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Thursday, 27 October 2005 |
Chicago White Sox win baseball World Series
Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 with a
hard-fought 1-0 win over Houston in game four. The visitors completed a
4-0 series sweep after Willie Harris scored on a Jermaine Dye RBI
single in the eighth inning at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros left three runners on base in the sixth inning, and another
two in the bottom of the eighth. And White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen
said: "With the birth of my kids, this is the most wonderful day of my
life."
Again the Houston batters' failure to produce hits at key times was
crucial. After Tuesday's contest, which was the longest game in World
Series history, it was another tight encounter as both sides again
struggled to score.
struggled to score. It was a night when the starting pitchers
dominated, with Houston's Brandon Backe and Chicago's Freddy Garcia
each striking out seven batters and yielding no runs in seven innings.
The key moment came in the eighth when outfielder Jermaine Dye hit a
ground ball through the middle off Houston reliever Brad Lidge, driving
in Harris from third. Jermaine Dye later earned Most Valuable Player
honours for the series.
Jermaine Dye said: "It means a lot, not only to us in the clubhouse but
to the organisation, to the fans and to the city. It's just a great
feeling.
"It is special for me to be thought of as MVP in this group of players.
"This year was unbelievable. If you just stay with what got you there and not change, then good things will happen."
Chicago's win was their eighth post-season victory in a row - tying the record set last year by the Boston Red Sox.
Houston's failure to win a single game in their first ever World Series
came as a serious disappointment to their fans, who had waited 44 years
for their team to reach this final stage. Houston manager Phil Garner
said: "I'm proud of those guys.
"Everybody in our clubhouse had something to do with us getting here and it's a pretty good story, a doggone good story."
The White Sox ended an even longer and more infamous curse, dating back
to 1919, when the team of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson threw the season
finale and became dubbed the "Black Sox".
Joe Jackson - one of the game's greatest players - and seven others
were subsequently handed life-time bans for accepting money to lose to
the Cincinnati Reds.
After Boston's triumph in 2004, it was the second successive year that
one of the sport's oldest and best-supported franchises finally got
back on track.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 October 2005 )
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