White Sox take World Series crown

WORLD SERIES 2005 Game 1: Chicago 5-3 Houston Game 2: Chicago 7-6 Houston Game 3: Houston 5-7 Chicago Game 4: Houston 0-1 Chicago Feature: Baseball's curses

Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Houston in game four.

The visitors completed a 4-0 series sweep after Willie Harris scored on a Jermaine Dye RBI single in the eighth inning at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros left three runners on base in the sixth inning, and another two in the bottom of the eighth.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said: "With the birth of my kids, this is the most wonderful day of my life."

Again the Houston batters' failure to produce hits at key times was crucial.

After Tuesday's contest, which was the longest game in World Series history, it was another tight encounter as both sides again struggled to score.

It was a night when the starting pitchers dominated, with Houston's Brandon Backe and Chicago's Freddy Garcia each striking out seven batters and yielding no runs in seven innings.

The key moment came in the eighth when outfielder Dye hit a ground ball through the middle off Houston reliever Brad Lidge, driving in Harris from third.

Dye later earned Most Valuable Player honours for the series.

He said: "It means a lot, not only to us in the clubhouse but to the organisation, to the fans and to the city. It's just a great feeling.

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"It is special for me to be thought of as MVP in this group of players.

"This year was unbelievable. If you just stay with what got you there and not change, then good things will happen."

Chicago's win was their eighth post-season victory in a row - tying the record set last year by the Boston Red Sox.

Houston's failure to win a single game in their first ever World Series came as a bitter disappointment to their fans, who had waited 44 years for their team to reach the final stage.

Houston manager Phil Garner said: "I'm proud of those guys.

End of the curse

"Everybody in our clubhouse had something to do with us getting here and it's a pretty good story, a doggone good story."

The White Sox ended an even longer and more infamous curse, dating back to 1919.

In that year, the team of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson threw the season finale and became dubbed the "Black Sox".

Jackson - one of the game's greatest players - and seven others were subsequently handed life-time bans for taking cash to lose to the Cincinnati Reds.

After Boston's triumph in 2004, it was the second successive year that one of the sport's oldest and best-supported franchises finally got back on track.