2005 World Series - Aftermath

Aftermath

Neither team advanced to the post-season in 2006, but the 2006 World Series again featured teams from the American League Central and National League Central divisions, this time represented by the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. The Cardinals won the World Series in five games, in which manager Tony La Russa became the second manager to win the World Series in both American and National leagues, previously managing the Oakland Athletics to the 1989 World Series championship. Both the White Sox and the Astros were in the Wild Card race until the final weeks of the season, with the White Sox finishing with 90 wins, the Astros with 82 wins. The White Sox made their first post-2005 playoff appearance in 2008, while the Astros have yet to return to the playoffs, as of 2012.

This was the city of Chicago's first professional sports championship since the Chicago Bulls won the 1998 NBA Finals. (Although the Chicago Fire did win Major League Soccer's championship in October 1998.) The next Chicago sports championship came in 2010, when the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks ended a 49-year Stanley Cup title drought. (Although the Chicago Rush did win the Arena Football League's championship in 2006.)