HOUSTON — Now the Chicago White Sox are champions, too, just like the Boston Red Sox last year.

What's next? A World Series flag flying for the Chicago Cubs over Wrigley Field?

For now, Chicago is overjoyed that the White Sox became the latest long-suffering team to celebrate a World Series championship for the first time since World War I, beating the Houston Astros 1-0 on Wednesday night for a four-game sweep.

"I hope the people are partying tonight," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "I hope they don't get too rowdy, hope they don't get into too much trouble, but I hope they live it up and party like it's 1917."

Just a year ago, the same story line captivated baseball when the Red Sox swept St. Louis and captured their first title in 86 years.

That leaves only one team with a similar epic streak of futility — the Cubs, losers since 1908.

"The instant the Red Sox won last year, I thought maybe we're next," said White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, posing with the trophy, cigar in mouth.

The Windy City's White Sox hadn't won a Series since 1917 and hadn't played in one since 1959. Now, after an RBI single in the eighth by Series MVP Jermaine Dye and a combined five-hitter by four pitchers, no longer will they be best remembered for Shoeless Joe Jackson's Black Sox, who threw the 1919 Series against Cincinnati.

In the Second City, where the Cubs have long been king, the AL South Siders for once trumped their North Side NL rival, no small feat for the Sox.

Reinsdorf once said he'd trade all six of the Chicago Bulls' NBA titles for a single Series ring. No swap is needed now: He's got the prize he dreamed of since he was a kid growing up in Brooklyn.

"I hope this is not a dream," he said.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said during the regular season that he might retire if his team went on to win the Series. But now he wants to stick around to manage the AL in next summer's All-Star game.

"Hopefully I'll be the first Latino (manager) to win an All-Star game," he said.

Chicago's eighth straight win and 16th in 17 games dating to the regular season 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 — a baseball first.

"I wish we were in Chicago tonight," Reinsdorf said.

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.

"It was more their destiny to win this Series than it was ours," Houston's Craig Biggio said.

Winner Freddy Garcia and Houston's Brandon Backe pitched shutout ball for seven innings, each striking out seven.

Houston closer Brad Lidge came in to start the eighth, and Chicago sent up Willie Harris to bat for Garcia.

Harris lined a single to left leading off, 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 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.

"I know he throws a lot of sliders," Dye said. "He throws hard, but usually his fastball is just to keep you honest."

But it wasn't quite over yet.

Cliff Politte hit Willy Taveras on the hand with a pitch with one out in the bottom half, then bounced a wild pitch on his first offering to Lance Berkman, moving Taveras to second. He 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 left-hander Neal Cotts came in to face pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino, who hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop.

Juan Uribe charged, backhanded the ball by the grass and threw hard to first, beating Vizcaino by half a step.

After Chicago wasted Pierzynski's leadoff double in the ninth, Jason Lane lofted a single to short-center off Bobby Jenks 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.

"How did he pull it out?" Biggio said. "If I was a fan, I would have mauled him."

Orlando Palmeiro pinch hit and grounded to Uribe at shortstop for the final out, with Paul Konerko gloving the ball a half-step before Palmeiro landed on the bag. A postseason filled with umpires making questionable calls ended with them getting it right.

"Today was the first time in my life, the last two innings, my heart was pounding like crazy. I was so excited," Guillen said. "So many people were waiting for this moment."

Astros players were stone-faced, then came out to wave to their fans and throw caps into the seats. Houston was 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the night and 10-for-48 (.208) in the Series, and the Astros were shut out for the final 15 innings, stranding 18 runners.

"I did really poor in this series, and that really eats at me," said Ensberg, 2-for-18 with two RBIs. "It's difficult to handle."