Chicago White Sox Team History

Headline editors at the Chicago Tribune sports department immediately began shortening the name to “White Sox”, and the team officially adopted the shorter name in 1904. The name change to the White Sox was brought on after scorekeeper Christoph Hynes wrote White Sox at the top of a scorecard rather than White Stockings, this scorecard was then seen by the press.

In September 1920, an investigation into a fixed Cubs game eventually turned in the direction of the 1919 Series. During the investigation, Cicotte and Jackson confessed. Comiskey, who himself had turned a blind eye to the rumors previously, was compelled to suspend the remaining seven players (Gandil, eventually perceived as the ringleader, the one “connected” to the gamblers, had retired after the 1919 season) before their last season series against the St. Louis Browns. The suspensions ground the team to a halt; they lost two out of three games to the Browns and finished second, two games behind the Cleveland Indians. However, the evidence of their involvement (signed confessions) disappeared from the Cook County courthouse, and lacking that tangible evidence, a criminal trial (whose scope was limited to the question of defrauding the public) ended in acquittals of all the players. Regardless, with the public’s trust of the game of baseball at stake, newly installed Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all the accused from baseball for life.

The 1906 World Series featured a crosstown matchup between the Chicago Cubs, who had posted the highest regular-season win total (116) and winning percentage (.763) in the major leagues since the advent of the 154-game season; and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox, known as the “Hitless Wonders” after finishing with the worst team batting average (.230) in the American League, beat the Cubs in six games for one of the greatest upsets in Series history. The teams split the first four games; then the Hitless Wonders exploded for 26 hits in the last two games. True to their nickname, the White Sox hit only .198 as a team in winning the series but it bettered the .196 average produced by the Cubs.

In the 1917 World Series, the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Giants four games to two. The Series was played against the backdrop of World War I, which dominated the American newspapers that year and next. The strong Chicago White Sox club had finished the 1917 season with a 100–54 record: their first and only one-hundred-win season in franchise history as of 2014. The Sox’s next World Series winner in 2005 would finish the regular season with a 99–63 record.

In 1981 Jerry Reinsdorf was wealthy enough to purchase the White Sox for $19 million. The purchase was brokered by American National Bank who arranged for a limited partnership. He followed previous eccentric White Sox owners Charles Comiskey, who was known as a miser, and Veeck, who was known as a prankster who gutted the team by trading away promising prospects. Soon after buying the White Sox, he signed Greg Luzinski and Carlton Fisk. He also tripled the team promotional budget and increased the number of team scouts from 12 to 20. By the 1983 Major League Baseball season the White Sox made the playoffs with the best record in the Major Leagues.

The 2005 World Series, the 101st edition of the Major League Baseball championship series, saw the American League champion Chicago White Sox sweep the National League champion Houston Astros four games to none in the best-of-seven-games series, winning their third World Series championship and their first in 88 years.