The author Nelson Algren said of the town of his childhood, “Chicago is an October sort of city, even in spring.”
Something rare freshened our air a year ago on this October date: A championship for the White Sox, their first in 88 autumns. Rarer still: They won a World Series “doubleheader,” Game 3 in Houston overlapping onto Oct. 26, the date of fateful Game 4.
Chicago rocked. Dennis DeYoung, who once sang vocals for Styx, became so unplugged that on his Web site he turned his Sox inside-out: “The Chicago White Sox win the World Series! Seires dlroW eht niw xoS etihW ogacihC ehT!”
Longtime fans held on long enough. Among the departed in the 365 days since: Al Lopez, who managed the Sox in the 1959 World Series; singer Lou Rawls, who sang the national anthem before Game 2; Gertrude “Pudi” Senese, whose family for generations ran McCuddy’s Tavern across from Comiskey Park; and polka king Walter E. “Lil’ Wally” Jagiello, who co-wrote the team’s theme song, “Let’s Go, Go-Go White Sox.”
Oct. 26, 2005, was a happy day for many, and even a happier birthday for some. So we asked Chicago baseball buffs from all walks of life: Where were you when a mighty win blew through the city last Soxtober?
Roland Hemond
White Sox executive and former GM
“It was after midnight when Geoff Blum hit that Game 3 home run in the top of the 14th. My wife turned to me in Houston and said, `Happy birthday, lovie.’ (That’s her name for me.) Then she kissed me. I was oblivious to the fact that we were on TV. It looked like we were celebrating before it was over, which I would never do. (Sox GM) Kenny Williams said, `You and Margo were really smooching there.’ A couple of my kids called up to say, `Dad, you could win two World Series games on the same day!’ And then we did. A birthday like that is one in a billion.”
Pat Sajak
Host of “Wheel of Fortune”
“Oct. 26 is my birthday, so it was hard to ask for a better present. I was watching at home in Maryland with my son, and I remember thinking the last White Sox World Series appearance happened when I was exactly his age. I’m hopeful he won’t have to write the same paragraph about his son one day.”
Joan Cusack
Actress and spokeswoman for U.S. Cellular
“I remember it was really late. The kids stayed up to watch and, when the White Sox won, I remember trying to point out to the kids some parenting point (probably about winning and losing and trying your best), and my husband [was] getting irritated with me and the kids [were] getting bored with what I was saying and everyone being really cranky the next day because they were up so late. But other than that, it was a really exciting reason-to-be-an-embarrassingly-proud-Chicagoan moment!”
Frank Lenti Jr.
Illinois wide receiver
“After practice I watched a little film, but not as much as usual because I wanted to get back to my house to watch the game. I sat on my bed and my roommate, [quarterback] Billy Garza, was in my chair. Billy is from Texas, so he was a Houston Astros fan, which made it kind of fun. When it was over we went out on our porch and enjoyed everyone hollering and all that good stuff.”
Nancy Faust
White Sox organist since 1970
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“I shared the excitement with a bar full of singing fans at the Cork & Kerry down by Evergreen Park. They had me play the organ as though it was a home game. I best remember the final out was followed by a champagne bath that didn’t seem to harm my equipment. I think the song for that night was `I Had the Time of My Life.'”
Johnny Kerr
Bulls broadcaster and former coach
“I was at a tavern. Imagine that. You never think these things are going to happen in Chicago. I was stunned when the Bulls won their first championship. But with baseball, it was even crazier. You experience complete euphoria. Plus, I’m a South Sider who was born close to that park and I’ve been a Sox fan all my life. It happened so quickly you didn’t get a chance to deal with any mystery or intrigue. It just went bang, bang, bang.”
Greg Gumbel
CBS sportscaster
“I was tied up with work and couldn’t catch the whole game. But when it did end, a few things were crystal clear. One, I was happy for all those people who gave support to the Sox down through the years. Two, I flashed back to my all-time favorite Sox team, the ’59 crew with Aparicio and Pierce and Fox and Klu and Lown and Staley. And three, I thanked my lucky stars I was never a Cub fan.”
Jim Landis
Sox center fielder in the 1959 World Series
“I was right here at home in Napa, Calif., watching the game on TV with my wife. I remember being so happy that they finally got the monkey off their back. And I was especially glad that they won it in four straight. Why fool around?”
George Wendt
Actor and former Second City star
“Joe Mantegna and his wife have a restaurant in Burbank, [Calif.], that’s called Taste Chicago and we watched it there–Joe and I and a whole bunch of us old Chicago geezers. A lot of us were thinking of our fathers. You know, `The White Sox killed my father and now they’re comin’ after me!’ But damned if we didn’t win. I immediately began calling Cub fans I know. I told them, `Don’t bother winning the World Series. It’s a hollow feeling.’ They didn’t seem to think I was too funny.”
