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Chicago White Sox, professional baseball team and one of five teams
in the Central Division of the American League (AL). Originally
called the White Stockings, the team plays at Comiskey Park in
Chicago, Illinois, and wears uniforms of white, black, and silver.
The White Sox won the West Division in 1993 and led the newly formed
Central Division in 1994, when a players’ strike ended the season
prematurely. In 1983 Chicago had ended a 24-year playoff drought by
winning the West Division. Leading the team were sluggers Harold
Baines, Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, and Greg Luzinski, and pitchers
Rich Dotson and LaMarr Hoyt, who both won 20 games. Before 1983 the
team’s last postseason appearance came in 1959, with a squad
featuring Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, and Early Wynn.
Chicago fielded several powerful teams during the early 1900s,
winning World Series championships in 1906 and 1917. But the club’s
success was marred soon afterward by the most infamous affair in
major league history—the Black Sox scandal. Shoeless Joe Jackson and
seven teammates were banned from baseball for life for their role in
throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
The White Stockings were established in 1900 when owner Charles
Comiskey moved his minor league team, the St. Paul Saints, to
Chicago. In April of that year the team was officially renamed the
White Sox and a year later the team became a charter member of the
American League. (A team called the Chicago White Stockings,
originally formed in 1870, became the National League Chicago Cubs.)
Chicago won four AL pennants and two World Series titles from 1901
through 1919. For their first World Series championship, pitchers Ed
Walsh and Doc White led the White Sox over the crosstown rival Cubs
in 1906. One of the era’s workhorses, Walsh was the last major
league pitcher to win at least 40 games in one season. The White Sox
moved into the newly opened Comiskey Park in 1910 where several
great batsmen led the White Sox to prominence from 1915 to 1919.
Hitters Eddie Collins and Joe Jackson powered the team’s offense
while pitcher Eddie Cicotte and catcher Ray Schalk starred
defensively during Chicago’s World Series championship in 1917.
Capturing the pennant again in 1919, the White Sox were heavily
favored to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. To the
surprise of many, however, the Reds won the best-of-nine series. The
White Sox returned to the top of the AL the next year but with eight
games left in the season a grand jury convened to investigate rumors
that Jackson and several others had agreed to play poorly during the
1919 series in exchange for $100,000. Though found not guilty by the
court, several players admitted their involvement with gamblers and
the eight Black Sox (as they became derisively known) were banished
for life from professional baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain
Landis and Chicago then dropped to the bottom of the league.
Although Hall of Fame members Luke Appling, Ted Lyons, and Al
Simmons put together outstanding individual performances, 40 years
would pass before Chicago won another AL pennant. During the 1950s
Chicago again became a power in the AL. From 1952 through 1958
Chicago regularly placed among the top three teams, but always
behind the East Coast powerhouse New York Yankees. In 1959, Manager
Al Lopez guided the White Sox to the pennant with a lineup starring
shortstop Luis Aparicio, second baseman Nellie Fox, and pitcher
Early Wynn. But the team fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the
World Series.
Chicago posted three consecutive second-place finishes from 1963
through 1965 but never topped the AL again until 1983, when the
White Sox assembled their best team since the Black Sox scandal. The
White Sox won their division on the hitting of outfielders Baines
and Kittle, catcher Fisk, and designated hitter Luzinski. Kittle was
named AL rookie of the year, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt won the AL Cy Young
Award, and Tony LaRussa was named the AL manager of the year. The
White Sox lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League
Championship Series.
After second-place finishes in 1990 and 1991, the White Sox won
another West Division title in 1993, this time under manager Gene
Lamont. First baseman Frank Thomas won his first of two consecutive
AL most valuable player awards, and pitcher Jack McDowell earned the
AL Cy Young Award, but Chicago again lost out in the AL Championship
Series. Major league expansion in 1994 placed Chicago in the new AL
Central Division.CHAMPIONSHIPS
1906 -
Defeated Chicago in 6 games
1917 -
Defeated Chicago in 6 games
Won the AL Pennant in
1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959
TOP MANAGER
Al Lopez, manager from
1957-65 and 1968-69, finished with a 840-650 record. Jimmie
Dykes leads all managers in wins, but his record is 899-940.
Tony La Russa (1983), Jeff Torborg (1990), Gene Lamont (1993),
and Jerry Manuel (2000) were AL Managers of the Year.
MVPS
Nellie Fox (1959)
Dick Allen (1972)
Frank Thomas (1993, 1994)
CY YOUNG
Early Wynn (1959)
LaMarr Hoyt (1983)
Jack McDowell (1993)
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Luis Aparicio (1956)
Gary Peters (1963)
Tommie Agee (1966)
Ron Kittle (1983)
Ozzie Guillian (1985)
RETIRED NUMBERS
2 - Nellie Fox (2B)
3 - Harold Baines (OF)
4 - Luke Appling (SS)
9 - Minnie Minoso (OF)
11 - Luis Aparicio (SS)
16 - Ted Lyons (P)
19 - Billy Pierce (P)
72 - Carlton Fisk (C)
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