On Thursday, the Chicago White Sox returned to the postseason in October 2026, twenty-one years after winning the 2005 World Series, by eliminating the Houston Astros in the wild card round, the same rival they defeated in that historic final.

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With this result, the franchise recovers a scene that seemed to belong to another generation of baseball and opens a new stage whose inevitable point of reference is the championship that put an end to 88 years of waiting.

The last time the White Sox played in October was on October 26, 2005, when they sealed the World Series by sweeping Houston 4-0 and closing a title that had not come since 1917. Two decades later, Chicago returns to the final phase in 2026 after eliminating in the wild card round the same team it defeated in that World Series, in a cycle that connects two distant moments in the club’s history.

In 2005, the White Sox were a franchise looking to break a historic curse; In 2026, its return to the playoffs turns that championship into the inevitable reference point of a new stage. The contrast is also observed off the field of play: when Chicago won the title, the iPhone did not exist, Instagram and WhatsApp did not exist, TikTok was years away and YouTube had barely begun to function. Facebook had just been created and social networks had not yet transformed sports consumption.

Tristan Peters on the mic pic.twitter.com/uGc45lFVTR

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 2, 2026

The fan followed the games on television, radio or the written press; The statistics came mainly through broadcasts and newspapers, a video did not go viral in seconds and the mobile phone was far from being the screen from which today you can practically follow an entire season.

Venezuelan Ozzie Guillén managed the White Sox when that team won four consecutive games in the World Series to become champions. In October 2005, Shohei Ohtani was eleven years old, Aaron Judge was thirteen, and Mike Trout was fourteen; none had debuted in the Major Leagues. Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodríguez and Ichiro Suzuki were some of the great figures of that time, while Albert Pujols began to build a historic career.

Twenty-one years have passed since that night. During that time, the protagonists, analysis methods, technology, broadcasts and the way in which fans follow baseball changed. One generation of ballplayers retired and another reached the Major Leagues; The children who celebrated that championship are now adults.

Some of the fans who went to the stadium in 2005 can return, now accompanied by their sons or daughters, to witness how these White Sox will face, starting this Saturday, the Cleveland Guardians in their search for a new ticket to the Major League World Series.

#Venezuela | The moment a baseball game was stopped after the powerful earthquake in Venezuela.

A Major League Baseball game at the University Stadium in Caracas was abruptly halted amid the strong earthquake that shook central Venezuela on Wednesday.#teleSUREnglish pic.twitter.com/Rq2p5DAfR7

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) June 25, 2026

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