White Sox Title Voted Top AP Sports Story
By RONALD BLUM
[SIZE=-2]ASSOCIATED PRESS[/SIZE]
NEW YORK (AP) -
When the White Sox won the World Series for the first time in nearly nine decades, it took awhile for Jerry Reinsdorf to realize what the title meant to many in Chicago.
Chicago's remarkable run to its first World Series title since 1917 was voted sports story of the year in balloting by newspaper and broadcast members of The Associated Press.
"There's hardly anybody still alive from 1917, and those few who are really don't much remember that," Reinsdorf said. "So this is the first time this has happened in almost everybody's lifetime. And the impact has just been incredible. Baseball makes people think about their ancestors, their parents and their grandparents."
Chicago went an AL-best 99-63 during the regular season, holding on to win the AL Central after a September slump nearly dropped the White Sox into second place behind Cleveland. Chicago then went 11-1 during the postseason, matching the 1999 New York Yankees for the best mark since the postseason expanded to three rounds in 1995.
"This was truly a team triumph," Reinsdorf said. "We didn't have a single .300 hitter. We only had one man who drove in 100 runs and it was just 100 runs. We didn't have a 20-game winner. Everybody contributed to it.
"This could only happen in a city that has a long history in baseball that hadn't won for a long time," he said. "New York had parades when the Yankees won, it was not the same thing. When the Diamondbacks won the World Series here a few years ago - what was it, their third or fourth year? - it wasn't the same thing. When a whole generation or several generations have failed to see a winner and then finally saw that winner, the joy is beyond belief. If we were to win again next year, I can't imagine it would be the same thing."
AP Voting for TOP SPORTS STORY 2005
1.Chicago White Soxs World Series victory received 552 points in the voting.
2. Hurricane Katrina displacing the NFL's New Orleans Saints,and the NBA's Hornets and college teams was second with 465 points,
3. Lance Armstrong's record seventh straight Tour de France title (455),
4.The furor over steroids in baseball (448), 6.
5.The New England Patriots' Super Bowl victory (259),
6.Southern California's attempt to win its third straight college football title (243)
7.Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro getting his 3,000th hit and then getting suspended for steroids.
By RONALD BLUM
[SIZE=-2]ASSOCIATED PRESS[/SIZE]
NEW YORK (AP) -
When the White Sox won the World Series for the first time in nearly nine decades, it took awhile for Jerry Reinsdorf to realize what the title meant to many in Chicago.
Chicago's remarkable run to its first World Series title since 1917 was voted sports story of the year in balloting by newspaper and broadcast members of The Associated Press.
"There's hardly anybody still alive from 1917, and those few who are really don't much remember that," Reinsdorf said. "So this is the first time this has happened in almost everybody's lifetime. And the impact has just been incredible. Baseball makes people think about their ancestors, their parents and their grandparents."
Chicago went an AL-best 99-63 during the regular season, holding on to win the AL Central after a September slump nearly dropped the White Sox into second place behind Cleveland. Chicago then went 11-1 during the postseason, matching the 1999 New York Yankees for the best mark since the postseason expanded to three rounds in 1995.
"This was truly a team triumph," Reinsdorf said. "We didn't have a single .300 hitter. We only had one man who drove in 100 runs and it was just 100 runs. We didn't have a 20-game winner. Everybody contributed to it.
"This could only happen in a city that has a long history in baseball that hadn't won for a long time," he said. "New York had parades when the Yankees won, it was not the same thing. When the Diamondbacks won the World Series here a few years ago - what was it, their third or fourth year? - it wasn't the same thing. When a whole generation or several generations have failed to see a winner and then finally saw that winner, the joy is beyond belief. If we were to win again next year, I can't imagine it would be the same thing."
AP Voting for TOP SPORTS STORY 2005
1.Chicago White Soxs World Series victory received 552 points in the voting.
2. Hurricane Katrina displacing the NFL's New Orleans Saints,and the NBA's Hornets and college teams was second with 465 points,
3. Lance Armstrong's record seventh straight Tour de France title (455),
4.The furor over steroids in baseball (448), 6.
5.The New England Patriots' Super Bowl victory (259),
6.Southern California's attempt to win its third straight college football title (243)
7.Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro getting his 3,000th hit and then getting suspended for steroids.
