The 2005 Chicago White Sox would defeat the 2016 Chicago Cubs

The Chicago White Sox had everything they needed in 2005 to win the World Series and they stack up with most teams in World Series history.

Chicago baseball twitter has some fun arguments sometimes. The hot one right now is the debate between who would win a seven-game series between the 2005 Chicago White Sox and the 2016 Chicago Cubs. Both were great teams and became World Series Champions after very good seasons. The White Sox went 99-63 in the regular season and the Cubs went 103-58. They both won the Central Division of their league en route to one of the league’s top records.

The Cubs were the slightly more dominant team in the regular season but the only reason that is the case is the White Sox had a rough September in 2005. Well, the postseason run the White Sox had compared to the Cubs is a little bit different. The White Sox went 11-1 while the Cubs went 11-6. The Cleveland Indians had three games to one lead over the Cubs and blew it. There is no doubt that the Cubs earned their World Series after a dominant year but the White Sox steamrolled the competition.

An argument in favor of the Cubs is the competition the faced. Well, yes, the Cubs played some very good teams en route to the World Series in 2016. A San Francisco Giants team that had won three of the past five titles, a Los Angeles Dodgers team that is still dominant to this day, and a Cleveland Indians team that was very good from the American League. It was no joke, that’s for sure.

With that said, the White Sox had no cakewalk. They swept the defending champion Boston Red Sox, who the year before, became the first team in MLB history to erase a 3-0 series lead and defeated their arch-rivals in the New York Yankees. Superstars like Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, along with their tremendous depth, made them a very difficult team to beat.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were no joke as well with their 95-67 record. They defeated an A.L. East winning New York Yankees in the division round just to meet the White Sox. It was a brilliant year for them en route to becoming the American League runners up.

Then, they beat the Houston Astros in the World Series. Yes, they were a wild card team but they defeated the best regular-season team in the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis had the best record in baseball at 100-62 and had a stud like Albert Pujols leading the way. The Astros also had elite players like Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman,  and Roger Clemens that season. It was very impressive for the White Sox to sweep a team of that caliber.

So, if the 2005 White Sox had that same momentum against the 2016 Cubs, it would be pretty obvious who would come out on top. Nobody was stopping that squad from getting what they wanted. They got unexpected home runs from guys like Scott Podsednik and Geoff Blum, calls going their way on drop third strikes for guys like A.J. Pierzynski, four straight complete-games from pitchers, and a grand slam from a legend named Paul Konerko.

The Cubs had a nice rain delay speech given by Jason Heyward to help them win the World Series in game seven in Cleveland after horrible decision making on their pitching. That doesn’t compare to the magic that the 2005 White Sox team had and it’s not particularly close.