Copyright Chicago Tribune
Pope Leo XIV isn’t paid to be a spokesman for the Chicago White Sox, but he sent a message from the Vatican last week that warmed the hearts of many Sox fans. “Han perdido! They lost!” Leo said as he waved to the masses in his popemobile. The brief message was in response to someone yelling “Go Cubs,” an apparent appeal to his Chicago roots. But Leo was having none of that. He smiled and pointed out to the shouter in both Spanish and English that the Cubs’ season was over following their loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Division Series. Misery loves company, and like other Sox fans, the pope could at least find some comfort in the Cubs’ postseason downfall, despite their own team’s 102-loss season. It was the Sox’s third straight season of 100-plus losses, but since they dropped 19 fewer games than their record-setting 121-loss season in ’24, it was deemed a step forward for the franchise. The Sox even had a positive run differential in the second half, 315-312, and finished eighth with 89 home runs after the All-Star break. ¿Han perdido? For sure. ¿Confía en los Sox en 2026? Trust them … at your own risk. As the World Series kicks off Friday between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays they’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Sox’s World Series win on the South Side. The anniversary of the Game 5-3 victory over the Houston Astros is Wednesday. Maybe you were watching on TV, or in the stands at what was called “The Cell,” as Robert Prevost was that fateful night, when he was captured in the crowd on the Fox Sports telecast. The South Side priest couldn’t have known that 20 years later he’d become the first American-born pope and the most famous Sox fan in the world, able to create international headlines with a small dis of the Cubs. “When I saw the picture (from the 2005 World Series), I was like, ‘How the heck did he get into that?’” his brother, Louis Prevost, told the Chicago Tribune last spring. “But that was him at the game there. That was his thing. He liked to get out and go to a game once in a while. Eat a hot dog. Have some pizza. Like any other guy in Chicago on the South Side.” That World Series sweep by the ’05 Sox capped a dominant 11-1 playoff run that never really got the credit it deserved. Only the 1976 Cincinnati Reds went unbeaten in a postseason after divisional play began in 1969, and they won only seven games. “We stuck together,” designated hitter Carl Everett said after the sweep. “Everyone was against us, but we didn’t care.” That us-against-humanity attitude remains intact 20 years later, as many Sox fans believe the national media downplayed the team’s accomplishment in the years that followed. In 2016, ESPN left the Sox’s championship out of a graphic comparing sports titles between Cleveland and Chicago. In 2017, when the Dodgers started 7-1 in the postseason, ESPN Stats Info posted on social media the 1998 New York Yankees were the only team in the wild-card era to win a World Series with two or fewer postseason losses, ignoring the ’05 Sox’s record. You can bet if the Dodgers sweep the World Series to finish 13-1 in the postseason they’ll get their due from the national media as one of the greatest October teams ever. They’re the Dodgers, the richest team in baseball. And the ’05 Sox? Just a bunch of self-described grinders, with no Hall of Fame players besides Frank Thomas, who played in only 34 games due to injuries and missed the postseason. They weren’t the most talented team, but they were a team that did almost everything the right way. “The best team I was around, as a player, coach, manager,” Ozzie Guillen said last summer at the ’05 reunion. “I won with the (2003) Marlins. We had a lot of talent. Here we had good talent, but we had more people with bigger hearts and cared about each other better than anybody.” That Sox team broke an 87-year championship drought and was young enough for fans to believe they’d win one or maybe even two more together. That never happened, of course, and the drought will be entering Year 21 next season with a team that’s unlikely to break it any time soon. The Sox are seemingly stuck in a doom loop of poor teams leading to sparse attendance leading to lower payrolls, which usually translates to another bad team and even worse attendance. Despite having young talent in Colson Montgomery, Shane Smith, Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero, among others, they still have plenty of holes to fill but not enough desire to spend what’s needed in free agency. “We’re going to look for chances to add to this club in different ways, you know, get creative at times in terms of strategy,” general manager Chris Getz said in August. “Getting creative” is another way of saying “looking for bargains,” or taking risks on players looking to rebound with a change of scenery. Sometimes that works, as the Brewers discovered when they acquired Andrew Vaughn from the Sox for pitcher Aaron Civale, who was waived in August and claimed by the Cubs. Vaughn lived up to his potential in Milwaukee, while Civale was just a coatholder the Sox couldn’t even get anything for at the trade deadline. While Getz and his front office aim to get creative, Sox fans will at least have this week to celebrate the anniversaries of Paul Konerko’s slam, Scott Podsednik’s walk-off, Mark Buehrle’s beer-and-bullpen outing, Juan Uribe’s catch in the stands, Bobby Jenks’ final out and all the rest of the highlights of the ’05 World Series. Hopefully, somewhere in the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV pulls out the holy VCR and pops in the sacred videotape of him watching Jenks deal in that Game 1 win. He’s come a long way since that October night. Maybe you have, too? No one can tell you where you’ll be in 20 years. Life is a carousel, and where you’ll be when it stops is up to you.
