Looking back at 2004 - Part 3 of 5 - Taking first place

From the Seats, December 29, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - The White Sox came into the Dome in May and swept the Twins, something they had not done in the Dome since 1999, the White Sox showed they wanted the division and deserved to be in first. They outplayed the Twins in just about every way they could. They had first place.

Late in July the Twins had a series in Chicago, a big one. Torii Hunter and The Twins tore into town and showed they did indeed want to win the division again. The White Sox were not in first going into the 3 game mid week series, but were in striking distance. There was a play in the Monday night game where Hunter was on third base and a fly ball had been hit to center. The fly ball was caught for the out and Hunter tried to tag up. The throw was just to the right of home plate, not the ideal location for the throw to be. The throw had beaten Hunter, he would be clearly out, John Burk went to take Hunter, with his foot covering home plate and got ran over like a Mack Truck and the ball rolls away from home and Hunter is called safe.

A completely clean play, although viewed differently by White Sox fans, even to this day. Hunter took control at that point and for the series, by hitting a few home runs in the series he made sure the Sox would have no chance of first place.

The White Sox had the rest of the series to retaliate for it and couldn't do it, they failed to get back at him, instead just complained about what Hunter did. The Twins went on to sweep the series and removed the White Sox from contention.

Cleveland would later make a run at it but came up short.

A preview for Thursday: After clinching the Central, what went wrong.