definitely going to be one of the important keys to the Astros game plan. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte ( Both ex-Yanks! ), on the other hand, were the Astros most ineffective pitchers during the NLCS. Pettitte gave up five runs in six innings in Game 1 Astros loss, and in Game 3, Clemens survived six innings and somehow managed a 4-3 win. The White Sox also has dominant starting pitching, which is more consistant, and they have also a good bullpen (Jose Contreras,Mark Bueherle, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland ).

Roger Clemens is up on the mound for the Astros, while Contreras is going to be starting for the White Sox.

( Hey, even though my Yankees aren't playing in the series, at least alot of their ex- pitchers are! ( Contreras, Olando "El Duque" Hernandez, Clemens and Pettite! )

It's going to be a tough matchup, but In the end, I predict that the White Sox will win...

88 years is a long time between titles, longer than even those other Sox...

[baht&sold]

Yes, It's that time again......

THE WORLD SERIES!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Erm, course you mean, the USA (and one Canadian city) series????

Ah well, as Charles Comiskey would say- Go White Stockings!

[Narachon]

Yes, It's that time again......

THE WORLD SERIES!

Erm, course you mean, the USA (and one Canadian city) series????

Haven't you heard the song, "We Are The World"?

Anyway,There IS such a thing as a World Series of Baseball, that is, there will be the first annual World Baseball Classic next march, where 16 nations ( among those, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, Dominican Republic, Itay, Venezulela, Mexico, even Canada )will compete.

As for the "WORLD SERIES"....

Looks like the Sox drew first blood last night.... 5-3....

Too bad what happened to Clemens though....

Injured after only one inning....I guess he's getting old..... I hope he gets better soon.... for the Astros sake...

[jfxberns]

As a Native Chicagoan I have to see this!

Does anybody know where they are broadcasting it live?

I know--it's at 8:00am in Bangkok, but surely there is a bar that is goign to host the festivities!

(After all, it's not baseball without a beer in your hand and other rabid fans around!)

[Explorer]

Although i am more of a Yankees fan, 2nd Game of The World Series is one the best i have seen in years.

Explorer

[johnnyk]

Take a Valium guys, the World Series is not Yankee arrogance at work.

It was proposed and inaugurated/sponsored by the New York World newspaper in 1903.

I'm not American BTW.

Edited October 24, 2005 by johnnyk

[Narachon]

Take a Valium guys, the World Series is not Yankee arrogance at work.

It was proposed and inaugurated/sponsored by the New York World newspaper in 1903.

I'm not American BTW.

Gosh, you sure fooled me.... :D

Although i am more of a Yankees fan, 2nd Game of The World Series is one the best i have seen in years.

Explorer 

Yeah, I'm a die hard Yankee fan myself ( as you all know.. ) but I really have to admit, this series has been probably the most exiciting World series I've seen in years, including when New York was still in it! . First Chicago leading , then Houston, Then Chicago again, then tie in the 9th!

One word.... Scott Podsednik....

Who would have thought? This guy hasn't got a hit ALL YEAR....

Astros down 2 games now.....It's going to be hard for them to come back..

I wonder how Brad Lidge if feeling now, after he pitched that score bracking ball for Podsednik to hommer off from.. First Albert Pujos, last week, now Scott Podsednik! There must be some kind of magic at wireless stadium last night!

Astros better pump up Clemmens with all the cortorol shots they can give him when he starts game five.....That is, if there will be a game five...

[Narachon]

Ok......Now for World Series update, for the people who care ( and those guys who can't see the series in most Sports bars in Thailand, because all they show is soccer 24/7! )

Game Three!

Chicago wins 7-5!

I had to work very late last night so I was not able to see the begining of the game, but when I finally came home at 12:30 am, THE GAME WAS STILL GOING ON!! The score was like ties, 5-5, inthe eleventh(!) inning! I think I passed out in the 14th(!) inning, but I think before I did , Chicago scored a run or two... I'm not sure what happened, since I wasn't able to see the complete game.....And I didn't find out the score until this morning!

Must have been the longest night in World Series history!

Sox better bring out the brooms, because it's looking like a SWEEP...

[Jeff1]

Game Three!

Chicago wins 7-5!

Sox better bring out the brooms, because it's looking like a SWEEP...

NA NA NA NA hey hey goodbye

GO SOX !

[Explorer]

In case you missed it, it was something else

By MIKE FITZPATRICK, AP Baseball Writer

October 26, 2005

HOUSTON (AP) -- For those who fell asleep or simply weren't watching, you missed one whale of a World Series game.

By far the longest in history -- and one of the best, too.

