Cue the air-raid sirens.
You know, the sirens that wailed throughout Chicago the night of Sept. 22, 1959. Citizens who weren’t aware of the deep and longstanding affinity Mayor Richard J. Daley and Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn had for the White Sox feared Russian nukes were surely on the way.
Nope. Turns out the Sox had clinched their first American League pennant in 40 years in Cleveland. When you wait that long for baseball’s second biggest prize, a little siren music is not an excessive celebration.
Well, the 2005 White Sox are one win away from the team’s first pennant since that one so Daley’s mayoral son Richard M., an equally ardent Sox fan, might want to have his finger ready.
The Sox took a daunting three games to one lead over the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series Saturday night with a no-sweat 8-2 win before 44,857 disbelieving Angels fans and a subdued Rally Monkey at Angel Stadium. They will go for the clincher at the same venue Sunday night and try to secure the city’s first World Series berth since ’59.
Paul “Mr. October” Konerko slugged his fourth home run of the postseason and A.J. “Eddie Haskell” Pierzynski hit his third to support the splendid pitching of Freddy Garcia just days after the 28-year-old right-hander became a father for the first time.
Konerko, for the second straight night, homered in the first inning, a three-run shot off Ervin Santana that gave Garcia some margin for error. Pierzynski’s came in the fourth, two innings after he once again had irritated the Angels into apoplexy by apparently tipping Steve Finley’s bat on what became a double-play grounder.
