Say It's So

Overview

The Chicago White Sox's march to the 2005 World Series title was as surprising as it was dramatic, and in Say It's So: The Chicago White Sox's Magical Season, Phil Rogers delivers the inside story of how it came about. Rogers, senior baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, describes the gamble general manager Ken Williams took in breaking up a powerful but plodding team in favor of one built around pitching, speed and defense. A team, in other words, that could play the game the way manager Ozzie Guillen wanted it played. In Guillen, the Sox found themselves a charismatic, live-wire leader whose every move seemed golden. Rogers provides a front-row view of the eccentric genius the second-year manager displayed in delivering Chicago its first World Series since 1959 and its first Series title since 1917. There's the rock-steady Paul Konerko, whose big bat and steely clubhouse presence carried the team through the postseason. There's the unsung third basemen Joe Crede, whose spectacular fielding and timely hitting on baseball's biggest stage stamped him as a rising star. There's the irascible catcher A.J. Pierzynski, the "Eddie Haskell" of the clubhouse, who found himself smack in the middle of every controversy. There's the fire of Bobby Jenks and the guile of Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. And finally there's a deep and talented pitching staff that saw the team through its only rough spot of the regular season and then was simply dominant through all three founds of the postseason. The 2005 White Sox were a uniquely multi-cultural group that reflected their city's ethnic melting pot. They truly were Chicago's team--and they gave their fans a truly magical season.

Press Releases

The Chicago White Sox’ improbable domination in the 2005

playoffs, which resulted in the team’s first World Series

title since 1917, was filled with plotlines and stories that

would win any screenwriter an Academy Award.

 

Say It’s So: The Chicago White Sox’s Magical Season by

Phil Rogers, the longtime baseball columnist of the Chicago

Tribune, reveals all of the details behind every step of the way

through the 2005 season which baseball fans everywhere

will never forget.

 

Rogers chronicles many details behind the White Sox’s

championship season that newspapers and magazines never

were able to report. Some of the items in Say It’s So that

fans will learn include:

 

Ø     How Orlando Hernandez predicted in spring training that he and fellow Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras would shock and delight the White Sox faithful

Ø     Why White Sox scouts and coaches were so eager to see Jeff Bagwell actually playing for the Astros in the World Series

Ø     How Mark Buehrle overcame being cut twice from his high school team (and why he choose to propose to his wife in a deer stand!)

Ø     How badly Ozzie Guillen’s playing career ended with the White Sox, and how remarkable it was that Jerry Reinsdorf/Ken Williams brought him back as manager

Ø     An examination of how the previously-unthinkable could happen: Could Chicago actually become a White Sox’s town and not a Cubs’ town anymore?

 

Filled with vivid, color photos from the championship run, locker room stories previously untold, details of not just how the games finished, but why, Say It’s So is the most comprehensive examination of the championship season that was 88 years in the making – and worth the wait!