CHICAGO (670 The Score) — At the corner of 35th and Shields just outside Rate Field is an 18-foot-tall monument to the 2005 White Sox’s World Series championship team. It features the likeness of postseason heroes such as Paul Konerko, Juan Uribe, Joe Crede and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez.
As the 2005 champions gathered Friday on the South Side for their 20-year reunion, that monument was covered with flowers, candles, black ribbons and a cross – a makeshift memorial to honor the late Bobby Jenks.
A week earlier, Jenks – the rookie closer in 2005 with a larger-than-life personality – died at age 44 in Portugal after a battle with stomach cancer.
“The fact that he cleaned his life up, I mean, is the worst part of it,” former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “He cleaned up his life. He was making himself into a better human being than what he was. It’s sad, it’s awful. Cancer sucks, man.”
Like those White Sox, Jenks came out of nowhere in 2005. He was a hard-throwing right-hander who routinely hit triple digits on the radar gun, drawing gasps throughout the ballpark. Jenks made his MLB debut on July 6 that season, striking out two Devil Rays hitters in the ninth inning.
Nearly 20 years to the date of his first game with the White Sox, Jenks was gone far too soon.
Jermaine Dye, the World Series MVP in 2005, thought of that as he looked forward to this reunion. Former teammates who have shared such celebrations had remarked that the 20-year mark is often the last recognized in earnest.
“They don’t really do (30-year reunions) that much,” Dye said. “Because there’s a lot of people that are either sick or passed away. So, this is a special one. It’s something you don’t take for granted. You take in all the memories. Obviously, we are going to miss one teammate, Bobby Jenks, a special teammate, a special player and a special guy on our team.
“He’s definitely going to be missed.”
Prior to 2005, the White Sox had last won the World Series in 1917. The franchise made the World Series two years later in 1919 – the year of the infamous Black Sox scandal – and again in 1959. They lost in the American League Championship Series in 1983 and 1993, lost a golden opportunity in the strike-shortened 1994 season and then were swept in the 2000 AL Division Series.
But with the arrival of newcomers like Jenks, Pierzynski, Hernandez, Scott Podsednik and Tadahito Iguchi, the White Sox took off in 2005.
The White Sox won 99 games that regular season and never relinquished their place atop the AL Central standings. They went 11-1 in the postseason and swept the Astros in four games to win the World Series.
Despite their greatness in 2005, those White Sox often see their legacy forgotten nationally. The same goes for Jenks, a two-time All-Star whose passing led to an unfortunate framing on social media.
That bothered Pierzynski and his teammates but certainly wasn't a surprise at this point.
“It’s just easy to swipe it under the rug because, ‘Oh, White Sox, cute story – we’ll move on back to the Yankees, Red Sox, whatever,’” Pierzynski said. “I just think people forget because people don’t do their jobs the way they’re supposed to, and they don’t look into the history.
“We just had something. And I think people overlook that sometimes because we didn’t have a Hall of Famer on that team. (But) we had a lot of really, really good baseball players.”
For Podsednik – who walked off Game 2 of the World Series with a ninth-inning home run – there's nothing lacking in what the White Sox achieved in 2005.
“As time and the years have gone by, I have done nothing but gain a greater appreciation for what that group accomplished,” he said. “You have to have a special group of people to go accomplish something like that. It speaks to the character, the heart, the determination of those guys.”
Those White Sox teammates gathered in a large suite down the left-field line late Friday afternoon. They greeted each other with hugs, caught up on their families, poured drinks and cherished their accomplishment. Just before first pitch of a game against the Guardians, they all gathered on the right-field concourse late Friday evening as a black tarpaulin was pulled. It revealed a statue of left-hander Mark Buehrle, the ace of their team that season.
It was the start of a weekend that will be filled with countless stories, smiles, laughs, tears and memories for a White Sox team that will never be forgotten on the South Side.
“We don’t get all the respect that I think we should,” Dye said.
“But I think we know as a ballclub how special we were.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.