Chicago celebrates White Sox's series win
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-28 20:04

The party is in full swing in Chicago. Two days after the White Sox swept Houston for their first World Series title since 1917, the team was set to hit the streets Friday for a ticker-tape parade and rally.

Mayor Richard Daley, a lifelong White Sox fan, called the storybook season "a special moment for the city of Chicago."

Daley, speaking Thursday at a West Side school, said the victory was especially sweet because nobody expected the team to break the 88-year drought.

"It's a life lesson ... that you never, ever give up," Daley said.

He said even the Chicago Cubs — who haven't won a World Series since 1908 — can learn that lesson from their crosstown rival.

"Everybody thought the White Sox couldn't go," he said. "Sure, the Cubs can go next year."

Also Thursday, thousands of fans gathered at Midway Airport to welcome the team back from Houston.

As pitcher Mark Buehrle drove by, he stopped, opened his door and thrust his arms triumphantly into the air. Fans mobbed manager Ozzie Guillen's limousine as it slowed down, many chanting: "Ozzie! Ozzie!" Other fans held brooms aloft, symbolizing the sweep that the White Sox completed Wednesday night with a 1-0 victory.

"My heart is pounding," said Dawn Gasior, who greeted the players with her two children. "This is great. We're so grateful to them and they're so grateful to us."

Many houses sported celebratory signs and banners, while bakeries decorated special cupcakes. Employees proudly wore Sox gear to work. And at several sporting good stores, lines snaked around the block as fans waited to buy T-shirts, hats and jerseys.

Bud Skaja waited for more than four hours at a sports store just blocks from U.S. Cellular Field. Fearful of jinxing his ultimate hopes for the White Sox, he refused to buy any merchandise before Thursday.

Skaja, who said he expected to spend about $300, listed all the heartbreaking seasons he's experienced since becoming a Sox fan about 30 years ago.

"Not this time. They're there to stay," he said. "But I couldn't believe they did it in four."

At Tootsie Roll Inc.'s headquarters on the city's South Side, company officials were busy preparing for Friday's "Sox Day," where workers will be encouraged to wear their jerseys and Sox gear to work.

Several costume shops said that while they've been doing a good business during the playoffs selling black and white face paint — the team's colors — they're now thinking they might see some last-minute requests for Sox outfits for Halloween.

Courtland Hickey, general manager of Chicago Costume, said he had a woman ask for help in dressing up her 9-year-old daughter as Guillen, the colorful team manager known for his salty language.

"I asked if her daughter knows how to swear like a sailor," Hickey said, adding that he sold the woman a fake goatee and mustache combination.