Not since 2000, when the New York Yankees won a World Series championship for the fourth time in five years, has a team repeated as World Series champion. The Yankees won it all in 1996, then captured three consecutive championships, 1998-2000. Since that time teams such as the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals have come close. The Giants, in fact, were best of the bunch with World Series championships in 2010, 2012, and 2014, yet, did not repeat.
The Houston Astros, 2017 World Series champions, will be in Chicago for three games Friday through Sunday against the Chicago White Sox.
White Sox fans fondly will remember the 2005 World Series when the Sox swept the Astros in four straight games when the Astros were in the American League.
Last season, the Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games to win the World Series in a series between the two teams with triple-digit victories. The Dodgers finished the regular season with a Major League Baseball best record of 104-58 and the Astros concluded the regular season, 101-61.
The White Sox and Astros faced each other six times in 2017 with the Sox winning with four times. The Sox took all three meetings from Houston in Chicago in August 2017.
The Houston series is part of a six-game homestand for the Sox who will be host to the Seattle Mariners for three games Monday through Wednesday.