Mike Veeck
Son of former Sox owner Bill Veeck
“I was in Mickey Mantle’s restaurant with my wife and Bill Murray after a Cream reunion concert at Madison Square Garden. It was surreal to be in Mantle’s joint with a bunch of New Yorkers and one fellow Chicagoan, everybody watching us out-of-towners acting so rabid and uncool. Even the Cub fan (Murray) was pleased.”
Michael Wilbon
Washington Post sports columnist and co-host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption”
“In my family room in Washington, I watched every pitch, requesting total silence, which is why my wife thinks I’m crazy. My father knew Bill Veeck, but he was a Cub fan, like I am. He’d roll over in his grave if he knew I was rooting for the Sox. When they got that last out, I couldn’t move. If it had been the Cubs, I might have screamed. My poor mother, Cleo, still hasn’t gotten over 2003. She’s 80 and she wants what the White Sox got.”
Greg Cicotte
His great-uncle Eddie pitched for the Sox in the 1919 World Series
“I watched in Michigan with my brother and 12-year-old nephew. When it ended, I remember thinking that there were eight men–one of particular importance to my family–who could finally rest in peace, knowing that [86] years later the curse of the Black Sox had finally come to an end. And it ended with a sweep. It’s how curses should end–with a clean sweep that leaves nothing behind.”
Hugh Dellios
baiduhai foreign editor
“I was in Caracas to cover the Venezuelans watching the White Sox, given their long relationship going back to Luis Aparicio and Chico Carrasquel. I had interviewed Freddy Garcia’s father and he invited me back to watch Game 4. It was at the big house Fred Jr. had bought for Fred Sr. after the son made it big. When they won, the father leaped out of his chair and shouted, `Freddy won! Freddy won!’ He ran into the kitchen and came back with three beers, announced, `I don’t drink!’ and then he downed one of them.”
Bethany Conrad
Works with White Sox Charities and plays college basketball for North Park
“I had basketball practice on the night of the 26th. I kept checking my text messages from my dad and my aunt. It was already the sixth inning, 0-0. I threw on all my Sox gear that I had been proudly sporting throughout the playoffs and ran over to the dorm room of guys from the basketball team, because I didn’t get Fox on the TV in our dorm. As soon as we scored, all I’m thinking is, `Bring in Big Bobby.’ My dad had me on speakerphone at home. Then it happened. `A ground ball over the head of Jenks! Uribe has it . . . OUT!’ I get still goosebumps talking about it. Everyone who knows me knows the White Sox winning the World Series was my ultimate dream.”
Bob McMillen
Played for the Arena Football League champion Rush
“I was at E.J. Riley’s restaurant in Lombard. Being friends with the Sox center fielder, Aaron Rowand, I was so happy to see him get a title. The night we won the ArenaBowl game, Aaron called to congratulate me. He made a point of rubbing it in that he won his title before I won mine. I didn’t have the heart to remind him I’d won titles with Arizona and San Jose before coming home to Chicago.”
Eddie Einhorn
Sox vice chairman
“My wife, son, daughter and son-in-law were in a box with me at the game, and we got to hold the trophy and take a picture. It was all a blur. None of it made any sense. Willie Harris, the most unlikely guy of all, gets a pinch single in the eighth to score the winning run. You look at this year and you see how hard it is. Whatever magic they needed last year, they had it.”
Stuart Ellison
Chicago commodity trader
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“I went to all the home games. For the final game in Houston, I sat home scrutinizing every pitch. When it was over I spoke with two of my sons–big Sox fans–then had to go for a walk. I wound up at the Nine restaurant on Randolph and soaked it all in. There were no riots in the streets, no cars set afire. Just an inner satisfaction that I had been a season ticket-holder for the 2005 World Series champs.”
Erryn Cobb
Northwestern fullback
“I was at Roundhead’s restaurant in Downers Grove with my friends and family, eating pizza. It got down to the ninth inning and it felt like we were in the stadium because everyone jumped up at the same time, yelling. It felt like your body was being elevated, it was so cool.”
Jason Flam
8th grader at Hauser Junior High in Riverside
“I was in my living room with my dad [Yankees fan], my sister [another avid Sox fan] and my two stepbrothers [both Cubs fans]. Boy, did I rub it in my stepbrothers’ faces. I was aweshocked and had chills. Because I was only 5 when Michael Jordan won his last title, I had never really experienced a Chicago championship. Being just 13, I especially appreciate it because the reason I’m a Sox fan is my mom, who died four years ago. She waited 43 years and never got to see the Sox in a World Series, and I waited just 12.”
Ron Kittle
Former Sox player and maker of Bat Benches
“Want to hear something sad? I knew they would win, so I took my family to Michigan and had a great day with them instead. I picked the Sox and almost was exactly right in calling what they would do. I heard the ending on the radio. It’s just not the same when you aren’t in uniform.”
George Lopez
Star of ABC’s “The George Lopez Show”
“In the middle of July 2005, I told Ozzie Guillen and Kenny Williams that the White Sox would win the World Series. On the last out, I was on Stage 4 at the studio, sitting on my Ron Kittle Bat Bench, drinking Dom Perignon, and surrounded by transplanted Dodgers fans. Priceless.”
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