Phil Garner threw a stool in the dugout. Ozzie Guillen called in eight relievers. And backup infielder Geoff Blum became a star in Chicago with one unlikely swing in the 14th.

Inning after inning, the tension increased as the White Sox and Astros played on. Tuesday night turned into Wednesday morning, but still nobody could break through. Players grew frustrated, tired, hungry.

When it was finally over, after 5 hours, 41 minutes and a record 43 players, Chicago was one win from a sweep and its first championship since 1917.

``Right now we just want to get to bed,'' slugger Paul Konerko said afterward.

In his first World Series at-bat, Blum hit a tiebreaking homer off Ezequiel Astacio, sending the White Sox to a 7-5 victory over Houston in a memorable October marathon.

``Tenacity,'' Blum said. ``We're great guys in the clubhouse, but when the game starts we turn into a bunch of angry individuals.''

The teams combined to use 17 pitchers and strand 30 baserunners (15 each), both World Series records. Game 2 starter Mark Buehrle came on in relief to earn a save in Game 3.

Go find the boxscore -- it could fill half a page in the newspaper.

The first World Series game in Texas ended at 1:20 a.m. local time, long after Jason Lane's homer helped Houston build a seemingly comfortable four-run cushion for ace Roy Oswalt.

But Chicago rallied for five runs in the fifth against the NL championship series MVP, taking a 5-4 lead on A.J. Pierzynski's two-run double that rolled up Tal's Hill in center field.

Lane's two-out double in the eighth off Dustin Hermanson tied it 5-all -- and then the drama really began.

Brad Ausmus struck out with runners at second and third to end the inning, setting off an exasperating string of wasted scoring opportunities for the Astros.

They left the bases loaded in the ninth against Orlando Hernandez, two on in the 10th against Luis Vizcaino and stranded two more in the 11th against Bobby Jenks.

``Absolute rotten hitting,'' said Garner, Houston's manager. ``We might have played 40 innings and it didn't look (like) we were going to get a runner across.''

Both teams got this far thanks in large part to proper execution, but both failed to sacrifice successfully time and time again.

The Astros drew 12 walks in the game, but Lane's tying double was their only hit in the final 10 innings.

``I'm really ticked off,'' Garner said -- and it showed when he slammed that stool after Blum's home run.

The White Sox had plenty of chances, too, but they couldn't capitalize until Blum, an Astro two years ago, came off the bench. He entered at second base when Guillen made a double switch in the 13th.

``You keep seeing names getting marked off and marked off the lineup card and eventually it gets down to the last guy on the totem pole. I was near the bottom,'' Blum said. ``We were running out of bodies on the bench. It came down to the last man standing.''

The only other Series game to go 14 innings came in 1916, when Babe Ruth pitched a complete game to lead the Boston Red Sox over Brooklyn 2-1.

Early in the 13th, this one became the longest ever by time, surpassing the 4 hours, 51 minutes from the Subway Series opener in 2000, when the New York Yankees beat the Mets in 12 innings.

The 1916 game with Ruth on the mound was over in a crisp 2:32, unthinkable these days.

There were 482 pitches, 245 by the White Sox and 237 by Houston.

For the Astros, it was one of the most gut-wrenching losses any team has endured in recent World Series history.

They had a four-run lead with Oswalt on the mound, and a victory would have put them right back in the Series with two home games remaining. Instead, they've used up all three aces -- Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Oswalt -- without a win to show for it.

Only three of the previous 21 teams that trailed 3-0 in the World Series even forced a Game 5. None made it to Game 6.

And if the Astros get wiped out in their first Fall Classic, they'll certainly rue the long night Tuesday at Minute Maid Park.

``To lose like this is draining,'' Ausmus said.

Updated on Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005 5:50 pm EDT

At this moment, bottom of the 6th and still 0-0

[sriracha john]

White Sox Win 1st World Series Since 1917 By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer

1 minute ago

HOUSTON - The Chicago White Sox are World Series champions again at last, and yet another epic streak of futility is not just wiped away but swept away.

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After seven scoreless innings, Jermaine Dye singled home the only run in the eighth, and the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 Wednesday night to win their first title in 88 years.

Just a year ago, the same story line captivated baseball when the long-suffering Boston Red Sox swept St. Louis to capture their first title in 86 years.

Who's next, the Chicago Cubs, without a championship since 1908?

It was the third title for the White Sox, following wins in 1906 and 1917. And it was the first since "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the "Black Sox" threw the 1919 Series against Cincinnati.

In the Windy City, where the Cubs have long been king, Chicago's South Side team for once trumped its North Side rival, no small feat for the Sox.

