From chokers to champs

On Aug. 1, the Chicago White Sox assumed the role of the rabbit in the fable of the tortoise and the hare. \nFifteen games ahead of the Cleveland Indians (the tortoise), most thought they would be the first team to clinch its division. But just as the story goes, the Sox took a nap on a park bench, and let the tortoise make up its 13 1/2 game deficit. People called them chokers, said their luck had run out and they were about to become the first team in MLB history to squander a 15-game division lead this late in the season.\nAnd for a moment, just about every Sox fan, baseball analyst and anyone with a functioning brain believed what was being said about the South Siders. Even manager Ozzie Guillen told the Chicago Tribune, "We flat out stink." Their hitting was absolutely horrid. Not that swinging the sticks was or is this team's forte, but stranded runners and pop-ups started to be the defining characteristics of the squad. Mark Buehrle and John Garland were both strong candidates for the Cy Young award the first half of the season. But after a string of bad starts in the closing months, they put themselves out of contention for the award.\nThe worst part of it all was it appeared the tortoise would pass up the hare in the last series of the season, as the Indians and White Sox met during the weekend in Cleveland.\nTravis Hafner had been tearing the cover off the ball for the Tribe, and Cleveland went a rock solid 38-14 from Aug. 1 up until its eventual meeting with the Sox. \nBut it never came to that.\nChicago woke up from its nap and won eight of its last 10 and sealed the division title before it traveled to Cleveland. The Indians lost six of their final seven games, including being swept by the Sox in that all-important season-ending series. Cleveland still had a chance to grab the Wild Card on the final day of the season, but it needed to beat the White Sox and for the Boston Red Sox to lose Sunday. \nIt didn't happen. There is no postseason for the Indians.\nSo the team that, just a week ago, was doomed to be on the couch watching the playoffs, won its division by six games and found themselves 14-2 winners over the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox Tuesday evening. These so-called chokers also ended up with 99 wins -- good enough for the best record in the American League, which ensures them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.\nChicago is a city filled with years of its baseball teams coming up short. The Sox haven't won the World Series since 1917. The Cubs haven't won it all since 1908. That's 185 total years without a crown. History gave Sox fans every right to cast the team aside as their lead started to crumble.\nBut as bad as things got during mid-September for the Sox, they found a way to win and come up big in their first game of the postseason. Their pitching staff is arguably the best of any team in the postseason. In games decided by one run, the Sox are a fantastic 35-18. In games decided by two runs or less they are a decisive 61-33. That seems to be the story of the White Sox's regular season -- finding a way to win the close ones. \nThe White Sox will have their hands full during the rest of the series with the champs, but hopefully for Chicago fans, their feel-good season will carry through the playoffs. Eighty-eight years of disappointment are riding on it.