Chisox revisit Bosox.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: SPORTS SCENE

A FEW DAYS AFTER BOSTON CAPTURED its first championship in 86 years, the New York Post ran an illustration of two men walking down a city street with dozens of pigs flying overhead. One guy turns to the other and says, "I see the Red Sox won the World Series." It was apt testimony to a highly unlikely occurrence. Yet, if October 2004 is to be remembered for rare events--lest we forget, the Bosox reached the Fall Classic in unprecedented fashion, overcoming a three games to zero playoff deficit against the New York Yankees--October 2005 will be etched in eternity as a month of mind-bending mirages, for not only did the Chicago White Sox win the American League pennant (1959 was the last time) and the Series (no such luck since 1917), they became intertwined in a fascinating histori cal juxtaposition with the Red Sox: starting in 1916, the two franchises alternated World Series appearances during a four-year stretch.

Yet, disaster struck in that final season of domination, as the Black Sox gambling scandal rocked the baseball world, with eight Chicago players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. It took Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis' stern hand and Babe Ruth's prodigious home runs to return the game to its former pedestal as America's National Pastime. (So, if history repeats, Boston and Chicago will win the American League pennant in 2006 and 2007, respectively, with the Red Sox garnering another Series championship. Trouble is, if form continues to follow, neither club will wear a World Series ring after that until 2092.)

Conjecture aside, though, the White Sox do make for an interesting case study. For instance, it always has been a mystery why the Red Sox (some say "jinxed") and Cubs (others claim "cursed") have been accorded this almost mystical status as fabled franchises-in-waiting while the White Sox's drought in many ways has been longer and more agonizing. How so? Well, for one thing, the Cubbies and Bosox had multiple--albeit deserved--chances at baseball's ultimate prize. True, the Cubs have not won the National League pennant since 1945--having missed glorious chances in 1969 (Miracle Mets), 1984 (playoff collapse), and 2003 (fan interference)--but they have been to the World Series no less than seven times since their last championship in 1908. The Red Sox, meanwhile, were late-October participants in 1946, 1967, and 1986. Granted, they endured heartbreaking Game 7 losses on each...