Owner Jerry Reinsdorf once said he'd trade all six of the Chicago Bulls' NBA titles for a single Series ring, a statement he now regrets. No swap is needed now: He's got the prize he dreamed of since he was a kid growing up in Brooklyn.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said during the regular season that he might retire if his team went on to win the Series, and now he'll have to reveal that decision.

Chicago's sweep, its eighth straight postseason win, made it only the second team to go through the postseason 11-1 since the extra round of playoffs was added in 1995, joining the 1999 Yankees. But the White Sox fans didn't get to enjoy a single celebration in person: the division title and all three rounds of the postseason were won on the road.

Houston, which finally won a pennant for the first time since it joined the National League in 1962, became the first team swept in its Series debut.

On a night when pitching dominated, winner Freddy Garcia and Houston's Brandon Backe pitched shutout ball for seven innings, with Backe allowing four hits and Garcia five. They each struck out seven.

Brad Lidge, Houston's closer, came in to start the eighth, and Chicago sent up Willie Harris to bat for Garcia.

Harris lined a single to left leading off, and that led to Houston's downfall. Scott Podsednik bunted a difficult high pitch in front of the plate, and the speedy Harris took second on the sacrifice. Carl Everett pinch hit for Tadahito Iguchi and grounded to second, moving Harris to third.

Dye, the Series MVP, swung and missed Lidge's next pitch, took a ball, then grounded a single up the middle, clapping his hands as he left the plate. Harris trotted home from third, and the White Sox celebrated in the third-base dugout.

But it wasn't quite over yet.

Cliff Politte relieved to start the bottom half and hit Willy Taveras on the hand with one out. Politte bounced a wild pitch on his first offering to Lance Berkman, moving Taveras to second, then intentionally walked Berkman, nearly throwing away the next pitch.

Morgan Ensberg flied to right-center, dropping him to 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the Series, and Chicago brought in left-hander Neal Cotts to face pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino, who hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop.

Juan Uribe charged in, backhanded the ball by the grass and threw hard to first, beating Vizcaino by half a step.

After Chicago wasted a leadoff double by A.J. Pierzynski in the ninth, Jason Lane lofted a 3-2 pitch off Bobby Jenks into short center for a single leading off the bottom half.

Brad Ausmus sacrificed and pinch-hitter Chris Burke fouled out to Uribe, who fell into the left-field seats as he leaned in to make the grab. Uribe ran to the mound with the ball and gave Jenks a slap.

Orlando Palmeiro then pinch hit, and grounded to short for the final out and the White Sox poured out of their dugout and jumped around the mound.

Houston was 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the night and 10-for-48 (.208) in the Series, and Lidge fell to 0-2 in the Series and 0-3 in the postseason.

After Chicago's 14-inning, 7-5 win that lasted a Series-record 5 hours, 41 minutes and ended at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, the crowd was more subdued at Minute Maid Park. Most of them had to know that no team has ever overcome a 3-0 Series deficit.

Chicago stranded runners in three of the first four innings, including Podsednik after a two-out triple in the third, but Backe's changeup got stronger, and he struck out five straight — one short of the Series record — following Dye's leadoff single in the fourth.

He retired 11 batters in a row before Aaron Rowand's two-out single in the seventh, and Joe Crede followed with a drive high off the out-of-town scoreboard in the left-field fence, missing a home run by a few feet. Rowand, who had slowed slightly just before getting to second, was held up at third.

After a conference at the mound, and with Everett on deck as a potential pinch-hitter, Houston elected to pitch to Uribe, the No. 8 hitter, instead of intentionally walking him and forcing Chicago to decide whether to bat for Garcia. Backe fanned him on his final pitch and skipped off the mound before high-fiving teammates.

Houston, meanwhile, went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the first six innings. The Astros stranded runners on second base in the first two innings. With two on and one out in the sixth, Ensberg struck out and after Mike Lamb was intentionally walked to load the bases, Garcia struck out Jason Lane.

[Narachon]

Yeah, I had to work late yet again tonight, but I did bring my portable TV this time!

( too bad I forgot the batteries... )

On the way home onmy car radio I heard that Jermine Dye hit a run in the eight, only score of the game...

Managed to get back before midnight, in the 9th inning, score 1-0, Sox two out from winning the game and the series. Saw that AMAZING catch of Juan Uribe into the stands in the 9th!

So It's been 88 years! since the White Sox won a World Series! 1917!

Only two more than their Red counterparts in Boston, but they never blamed their never winning the Fall Classic on any silly curse..... :D

I wonder how Tripcore is feeling now, that his team's southside Rivals won a Series before his...

Who knows, If thing is a pattern,maybe it will be the Cubs turn next year?

Congratulations, Chicago White Sox!

For one night, ( for once ) you aren't the Second City!

[Jeff1]

I thought Houston was the second city