You can take all the division winners, wild cards, and division series finalists, but what really matters is winning the pennant.

The White Sox won the pennant, their first since clinching the American League flag on September 22, 1959.

Back then Al Lopez was the manager, Early Wynn won the Cy Young award, when only one was given out, and Nellie Fox won the MVP award as teammates Luis Aparicio and Jim Landis were voted second and third in the balloting.

Now The Curse of Luis Aparicio is finally broken.

What you never heard of the Curse of Little Looie, the Hall of Fame White Sox shortstop?

Click below for more.Venezuelan born Luis Aparicio was one of the slickest shortstops to ever grace the middle of the diamond.

His base stealing revolutionized the game a few years before Maury Wills took base stealing to a new level with the Dodgers in 1962.

Luis came up to the Sox in 1956 replacing incumbent shortstop and fellow countryman Chico Carresquel who was traded to Cleveland for Larry Doby.

As soon as he saw him play, Sox manager Marty Marion predicted greatness for his rookie shortstop.

Aparicio was a fan favorite until tailing off to some degree in 1962.

Then the Sox broke the hearts of their fans and Aparicio when they dealt him to the Orioles during the winter of 62.

Knowing full well that the Sox previously went 40 years between pennants from 1919 to 1959, Luis angrily cursed the franchise when he proclaimed after learning of the trade that it would take the Sox another 40 years to win the American League pennant.

Well, Luis was off by three years as the Sox wrapped up the flag this season, 43 years after his hex was placed on the franchise.

In 1959, the last previous time the Sox were in the series, they faced the Los Angeles Dodgers who had defeated the Braves two games to none, in a playoff to win the NL gonfalon.

The series started in Chicago as the Sox won the first game in Comiskey Park with slugger Ted Kluszewski hitting two homers.

Early Wynn started and beat Roger Craig 11-0.

Just like the just concluded series with the Angels, the turning point of the 1959 series took place late in game two.

With the Sox trailing 4-2 in the eighth, runners on first and second and none out, slow footed catcher Sherman Lollar was thrown out at the plate by 10 feet when he tried to score from first on a double
by Al Smith.

The Dodgers easily cut Lollar down Wally Moon to Maury Wills to John Roseboro as one run scored to narrow the deficit down to 4-3.

All was not lost as Smith made it to third on the play at the plate. But Dodger reliever Larry Sherry, the MVP of the series, struck out good hitting Billy Goodman, then got the dangerous Jim Rivera for the third out of the inning, sinking the Sox as LA evened the series at one game apiece.

Chicago never recovered as the former Bums from Brooklyn went on to win their second world series in their long history four games to two.

One of the strange notes from the series is Billy Pierce the ace lefthander for Chicago during the 50’s never started a game for the Sox against LA.

Manager Al Lopez was afraid to start the lefty Pierce in LA because of the 250 foot screen in left field knowing that the Dodgers would load their line up with righthanded hitters when playing in the Coliseum.

Lopez wanted his best righties in the first two games on the hill (Wynn and 18 game winner Bob Shaw).

By the time the series got back to Chicago the Sox were down 3 games to 2 and Lopez went back to his ace Early Wynn in game six.

The only other game the Sox won ironically was when they beat Sandy Koufax 1-0 in game five as Bob Shaw outdueled the great Koufax.

Bob Shaw, Dick Donovan, and Barry Latman wouldn’t match up to the big four of this year’s team Garland, Contreras, Garcia and Buehrle.

The trio were not familiar names to most fans, but highly effective righthanders for Chicago, along with the veteran Wynn and relievers Gerry Staley and Turk Lown during the 1959 season.

Then next season the magic was gone.

The Sox traded young up and comng stars John Romano, Earl Battey, Norm Cash, and Johnny Callison during the winter of 1959 trying to get more power. The Go Go Sox were finished, not winning another pennant until October 16, 2005.

The replacements in 1960 Roy Sievers, Gene Freese, and Minnie Minoso added some needed home runs, but the pitching fell apart and it wasn’t until the ill fated Aparicio trade after the 62 season that the Sox were back in any pennant contention.

When Little Looie (too many salary issues with Aparicio) and Al Smith were traded to Baltimore for Hoyt Wilhelm, Dave Nicholson, Pete Ward, and Ron Hansen the Sox further insulted Aparicio by giving his number “11” to the strike out prone Nicholson.

Then Aparicio lashed out at his former team and the Curse of Luis Aparicio was launched.

A curse which wasn’t lifted until Paul Konerko stepped on first base silencing a team from Los Angeles (ironic).

Little Looie was only off by a few years, it took the Sox 43 years after the curse to win another pennant.

It would be fitting for this team to erase the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 by winning the world series.

It’s appropriate for Aparicio to throw out the first ball of the 2005 world series, followed by manager Al Lopez, and then the popular lefty Billy Pierce.

I’m now a Sox fan.