This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LAS VEGAS -- The first response from Aaron Rowand when discussing the 20th anniversary of the White Sox 2005 World Series championship was an obvious yet humorous one.

¡°Are you trying to call me old?¡± Rowand said with a laugh during a conversation I had with him this week in Las Vegas, where he currently resides.

No, I¡¯m not saying the 47-year-old Rowand is old. Not when I¡¯m older than him and feel it pretty much every day. And not when Rowand looks as if he could still chase down fly balls in center as he did so skillfully during that memorable ¡¯05 season for the South Siders.

Those winning memories remain as vivid as if they happened two months ago for those involved, and for the myriad White Sox fans who followed every moment from start to finish. But the dearth of overall success for this franchise since Orlando Palmeiro grounded out to Juan Uribe often makes these title moments feel three or four decades removed.

This special anniversary will be celebrated throughout the ¡¯25 season, beginning at SoxFest Live on Jan. 24-25 at the Ramova Theater. Left-handed ace Mark Buehrle will be in attendance on Friday, as announced by the team yesterday, and Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia will join him, comprising three of the starting pitchers who hurled four straight complete games during the 4-1 American League Championship Series win over the Angels. That sort of feat is unlikely to be witnessed again.

Rowand isn¡¯t expecting to be in attendance, but he has countless memories to share about a team finishing with 99 victories, leading the AL Central from start to finish and then posting an 11-1 run through the postseason. These accomplishments were made even greater by doing it for Chicago and ending an 88-year baseball title drought in the city.

¡°That was the greatest thing in my life,¡± said Rowand, who hit 13 home runs, 30 doubles and 69 RBIs in ¡®05. ¡°I¡¯ll never forget when the Cubs went to the NLCS in 2003 and everybody on our squad was watching that series and we were just praying they would not win. There was an unspoken, unwritten thing [about who would be] the first Chicago team to win a World Series, to break the streak.

¡°For us to do that, for the city and for the South Siders, it meant the world to me. But also, I know how much it meant to [White Sox chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf.¡±

There¡¯s an oversized glossy picture framed and prominently displayed in Rowand¡¯s house of Reinsdorf holding the trophy and Rowand pouring a bottle of champagne over his head following the clinching 1-0 Game 4 victory over the Astros. It's probably the most coveted photo of Rowand's life.

On numerous occasions during that ¡¯05 season, Rowand would arrive early to the ballpark and talk baseball with Reinsdorf. He heard how Reinsdorf would trade one baseball championship for those six Bulls titles, which is a sentiment the White Sox chairman has stated publicly.

¡°It meant a ton to me when we finally won for that man who has done so much for the city, and for the organization and what not,¡± Rowand said.

Some pundits view the anniversary celebration as a misdirection from the 222 combined losses suffered by the team over the past two seasons and a 2025 campaign in which the White Sox are unlikely to be prime contenders. This year is focused on watching the prospects in action, then seeing where the team needs to fill in around them.

But the 2005 team should be recognized as one of the most underrated, dominant champions in Major League Baseball history. White Sox fans simply don¡¯t want to wait another 10 or 20 years for another celebration.

¡°I¡¯ve never been on a team where it seemed like from the owner down, everybody was pulling on the same end of the rope,¡± Rowand said. ¡°If you open up a dictionary and look up ¡®camaraderie¡¯ or ¡®winning environment,¡¯ there would be a picture of the ¡®05 White Sox. ¡­ That group was probably closer than any other group of guys that I¡¯ve ever been around.

¡°There was never a dull moment one day of that entire season. ¡­ But we never let any outside distractions derail us from what we were trying to accomplish on the field every day.¡±