No worries: Cubs' flubs, 2005 title maintain peace of mind for Sox fans

The White Sox don't have to win it all to win it all - not to claim bragging rights in this town, anyway.

The Sox season lasted one win and two days longer than the Cubs last year, and that was enough.

It's hard to imagine a season more satisfying. Sure, the 2005 world championship comes quickly to mind, but its enduring afterglow is the very reason Sox fans are so readily content.

While the Cubs were winning 97 games to cruise into the playoffs only to be swept out for the second straight year, the Sox were taking an overachieving team few expected to contend and charging into the playoffs with three straight dramatic victories to close the regular season, the last a 1-0 division-clinching shutout of the archrival Minnesota Twins in the "blackout" game at White Sox Park.

It seemed a scene right out of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. What a contrast to sunshine and day baseball - and a tradition of choking.

The Sox not only won a game in the best-of-five first-round playoffs, they lost to the eventual pennant winners.

So let Cub fans anguish with the dread that there's nothing but potential pitfalls between now and October. Sox fans are at peace come what may.

General Manager Kenny Williams has largely kept the nucleus of the 2005 champions intact for another victory lap (although hail and farewell, Joe Crede) and of course there are hopes that perhaps everything will fall into place one more time and take the team deep into October.

Yet everyone is well aware - from the players to the fans - that the team is also poised to rebuild and make room for future stars like Gordon Beckham, Tyler Flowers, Dayan Viciedo and Aaron Poreda alongside Carlos Quentin, Alexei Ramirez, John Danks and Gavin Floyd. So the roster could be very different at the end of the season.

Advance ticket sales are actually up, despite the economy - and the 73-win prognostication from Baseball Prospectus.

Besides, the Sox have President Obama, the first baseball fan. Who do the Cubs have? Ronnie Woo-Woo.

And if the season goes poorly and the youth movement comes? Hey, Sox fans are secure in the knowledge that will only bring them closer to their next World Series victory before the hapless Cubs ever again manage to win one.

Don't forget, Burt: That team to crush the aspirations of the 116-win 1906 Cubs? It was the "Hitless Wonders" White Sox.