By Mark Simon, ESPN Research | Print This Page

Think about how dominant the White Sox were in 2005 in becoming the fifth "wire-to-wire" champion. They opened the season with a 1-0 win and maintained a lead in the American League Central for the entire regular season.

Their only significant gut-check game came in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, which they won, albeit in controversial fashion, scoring in the ninth inning after A.J. Pierzynski's apparent strikeout. They closed the season with four impressive wins, getting clutch hitting, pitching and fielding, particularly at the end of Game 4 of the World Series, also a 1-0 win.

If you were a White Sox fan, this season could not have been any more enjoyable or more perfect.

Won World Series
First place the entire regular season:
Year Team W-L Defeated in World Series
2005 White Sox 99-63 Astros
1990 Reds 91-71 Athletics
1984 Tigers 104-58 Padres
1955 Dodgers 98-55 Yankees
1927 Yankees 110-44 Pirates


"Who's on the clock next?" asked Baseball Tonight coordinating producer Judson Burch, which seemed like an appropriate question at the end of the final evening of the 2005 baseball season, considering that the last two World Series winners ended droughts and curses that lasted more than eight decades.

It promises to be another interesting offseason, with plenty of trades, signings, and retirements, and Baseball Tonight will help cover it throughout the winter. Come next spring, the Cubs figure to be the trendy pick, as their winter will ring with reminders that their neighbors in the city reigned supreme in 2005.

Longest Wait Since Last World Series Title
Cubs 1908
Indians 1948
Giants 1954
Eight teams, including the Astros, have never won a World Series.

Home Run Note Of The World Series
The biggest home run of the postseason was Scott Podsednik's walkoff in Game 2 of the World Series. Podsednik became the first player to hit a walkoff home run in the World Series after not hitting a home run during the regular season.


Stat of the night
Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the three teams with the best records in the postseason are the 1976 Reds (7-0, 1.000), the 1999 Yankees, (11-1, .917) and the 2005 White Sox (11-1, .917).

No Home Runs Today
The 2005 season of "Baseball Tonight" has come to an end, and once again it's time to acknowledge those who work behind the scenes at making the show function at the highest level. Time does not permit us to roll the credits at the end of the season, so we list those key contributors who live, breathe and sleep baseball for seven months out of the year:

Baseball Tonight Behind-The-Scenes Staff
Senior Coordinating Producer: Jay Levy

Coordinating Producers: Judson Burch, Ed Schimmel

Producers: Melissa Motha, Lya Vallat, John Ziomek

Associate Producers: Rich Ciancimino, Gregg Colli, Chris Roenbeck

Production Assistants: Deryk Cumagun, Nancy Dillman, Jay Koransky, Jennifer Ruhe, Jamie Thom, Jeffrey Wechsler, Elliott Wiley, Keri Willis

Assignment Editors: Catie DeVito, Jennifer Kocse

Production Coordinator: Miranda Chattam

Directors: Mark Deaver, Jim Ryan

Associate Directors: Daniel Petriw, John Duff, Adam Bryant

Researchers: Mark Simon, Paul Kuo, Jon Kramer

Mark Simon is a researcher for "Baseball Tonight."







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