You Knew This Was Coming...

So Sports Illustrated continued it's perfunctory "2000s The Decade In Sports" series on si.com, and my brother directed me to something struck my ire, as well as his. In their "MLB Highlights and Lowlights" section they list the 2009 New York Yankees as the best single season team of the decade. While on the one hand it's become customary to just accept that New York, Boston, and the East Coast Bias/Posterior Kissing, is not just limited to the BooYah Network in Bristol, on the other hand, something about this really didn't sit right. Not to mention, while going over some of their other lists, SI seems unable to remember anything beyond 2 years ago. With that in mind, lets take a look at the breakdown:

SI claims that the 2009 Yankees get the nod because no other team won over 100 (103) games AND the World Series in the same year. OK...that's certainly one way to look at it...not necessarily the best or most objective/accurate way, but it's one way. The two teams with the highest regular season win total that won a World Series were the Wild Card Winning 2002 Anaheim Angels, and (drum roll) the 2005 Chicago White Sox-each with 99 regular season wins.

Since the 2005 White Sox were division winners, lets for the sake of argument compare them vs. SI's pick of the 2009 Yankees. Numbers and Stats wise the breakdown is as follows:

NY '09 CHI '05

Team Batting Average: .283 .262

Team OBP: .362 .322

Team ERA: 4.28 3.61

Team Fielding Percentage: .985 .985

Runs Scored per game: 5.6/game 4.6/game

Runs Allowed per game: 4.6/game 4.0/game

Home Record: 57-24 47-34

Road Record: 46-35 52-29

Interleague Record: 10-8 12-6
Record in One Run Games: 22-16 35-19

Record vs Rightys: 67-41 76-43

Record vs Leftys: 36-18 23-20

Record vs teams below .500: 51-24 60-30

Record vs teams above .500: 52-35 39-33

Days in First Place: 82 161

Farthest Games Behind: 6 1/2 never

Most Games Below .500 2 never

So far, the 2005 White Sox have the advantage 10-6 in the above statistical categories, with a tie in Team Fielding Percentage for both clubs. The numbers strongly suggest that while the '09 Yankees were a much better offensive club, the 2005 White Sox clearly had much better pitching. The numbers also suggest that while the '09 Yankees were much more dominant at home, the '05 White Sox were fabulous on the road. The '09 Yankees dominated left handed starting pitching, and played very well against teams above .500. The '05 White Sox had a better interleague record, were terrific in one run games, and dominated sub-par competition. Also the '05 White Sox, were never below .500, and stayed in first place the entire regular season wire to wire. The '09 Yankees didn't even come close to wire to wire.

Still not convinced the '09 Yankees are not the best single season team of the decade? OK, let's look at Postseason Performance (based on totals of all 3 combined ALDS, ALCS, WS):

NY '09 CHI '05

Team Batting Average: .257 .270

Team OBP: .350 .345

Runs Scored/game 5.33 5.50

Team ERA 3.26 2.55

Runs Allowed/game 3.47 2.83

The numbers strongly indicate that the '05 White Sox were much stronger in the postseason than the '09 Yankees. Not only did the '05 White Sox continue to outpitch the '09 Yankees, but they were also better than them offensively too! Couple that with (count 'em) 4 straight complete games from the starting staff in the 2005 ALCS which was the first time that had happened in the postseason since 1956, and it becomes even more clear that the '05 White Sox were better than '09 Yankees.

So why did SI choose to overlook the '05 White Sox? Pick any number of the same ole reasons. East Coast Bias, Short Term Memory, Chicago teams get no respect nationally, etc...All that matters though, is that White Sox meatballs like myself and my brother will continue to painfully remind people that the '05 White Sox were not just great that year, they were historically great. Along with the ALCS pitching performance, the '05 White Sox are one of three teams in baseball history to go wire to wire, and sweep the World Series. The other two teams? The 1990 Cincinnati Reds, and the 1927 New York Yankees. Repeat....the 27 YANKEES!

Lets make sure the 2005 White Sox monumental baseball achievement will never be forgotten.