Free Republic

CHICAGO -- The sheer and utter perfection found by the White Sox during their championship 2005 campaign now has been extended into the offseason. General manager Ken Williams and his staff entered this particular period with two major goals in mind: Re-sign free agent first baseman Paul Konerko and add a left-handed power presence to the middle of the White Sox order. The second goal was accomplished first, with the acquisition of designated hitter Jim Thome from Philadelphia. But the offseason's most important moment played out for the White Sox on Wednesday, as Konerko and the team agreed to a...

With the World Series trophy in tow, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen flew to Venezuela on Thursday on a private jet furnished by President Hugo Chavez for a weekend tribute in his homeland that will cap a whirlwind week. Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf supplied a plane for Guillen to fly from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, where Chavez's jet was waiting. Venezuelan officials have arranged for the trophy to be guarded by military personnel and transported in an armored car during the visit. Guillen is expected to return early next week when his schedule might begin to ease. Guillen was so...

Chicago Jews on Chicago White Sox Growing up, my family lived so close to Wrigley Field that on game days if I wanted to know if the Cubs were winning I only had to go out on the back porch and listen to how loud the cheers sounded. Add to that a father who was a newspaperman in the days when free Cubs tickets were distributed so liberally that sometimes even the nature columnist got them. So-in the ever-present debate over heredity vs. environment-you could say that being a Cubs fan was in the air that I breathed if not...

NEW CBSNEWS PRESIDENT: WORLD SERIES OVER SUPREME COURT? Sun Oct 30 2005 20:27:16 ET At his first editorial meeting of the "CBS Evening News" since being named president of CBS News last week, Sean McManus listened to the proposed rundown for that night's program: Harriet E. Miers' troubled nomination for the Supreme Court; the possible indictments of I. Lewis Libby Jr. and Karl Rove in connection with the leaking of the name of a CIA agent, the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma and the World Series victory of the Chicago White Sox. The NEW YORK TIMES reports on Monday, "Then they...

MIAMI - Al Lopez, a Hall of Fame catcher and manager who led the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox to American League pennants in the 1950s, died Sunday at 97. Lopez had been hospitalized in Tampa since Friday, when he suffered a heart attack at his son's home, Al Lopez Jr. said. Lopez was the oldest living Hall of Fame member, said Jeff Idelson, spokesman for the Hall. Lopez hit .261 with 51 homers and 652 RBIs during a 19-year career in which he was one of baseball's most durable catchers and set the record for most games caught...

Will it be Rocket Launch or Rocket Failure? Clemens vs. Contreras

CHICAGO (AP) -- The party was in full swing. Two days after the White Sox swept Houston for their first World Series title since 1917, the team hit Chicago's streets Friday for a ticker-tape parade and rally. Double-decker buses filled with players, coaches and their families left U.S. Cellular Field as hundreds of fans cheered. And they kept cheering all the way to the Loop for a celebration and a parade. There, one after another, the players and team officials took turns thanking the fans. ``Chicago, second city no more,'' said Paul Konerko, the first baseman who brought team owner...

The conservative Chicago theoretician was the source of Ozzie Guillen's baseball philosophy.

STARTING LINE-UPS FOR GAME 4 (Chicago up 3-0)Chicago White Sox S. Podsednik lf .278 T. Iguchi 2b .200 J. Dye rf .333 P. Konerko 1b .333 A.J. Pierzynski c .273 A. Rowand cf .308 J. Crede 3b .308 J. Uribe ss .333 F. Garcia p .000 Houston Astros C. Biggio 2b .214 W. Taveras cf .308 L. Berkman lf .417 M. Ensberg 3b .143 M. Lamb 1b .125 J. Lane rf .214 B. Ausmus c .231 A. Everett ss .083 B. Backe p .000

Starting Lineup: Chicago WSox at Houston Chicago WSox   Houston Pos Player HR RBI AVG   Pos Player HR RBI AVG LF Podsednik, Scott 1 4 .286   2B Biggio, Craig 0 4 .326 2B Iguchi, Tadahito 1 4 .207   CF Taveras, Willy 0 0 .357 RF Dye, Jermaine 0 3 .241   LF Berkman, Lance 2 8 .314 1B Konerko, Paul 4 11 .273   3B Ensberg, Morgan 0 9 .256 C Pierzynski, AJ 3 6 .259   1B Lamb, Mike 2 3 .273 CF Rowand, Aaron 0 3 .250   RF Lane, Jason 2 6 .237...

Arnold Fege's office at the Public Education Network is adorned with a picture of old Comiskey Park. He drives a car into work from Virginia every day adorned with a Sox sticker and license plate. "I do whatever I can to try to identify myself as one of those South Side renegades," he says. "But it's tough. This is the first time I've received any recognition since 1959." Teams like the Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox are known to have far-reaching fan bases. Finding like-minded White Sox fans in Washington has been difficult. But with the team reaching its first...

Game 2 Live Thread! Chicago leads series 1-0 Pettite vs. Buehrle

Did anyone catch Joe Buck's commentary (I think it was him) about how our commie buddy Castro is celebrating the World Series by trying to block it from being broadcast in Cuba (which would seem awfully difficult) and not allowing Contreras' name to be spoken publicly? Is there a transcript of the comments available? Fidel's still a paranoid loon after all these years.

You love your White Sox, but as an American League fan, you may not have a firm grip yet on how to focus your dislike for their World Series' opponent, the Houston Astros. Perhaps I could be helpful in that regard. Having recently watched the Astros chew up and spit out a team for whom my allegiance is known, I had an opportunity to give that quite a bit of thought. Strangely enough, the experience left me with nothing but respect for the Astros players, a formidable and highly professional team. But everything else about the Astros stinks. Barbara Bush...

October 20, 2005, 8:28 a.m. Castro in a White (Sox) Rage of AngerThe side bonus of a Chicago win. By Andrew Cline My team did not make it to the World Series this year, so I'll be pulling for the Chicago White Sox. I want Fidel Castro to angrily toss his Soviet-era transistor radio out the window when he hears that two more Cuban defectors earned World Series rings. The 2005 White Sox give any baseball fan reason to cheer in their own right. The franchise has been so bad for so long (last World Series win: 1917) that despite...

People still misunderstand, and we need to clear it up with the nation turning to the White Sox for the first time since anyone can remember. When the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, we were tortured with endless stuff about the Curse of the Bambino. When the Cubs were close two years ago, it was the goat thing. What's the Sox' legend? I hate to say this, Sox fans, but when the nation thinks of the Sox, it thinks of Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979. And fans jumping onto the field to attack umpires or coaches....

The "Go-Go White Sox" reached the World Series in 1959. Go back further, to 1917, for the last South Side champs.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The world will have to end, I assume, before baseball finds a way to stop embarrassing itself. It should be ashamed, in October, to employ an umpire who turned what should be a clear, conclusive process into a vague, confusing guessing game of arm mechanics. It should be ashamed the same umpire, Doug Eddings, didn't provide some sort of verbal cue -- "No catch!'' -- allowing the Angels to make a fair play on future international spy Anthony John Pierzynski. It should be ashamed, on the very day an iPod with video capabilities was hatched, that it...