White Sox Win 1st World Series Since 1917
HOUSTON - The Chicago White Sox are World Series champions again at last, and yet another epic streak of futility is not just wiped away but swept away.
After seven scoreless innings, Jermaine Dye singled home the only run in the eighth, and the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 Wednesday night to win their first title in 88 years.
Just a year ago, the same story line captivated baseball when the long-suffering Boston Red Sox swept St. Louis to capture their first title in 86 years.
Who's next, the Chicago Cubs, without a championship since 1908?
It was the third title for the White Sox, following wins in 1906 and 1917. And it was the first since "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the "Black Sox" threw the 1919 Series against Cincinnati.
In the Windy City, where the Cubs have long been king, Chicago's South Side team for once trumped its North Side rival, no small feat for the Sox.
Owner Jerry Reinsdorf once said he'd trade all six of the Chicago Bulls' NBA titles for a single Series ring, a statement he now regrets. No swap is needed now: He's got the prize he dreamed of since he was a kid growing up in Brooklyn.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said during the regular season that he might retire if his team went on to win the Series, and now he'll have to reveal that decision.
Chicago's sweep, its eighth straight postseason win, made it only the second team to go through the postseason 11-1 since the extra round of playoffs was added in 1995, joining the 1999 Yankees. But the White Sox fans didn't get to enjoy a single celebration in person: the division title and all three rounds of the postseason were won on the road.
Houston, which finally won a pennant for the first time since it joined the National League in 1962, became the first team swept in its Series debut.
On a night when pitching dominated, winner Freddy Garcia and Houston's Brandon Backe pitched shutout ball for seven innings, with Backe allowing four hits and Garcia five. They each struck out seven.
Brad Lidge, Houston's closer, came in to start the eighth, and Chicago sent up Willie Harris to bat for Garcia.
Harris lined a single to left leading off, and that led to Houston's downfall. Scott Podsednik bunted a difficult high pitch in front of the plate, and the speedy Harris took second on the sacrifice. Carl Everett pinch hit for Tadahito Iguchi and grounded to second, moving Harris to third.
Dye, the Series MVP, swung and missed Lidge's next pitch, took a ball, then grounded a single up the middle, clapping his hands as he left the plate. Harris trotted home from third, and the White Sox celebrated in the third-base dugout.
But it wasn't quite over yet.
Cliff Politte relieved to start the bottom half and hit Willy Taveras on the hand with one out. Politte bounced a wild pitch on his first offering to Lance Berkman, moving Taveras to second, then intentionally walked Berkman, nearly throwing away the next pitch.
Morgan Ensberg flied to right-center, dropping him to 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the Series, and Chicago brought in left-hander Neal Cotts to face pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino, who hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop.
Juan Uribe charged in, backhanded the ball by the grass and threw hard to first, beating Vizcaino by half a step.
After Chicago wasted a leadoff double by A.J. Pierzynski in the ninth, Jason Lane lofted a 3-2 pitch off Bobby Jenks into short center for a single leading off the bottom half.
Brad Ausmus sacrificed and pinch-hitter Chris Burke fouled out to Uribe, who fell into the left-field seats as he leaned in to make the grab. Uribe ran to the mound with the ball and gave Jenks a slap.
Orlando Palmeiro then pinch hit, and grounded to short for the final out and the White Sox poured out of their dugout and jumped around the mound.
Houston was 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the night and 10-for-48 (.208) in the Series, and Lidge fell to 0-2 in the Series and 0-3 in the postseason.
After Chicago's 14-inning, 7-5 win that lasted a Series-record 5 hours, 41 minutes and ended at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, the crowd was more subdued at Minute Maid Park. Most of them had to know that no team has ever overcome a 3-0 Series deficit.
Chicago stranded runners in three of the first four innings, including Podsednik after a two-out triple in the third, but Backe's changeup got stronger, and he struck out five straight — one short of the Series record — following Dye's leadoff single in the fourth.
He retired 11 batters in a row before Aaron Rowand's two-out single in the seventh, and Joe Crede followed with a drive high off the out-of-town scoreboard in the left-field fence, missing a home run by a few feet. Rowand, who had slowed slightly just before getting to second, was held up at third.
