Before I announced Binary Spotlight a couple days ago, Chicago lost an important figure in its sports history. Robert Scott Jenks, “Big Bobby,” passed away on July 4, 2025, at the age of 44 in Sintra, Portugal, after a short but fierce battle with stomach cancer. Some stories are too immense, their endings too poignant, to wait. I had originally planned to highlight why Seiya Suzuki was snubbed for his first All-Star appearance. However, with this news breaking I decided to make the inaugural piece about Big Bobby.
The news devastated the baseball world, especially Chicago. “We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” said team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. The timing was cruel — just one week before the 20-year reunion of the 2005 World Series team. Jenks had hoped to attend. Now, the celebration will likely be a tribute to the man who made it possible. His legacy is not just in stats, but in raw power, redemption, and unbreakable spirit.
To understand his impact in 2005, you need to understand what happened in December 2004. Jenks wasn’t a prized pickup. He was a waiver claim — acquired for $20,000. The Angels, who drafted him in 2000, had given up. They’d seen the electric arm but also the red flags: academic ineligibility, alcohol abuse, even stories of him lighting his skin on fire. After a dominant stretch in 2003, an elbow injury sidelined him most of 2004. The Angels released him. The White Sox took a low-risk chance, assigning him to Double-A Birmingham. No one imagined this would be the final piece of a championship puzzle.
There is no 2005 title without Bobby Jenks. When ESPN referred to him as merely being “on the roster,” Doug Mientkiewicz and A.J. Pierzynski swiftly corrected the record: “He closed out the World Series!!” Called up on July 6, Jenks’s first MLB pitch hit 102 mph. He wasn’t supposed to close games, but when Dustin Hermanson got hurt, Jenks took over. In the ALDS, he saved Game 2 and finished Game 3 at Fenway. In the ALCS against the Angels, he didn’t pitch — Chicago’s starters threw four straight complete games. That rest proved vital for the World Series.
Jenks appeared in every game of the 2005 Fall Classic. In Game 1, he escaped an eighth-inning jam and earned the save. He faltered in Game 2, blowing a save — but the Sox won on a walk-off. In Game 3’s 14-inning epic, he threw two scoreless frames. Then, in Game 4, with a 1-0 lead and an 88-year curse on the line, Ozzie Guillén summoned him one last time. Orlando Palmeiro’s soft grounder to Uribe sealed it. Pierzynski leapt into Jenks’s arms, and the drought was over. As Frank Thomas later said, Jenks was “unfazed by the Big moments.”
Jenks wasn’t a fluke. He followed up 2005 with All-Star appearances in 2006 and 2007, recording 41 and 40 saves respectively. His most remarkable feat came in the summer of 2007, when he retired 41 consecutive batters — a record-tying streak of perfection achieved in 14 separate relief appearances. Unlike starters who pitched perfect games in one day, Jenks had to be flawless night after night. The streak ended, but he still earned the save that day. He had proven he wasn’t just a playoff hero — he was one of the best closers in baseball.
But the dominance didn’t last forever. From 2008 to 2010, Jenks still collected saves — 30, 29, and 27 — but his ERA climbed and his command faded. By 2010, Ozzie Ozzie Guillén removed him from the closer role. The White Sox declined their option for 2011 and the Red Sox signed him but his stint in Boston was disastrous. He landed on the disabled list three times and posted a 6.32 ERA in just 19 games.
His career ended not because he ran out of talent, but because of a botched back surgery. Medical complications destroyed his spine and left him addicted to painkillers. He sued Massachusetts General Hospital and settled for $5.1 million in 2019. But by then, it was clear — his playing days were over.
Yet Jenks didn’t disappear. He rebuilt himself as a mentor and coach. After getting clean, he found purpose in independent league baseball. His players and colleagues described him as passionate, playful, and serious about the game. In 2022, he led the Grand Junction Rockies to a league championship and was named Manager of the Year. In 2024, he became manager of the Windy City ThunderBolts, returning to the area that had embraced him as a legend.
He faced his cancer with the same fortitude he once brought to the mound. “They are not going to put any numbers on it,” he said in an interview. “I don’t buy into that.” His focus wasn’t on fear — but on staying strong for his kids. “My job is to keep myself in the best state I can, especially for the kids.” The man who once flirted with self-destruction now fought for life with love and clarity.
Bobby Jenks played seven seasons in Major League Baseball. He finished with a 16–20 record, a 3.53 ERA, and 173 saves — second-most in White Sox history. Those numbers are impressive, but they don’t define his legacy.
His legacy is in one reason the 88-year drought on Chicago’s South Side ended with that final out in Houston. Ask a White Sox fan about Bobby Jenks, and they’ll talk about Uribe’s throw, the dogpile on the mound, and a city that finally believed again.
Ozzie Guillén simply said, “I loved that man.” Konerko remembered him as “a tough competitor… and a big teddy bear off the field.” Pierzynski called him “larger-than-life… who overcame a lot early in life to have a great playing career.”
Bobby Jenks lived a life of extremes — chaotic highs, painful lows — but in between, he found redemption, peace, and purpose. For one unforgettable autumn, he was perfect. And for a city long starved of heroes, he was exactly what they needed.
RIP Robert Scott Jenks — “Big Bobby”
March 14, 1981 to July 4, 2025