Update to "Sox on top": Hate me less, because I'm about to explain why I love you: you care so goddamn much, it's positively moving. I am not made of stone, people. While the outcome of a game centered on a hard little white ball does not generally make me swoon, what does is how affected the fans are. Case in point: the comments section on Deadspin's last pre-Series clincher ChiSox entry.

After Deadspin editor Will Leitch made the case that the Sox (ahem -- the other Sox) ought to be considered "one of the more outstanding teams of the last decade" for the following reasons:

They finished with the second-best record in baseball.. [and] blitzed through the postseason with an 11-1 record. Pretty fantastic, right? If the Yankees did that, they'd be bronzing them, or at least A-Rod's lips. And in that run, they beat the last two champions of their league in the playoffs, and a team with three amazing starting pitchers in the Series.

In the comments section, MB's own Claire Zulkey picked up that ball and ran with it, effusing that "the Sox are way more dazzling when you look at the entire season, or the last few years even," and 'Sportzilla' chimed in, wondering "Why hasn't there been more attention paid to the way they flat out destroyed the rest of the teams in the playoffs?" while a poster by the name of 'MonsterZero' (just in time for Hallowe'en!) said "I would have to rank this Sox team up there with the best I've seen in the last 15 years. It's not that often that a team looks as loose, confident, composed and just flat out good as the Sox have over the last 12 playoff games." All sorts of stats, rationales, and near-worship for some dude named Ozzie ensued, convincing me that the White Sox are indeed a very good baseball team.

Yes, the Sox love was indeed a thing to behold...but then a small, defiant voice rose up from the depths, aka from Houston, reminding the little world of Deadspin posters that there was another team crossing their fingers that night:

Houston is decked out in its world series finest, man. driving in from the airport this afternoon, I got a little choked up at all the signs and flags and general school spirit. the White Sox might sweep us... but no one can say we haven't had a blast.

The hours passed, and then, that small voice returned:

the silence in downtown Houston tonight was heartbreaking.

here's all I ask of you people: don't spend the rest of your lives saying this was a blowout sweep. 5-3, 7-6, 1-0... these are not blowout scores. So let's give the formerly 15 and 30 Astros some credit for shocking the hell out of the MLB this season, eh?

And then, from number-one-Sox fan Zulkey:

The Stros played great. no bullshit.

And that's why baseball fans are all right by me. That and a secret crush on Steve Perry.*

Related:
Your World Champion Chicago WhiteSox [Deadspin]
Can the WhiteSox become all-time greats? (w/comments) [Deadspin]
The White Sox: Go Ahead, Ignore Us [WSJ]
Baseball's Silly Season [NYT]
Don't Stop Believin' [Journey]

*Random weird White Sox coincidence: Game Three of this series lasted 14 innings and entered the record books as officially the longest series game ever. According to our man Tyler Kepner in the NYT, the only other baseball game to last 14 innings was the second game of the 1916 World Series, between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox, wherein the Sox (the other Sox) finally took it from Brooklyn, whose pitcher was a guy called Sherry Smith. Fast forward 89 years to 2005, when the White Sox beat back the Houston Astros in a 14-inning game that beats the record by just under an hour. The Sox are inspired by their anthem, "Don't Stop Believein'" by Journey, fronted by ChiSox fan and, ultimately, team mascot Steve Perry, whose big solo song was called..."Oh, Sherry." Coincidence? We think not. Especially since we just wrote a long clunky paragraph about it.