After a conference at the mound, and with Everett on deck as a potential pinch-hitter, Houston elected to pitch to Uribe, the No. 8 hitter, instead of intentionally walking him and forcing Chicago to decide whether to bat for Garcia. Backe fanned him on his final pitch and skipped off the mound before high-fiving teammates.
Houston, meanwhile, went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the first six innings. The Astros stranded runners on second base in the first two innings. With two on and one out in the sixth, Ensberg struck out and after Mike Lamb was intentionally walked to load the bases, Garcia struck out Jason Lane.
Notes: The record of six straight strikeouts was set by Cincinnati's Hod Eller against the White Sox in 1919 and matched by Baltimore's Moe Drabowsky in 1966 and St. Louis' Todd Worrell in 1985.
Music industry sales plunging: StatsCan
Canada's sound recording industry is suffering from plunging sales and profits resulting in fewer opportunities for Canadian artists to record, a new study says.
The industry has experienced six years of declining sales, according to a Statistics Canada study released Wednesday. In 2003, the industry had $708.7 million in sales, down 20.5 per cent from $891.6 million in 1998.
StatsCan pointed to illegal downloading, file swapping and competition from other media as likely causes for the drop.
Music by Canadian artists took a hit, with $110 million in sales in 2003, down from $154 million in 1998. However, Canadian artists' share of the market for music sold in Canada remained the same, at 16 per cent, as sales of recordings by foreign artists fell even more sharply.
Declining profitability in the industry has led to lower investment in new Canadian recording artists and music, according to the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).
"You have to treat a study like this as a wakeup call," says CRIA president Graham Henderson. "This is a terrible situation."
The CRIA estimates that sales of pirated sound recordings drained $23.5 million from the Canadian market in 2003.
It is lobbying for changes to copyright laws that would put Canada in line with its international partners in protecting against piracy and clarifying electronic rights. A bill has undergone first reading in Parliament, but any changes likely wouldn't take effect for more than a year.
The hardest hit part of the industry is rock and pop, the sector where music is most likely to be downloaded, the StatsCan study showed.
Henderson said industry studies show that independent artists are being squeezed. "We have standout artists in this country who don't generate enough money from their record sales to keep their careers going," he said.
Sales of classical, country, jazz and blues continued to rise and consequently made up a larger share of the market. Sales of music-themed DVDs and concert videos also appeared to be up.
Since 2003, increased opportunities for legal downloading, chiefly through Apple's iTunes, have begun to reverse the decline in the industry in some countries. In Canada, sales are not falling as quickly and may have stabilized, Henderson said.
Recording companies issued 5,619 new releases in 2003, down from 6,654 in 2000. Only 904 belonged to Canadian artists, the first time in more than five years that their output fell below the 1,000 mark.
There were 300 recording companies in 2003, with many smaller record labels entering and leaving the market rapidly.
Profit margins fell to a slim 2.6 per cent in 2003, down from 11.9 per cent in 1998, a year before Napster introduced illegal downloading to the world. Company profits in Canada combined totalled only $30.5 million.
According to the 2003 Survey of Household Spending, Canadian households spent an average of $118 annually on recordings, but almost $464 on rental of cablevision and satellite services.
Janet: I'm No Mother
Janet Jackson does not have any children that she knows of.
The famously secretive pop star broke her silence Wednesday on assertions by her former brother-in-law that she had a secret 18-year-old daughter.
"I do not have a child, and all allegations saying so are false," Jackson said in a brief statement.
Jackson did not mention ex-husband James DeBarge. She didn't have to--Young DeBarge, one of James DeBarge's brothers, did that himself last Friday during an interview on New York City's WQHT-FM ("Hot 97").
Young DeBarge said on the air that his brother and Jackson, who were briefly married from 1984 to 1985, had a baby together. The child, named Renee, was raised by Jackson's eldest sister, Rebbie, he said.
When not dishing on family gossip, Young DeBarge was said to be promoting an upcoming album.
Jackson, meanwhile, reportedly was moving on to more pressing matters--namely, trying to get a stalkerazzi video of her backyard sunbathing routine off the Internet, MSNBC.com said.
The clip, making the rounds for about a month, shows a slap-happy Jackson playing her bare bottom "like bongos," as the New York Post originally put it. "I believe that she's particularly unhappy about this video because she’s not in great shape," a source told MSNBC.com's Jeannette Walls.
