White Sox, Astros are familiar with futility

Windy City vs. Bayou City.

They have one historic theme in common: decades of futility.

And one current trait that got them to where they are: deep starting pitching.

"All the frustration, it's been worth the wait," White Sox vice chairman Eddie Einhorn said. "It's a generation-long wait. I mean, that's a long wait."

Starting Saturday night, Chicago hosts the World Series for the first time since 1959, back when there were just 16 teams, no divisions, no wild cards, no designated hitters -- and no Astros.

"St. Louis has a better offense, but Houston has a better pitching staff. Either way you look at it, it's not going to be easy," White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle said before the Astros beat the Cardinals 5-1 Wednesday night to win the National League pennant.

Houston wasn't even awarded a franchise until Oct. 17, 1960. At that owners' meeting, which happened to take place in Chicago, it would have been hard to envision that the club's first NL pennant wouldn't come for 45 years -- but then again, the team's first name was the Houston Colt .45s. The club wouldn't become the Astros until 1965, when it moved into the Astrodome.

Both teams' current ballparks have had more names than pennant winners.

Houston moved in 2000 to Enron Field, which became Astros Field in February 2002 after the trading company got into financial trouble. Then a juicy deal was signed in June 2002, and the stadium was renamed Minute Maid Park.

Chicago moved in 1991 from the old Comiskey Park, its home since 1910, to the adjacent new Comiskey Park, which in 2003 became U.S. Cellular Field.