In hindsight, championships look inevitable. Of course the Bulls were destined to win six NBA titles in Michael Jordan’s last six complete seasons with them, so the dangers they encountered along the way now seem minimal. All but forgotten is the way Scottie Pippen had to rally the scrubs with a 14-2 run to open the fourth quarter of the sixth game in 1992, setting the stage for Jordan to return and close out the Portland Trail Blazers, who would have had all the momentum going into the seventh game. So would the Phoenix Suns the following year, if John Paxson hadn’t hit the trey that won that series in six. Lost to memory is the scare the mighty Bears faced in Super Bowl XX when Walter Payton fumbled on the opening series, allowing the New England Patriots to take a 3-0 lead. Because the Bears scored the next 44 points, that fumble seems inconsequential today.
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The great thing about the White Sox’ world championship was how rife it was with danger. Before this season, Sox fans had memories like the one of the Jerry Dybzinski fuckhead catastrophe in the 1983 playoffs, without which the Sox would have pushed a run across for Britt Burns and no doubt won the fourth game, which would have allowed LaMarr Hoyt to clinch the series the following day and send the Sox on to certain victory in the World Series against the aged Philadelphia Phillies. But 88 years of tragedy schooled fans in how to savor things going right. Jose Contreras’s masterful start against the New York Yankees in August–which halted a seven-game skid and sent him on a personal nine-game winning streak extending into the playoffs–was one critical moment. Another was Joe Crede’s game-winning homer in the tenth inning against the Cleveland Indians in late September. Without that victory, the Sox actually would have fallen behind the Tribe two days later.