Jackson, 39, prefers to show off her shape at the Super Bowl.
From OutKast to the Darkness, a first look at fall's 20 biggest CDs
OCTOBER
Alicia Keys
Alicia keys Unplugged
Out October 11th
"I wanted to be able to bring it back to the essence of me as a performer: intimate and personal," says Keys of her Unplugged disc, recorded live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on July 14th. In addition to pared-down versions of songs from her two previous albums ("A Woman's Worth," "Fallin' "), Keys duetted with Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine on a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses"; teamed with Common, Mos Def and Damian Marley for a fusion of Keys' "Love It or Leave It Alone" and Marley's "Welcome to Jam Rock"; and debuted two new songs: "Unbreakable," which is already in heavy rotation on MTV, and "Stolen Moments," co-written by Al Green.
Ashlee Simpson
I Am Me
Out October 18th
Simpson re-teams with hot producer John Shanks for a disc of chart-killing teen pop that takes its cues from grown-up rockers. The first single, "Boyfriend," is as close to Franz Ferdinand as a pop tart may dare go, with a jittery dance-rock guitar hook. The piano ballad "Beautifully Broken" chronicles the aftermath of her SNL lip-sync fiasco in a way that almost elicits sympathy -- and it doesn't hurt that the intro sounds exactly like Oasis' "Wonderwall."
Depeche Mode
Playing the Angel
Out October 18th
"It's rockier than our traditional stuff," says Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan about his band's eleventh studio album, on which Blur producer Ben Hillier added heavier guitar and drums to the band's analog-synth-driven sound. Recorded after Gahan got sober following decades of struggling with addiction, the album provides clear evidence that the goth godfathers are still as into pain and suffering as ever. Says Gahan, "That's kind of our MO."
Rod Stewart
Thanks for the memory . . . The Great American Songbook: Volume IV
Out October 18th
For the fourth volume of his Great American Songbook series, Stewart tackles fourteen more classics, including "Long Ago and Far Away," and "Makin' Whoopee," on which he duets with Elton John. "I bring a new emotion and a voice that people haven't heard singing these kinds of songs," says Stewart. Though Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" doesn't fit into Stewart's loose rule of including only songs cut "between the two Great Wars," he wanted to give props to the man who inspired his career. Says Stewart, "No Sam, no Rod."
NOVEMBER
Burt Bacharach
At this Time
Out November 1st
In an awesomely weird pairing, seventy-seven-year-old swinger Bacharach recruited Dr. Dre to provide Snoop-worthy bass-and-drum loops for three songs on his new disc. Bacharach says he is "not necessarily" a big fan of rap. "I'm a big fan of Dre's. The guy gets the most unbelievable sounds." Elvis Costello and Rufus Wainwright also make appearances on the album, which pairs Bacharach's lush orchestral arrangements with angry lyrics about the Bush administration. "I spent all this time writing love songs," he says. "I never rocked the boat. If I lose some fans, that's OK."
Trey Anastasio
Shine
Out November 1st
For his first collection of songs since Phish broke up last year, Anastasio left the comfort of his converted-barn studio in Vermont to work with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien in Atlanta. "A lot of it was based on Brendan teaching me how to make a record," says Anastasio. "We had two days with me, Brendan and [Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp drummer] Kenny Aronoff playing like a power trio. Brendan's a motherfucker on the bass." The resulting disc is surprisingly noodle-free, with twelve uptempo rockers that are more Beatles than Zappa.
Santana
All That I Am
Out November 1st
"The only thing I won't do is something that is fake, superficial and shallow," says Carlos Santana, who jams with musicians from Sean Paul to Kirk Hammett on his latest guest-laden album. Steven Tyler sings the power ballad "Just Feel Better"; American Idol rocker Bo Bice belts the "Smooth"-style "Brown Skin Girl"; and Mary J. Blige duets with Big Boi on the R&B tune "My Man." "I don't listen to the radio," says Santana, crediting executive producer Clive Davis with picking many of the guests. More familiar faces were his tourmates Los Lonely Boys, who contributed the slinky "I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love," and Michelle Branch, whose acoustic pop tune "I'm Feeling You" is her second Santana collaboration, following 2002's "The Game of Love." But Santana is determined to keep broadening his group's sound. "A lot of musicians say, 'I don't do windows,' " Santana says. "But to me, life is a big window. So if I don't want to do windows, I shouldn't be on this planet."
