How Jerry Krause impacted the 2005 White Sox World Series title

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — He might not have been the architect, as was the case for all six Bulls titles, but Jerry Krause's fingerprints are all over the 2005 White Sox championship.

A longtime basketball and baseball scout who later took over as the Bulls' general manager during Michael Jordan's heyday, Krause twice worked for the White Sox, most recently from 2010 to 2011. In his first stint, Krause — who passed away at age 77 on Tuesday — played a big role in the acquisitions of Ozzie Guillen, Julio Cruz, Ed Farmer, Greg Luzinski, Tom Seaver, Greg Walker and Ken Williams, among others.

"He had a hand in seven championships being that he scouted both Ozzie and myself and counseled us in the early years of some of the things we had to go through in our general manager-player relationships," said Williams, the White Sox executive vice president who was the team's general manager when it won the World Series in 2005. "He's probably telling his friends up there right now he actually has seven."

Though he started as a basketball scout, Krause switched to baseball during the 1970s and 1980s and worked for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland A's, Seattle Mariners and White Sox.

After his retirement from the Bulls, Krause worked for the New York Yankees, New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks. He took over as the White Sox international scouting director in 2010 and worked through 2011 until current director Marco Paddy was hired.

"I have two different Jerry Krause experiences," current White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. "I had grown up in Chicago as a kid, seeing the Bulls teams he built and feeling a sense of gratitude toward him before I even met the man once given what that team was able to accomplish. From a personal level, when he was here and involved in our scouting operations, I found him to be an excellent evaluator and a very thoughtful individual who knew a tremendous amount about the game and was generous with his time and was certainly an asset while he was here."

Williams first met Krause when he was a 17-year-old prospect at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, Calif. The two developed a "lifetime" friendship, Williams said. The White Sox selected Williams — who eventually became the architect of the 2005 title-winning team — in the third round of the 1982 draft. They also acquired Guillen in an eight-player trade from the San Diego Padres in December 1984.

"I wish people had got to know his softer side because he's a good family man," Williams said. "A good fisherman. He could tell a story, man. He could recite stories from 20, 30 years ago. I wish the public had gotten a chance to know him along those lines — maybe he would have gotten a break he probably deserved."

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