Glory Days W hat could be better than having a baseball team playing in your town In 1901 Chicago fans learned the answer having two teams That year the American League AL played its first season The AL’s best team was the Chicago White Stockings Almost from the start newspapers shortened the team’s name to White Sox That’s what it has been ever since The White Sox were owned by Charles Comiskey He had been a star player in the 1880s In the 1890s he bought a team in the minor leagues Comiskey decided to move this club to Chicago and join the AL The city’s National League NL team now known as the Cubs played on the north side of town The White Sox played on the south side This is still true today The White Sox had some of baseball’s greatest players in the early years of the 20th century Their stars included George Davis 6
LEFT Fielder Jones talks to the umpires before a World Series game in 1906 RIGHT Luis Aparicio Nick Altrock Ed Walsh Eddie Cicotte Ray Schalk Eddie Collins Happy Felsch Buck Weaver and Joe Jackson The White Sox won the World Series in 1906 under the guidance of player-manager Fielder Jones They won the championship again in 1917 But their best team was the one that captured the pennant in 1919 No one could believe it when the White Sox lost the World Series that fall Later it was discovered that several members of the team had made bad plays on purpose These players were thrown out of baseball forever Many fans still call the 1919 team the Black Sox During the 1920s 1930s and 1940s a handful of stars wore the Chicago uniform including pitchers Red Faber and Ted Lyons and hitters Bibb Falk and Luke Appling But it was not until the 1950s that the White Sox had a team good enough to challenge for the AL pennant again Led by infielders Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio and pitchers Early Wynn and Billy Pierce the White Sox 7
finally made it back to the World Series in 1959 but they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers During the 1960s and 1970s the White Sox continued to find talented pitchers Joel Horlen Gary Peters Tommy John Wilbur Wood Jim Kaat and Goose Gossage were among the best in baseball The offense was another matter Players such Pete Ward Bill Melton and Dick Allen were very good hitters but the Chicago batting order was not consistent from one year to the next The team’s luck did not change in the 1980s or 1990s During this time the White Sox managed to put together a powerful attack that included Harold Baines Carlton Fisk Robin Ventura and Frank Thomas Unfortunately their pitching failed Pitchers such as Jack McDowell and Alex Fernandez were excellent during the regular season but they struggled in the playoffs Chicago reached the American League Championship Series ALCS in 1983 and 1993 but the team fell short of another pennant both times LEFT Frank Thomas was nicknamed The Big Hurt because of how hard he hit the ball ABOVE Harold Baines shows off his smooth swing 9