Neil Diamond
12 Songs
Out November 8th
Though Diamond is better known now for wearing sequined jumpsuits and making middle-aged women weak in the knees, in the 1960s he was a cool young New York singer-songwriter. On the new disc, Rick Rubin -- who produced Johnny Cash's American Recordings series -- recaptures the spirit of awesome early recordings including "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman." "Rick really pressured me to get back to those times," says Diamond. "Those records were very minimalist -- get a small rhythm group, add some hand claps, mix it up and send it out."
50 Cent
Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture "Get Rich or Die Tryin' "
Out November 8th
"Every song has something that ties it to the actual film," says 50 Cent of the tracks he wrote to accompany his 8 Mile-style new movie, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The first single, "Hustler's Ambition," defines 50's alter ego, Marcus, a poor kid from the Bronx (not 50's Queens) who goes from slinging drugs to spitting rhymes. The second, "Window Shopping," backs a scene where Marcus longs for expensive sneakers. The album, with production from Dr. Dre and Hi-Tek, also includes a likely third single, "We Don't Need No Help," with Young Buck. Says 50, "It's a new version of N.W.A's 'Fuck Tha Police' with a Southern twist."
Big and Rich
Comin' To Your City
Out November 15th
On Comin' to Your City, Nashville duo Big and Rich beef up the genre-crossing, party-starting stomp of their multiplatinum 2004 debut, Horse of a Different Color. Recorded with the duo's five-piece touring band, City drops elegantly harmonized ballads ("Never Mind Me"), jokey honky-tonk ("20 Margaritas") and disco-flavored rapping ("Caught Up in the Moment") amid barnburners such as "Soul Shaker" and the AC/DC-gone-South title track.
Pharrell
In My Mind
Out November 15th
Perhaps only Pharrell Williams -- half of the most sought-after production team in pop music, the Neptunes -- could get Gwen Stefani to guest on a song where her entire contribution is five spoken words repeated ad nauseam: "You got it like that." Stefani answers Williams' titular question on "Can I Have It Like That," the first single from Williams' solo debut -- which also features guest spots from Jay-Z and Slim Thug. The disc is divided into two halves: seven tracks of club-banging hip-hop, seven of smooth R&B grooves. "You have the personality with your girl, and you have your macho mannerisms," Williams says. "You got all these characteristics that make up your personality. This is an album I've been working on all my life."
Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition
Out November 15th
A newly remastered version of Springsteen's 1975 masterpiece is just the beginning of this unique CD-plus-two-DVDs reissue package. One DVD showcases long-buried footage of a full E Street Band concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon from 1975, including performances of "Backstreets," "Lost in the Flood" and "Kitty's Back." The other contains Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run, a ninety-minute documentary that includes new interviews with Springsteen and the E Streeters (including former drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter and pre-Roy Bittan pianist David Sancious).
Madonna
Confessions on a Dancefloor
Out November 15th
After 2003's underwhelming disc of electronic folk, American Life, the Material Girl returns to the dance floor with Confessions. The disco-friendly vibe is announced by the first single, "Hung Up," which samples the opening keyboards from Abba's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Madonna recruited Stuart Price -- a London DJ and the keyboardist on her Re-Invention tour -- to produce the disc, but don't think she didn't express herself during the recording process. "People always think that it's just some guy behind her coming up with all the ideas," says Price. "She's very underrated as a producer."
Fort Minor
The Rising Tied
Out November 22nd
Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda gets in touch with his hip-hop roots on his Fort Minor side project -- which gets a boost from heavy-spitters Common, Black Thought of the Roots and Jay-Z. "I thoroughly enjoy what I do in Linkin Park," says Shinoda. "But the first Fort Minor songs were recorded because I got frustrated that I hadn't made a pure hip-hop song in a while." Shinoda plays nearly every instrument on The Rising Tied, which also features new faces such as Styles of Beyond and Linkin Park's nineteen-year-old protege, Holly Brook. Says Shinoda, "I've got some up-and-comers on there who are very hungry."
Jamie Foxx
Unpredictable
Out November 22nd
Foxx is cashing in on the musical cred he earned through his remarkable Ray performance with his new album, Unpredictable. "We wanted to stay young and up," Foxx says, citing the feel of his first hit single, "Extravaganza," a collaboration with Kanye West that's currently burning up urban radio. "But the meat of the album is more musical, more piano -- back to how I really get down." Many of Foxx's seductive new tunes, including "Can I Take You Home," "DJ Play a Love Song" and "V.I.P.," find middle ground between his gospel and soul roots and the laid-back beats and raps provided by guests Busta Rhymes, Pharrell Williams, Ludacris, and Twista. Foxx and his friends recorded the bulk of Unpredictable on the set of the actor's next film, Miami Vice. "Timbaland allowed me to use his bus -- it has a studio in it," he says. "So I'd come right off the set, get on the bus and keep cutting and grinding."
System of a Down
Hypnotize
Out November 22nd
"I can't say I sat down and tried to make a dark record," says System of a Down guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian. "I guess you could say it's a reflection of the times." System recorded Hypnotize at the same time as May's Mezmerize and, like its predecessor, it's full of apocalyptic anti-war lyrics paired with guided-missile guitar riffs and exotic melodies. And in the spirit of Mezmerize's "B.Y.O.B.," the band's catchiest song ever, there are some surprisingly pop-friendly moments, including the heart-baring ballad "Lonely Day." "I used to be more focused on 'Let's get it heavy,' " says Malakian. "Now I'm more focused on 'Let's get some emotion out." Malakian adds that Hypnotize isn't just a sequel to Mezmerize. "We don't look at them as two records, we look at them as one record," he says. "It feels like people haven't heard the whole album yet."
The Darkness
One Way Ticket to Hell . . . and Back
Out November 29th
It wasn't enough to sound like Queen -- for their second album, the Darkness teamed with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker and even recorded some of the disc at Rockfield Studios in Wales, where Freddie Mercury and Co. cut "Bohemian Rhapsody." The ten tracks continue in the anthemic head-banging vein of the fabulously trashy Permission to Land, recalling the Eighties hair-metal excesses of Def Leppard and Whitesnake. The album's first single, "One Way Ticket," features a pan-flute intro immediately followed by the distinct sound of someone cutting up and snorting a line of cocaine. "It's a song of redemption, really," says singer Justin Hawkins, who spent part of last year in rehab. "It talks about drugs, the inevitable downward slide into hell, and how it's never too late to turn back."
Shakira
Oral fixation, Vol. 2
Out November 29th
After scoring a Top Ten hit earlier this year with the Spanish-language album Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1, Shakira is back with an English sequel. "The Spanish album is strictly romantic," she says. "But the English album embraces more social-oriented topics." Featuring a guest performance by Carlos Santana on "Illegal," the disc, like its predecessor, was executive-produced by Rick Rubin. As for putting out so much material in one year, the Colombian singer says, "I just kept writing, and one day I found myself with sixty songs. It was a good problem to have, but it was still a problem."
Notorious B.I.G.
The NOTORIOUS B.I.G. DUETS
Out November 29th
Biggie's posthumous output has been limited compared with the steady stream of releases from fellow slain rapper Tupac Shakur -- which makes this duets album a potentially notable event. The first single, "Hold Ya Head," teams Biggie with another late legend, Bob Marley, and other songs will have him trading verses with various yet-to-be-announced artists. A companion DVD will include live footage and other bonuses.
DECEMBER
OutKast
Idlewild
Out December 6th
"It's like an OutKast record on film," says Big Boi of the soundtrack to the rap duo's new musical film, tentatively titled Idlewild. Set in the Depression-era South, the movie, which will be released in theaters on January 6th, follows the story of a struggling musician (played by Andre 3000) and a lovable Lothario (Big Boi). "Since it's in the Thirties, we didn't want to use too many synthesizers and keys," says Big, who adds that the duo mined its vault of unreleased and unfinished tracks for the album. The first single, "Idlewild Blues," is a jazzy romp loaded with drum stomps, muffled trumpets and piano; Dre gives his best Cab Calloway impersonation, and Big flips his hallmark spitfire rhymes. "It's a juke-joint jam," says Big. "I don't know if you can categorize it as a rap song."