The Story Of The Chicago White Sox

A beautiful and detail-rich hardbound collection of Chicago White Sox history, containing essays, box scores, original reporting, archival photographs, and various memorabilia for one of MLB's most beloved franchises.

On the Evening of September 22, 1959, Gerry Staley was called out of the Chicago bullpen before a crowd of 54,293 hostile fans in Cleveland's cavernous Municipal Stadium. Chicago had a slim two-run lead, but the bases were loaded with Indians and only one was out in the bottom of the ninth inning. Staley, with ice-water running through his veins, placed his first pitch, a hard sinker, low in the strike zone on the outside corner of the plate. Cleveland's free-swinging, left-handed Vic Power swung and slashed a hard ground ball to Chicago shortstop Luis Aparicio. Aparicio glided to his left, gloved the ball, stepped on second and rifled the ball to Kluszewski at first. One pitch, two outs and the Chicago dugout erupted in spontaneous celebration. The 4-2, down-to-the-wire triumph brought the Chicago White Sox its first American League pennant in forty years.

Examines the history, players, and future of the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

The Black Sox Scandal is a cold case, not a closed case. When Eliot Asinof wrote his classic history about the fixing of the 1919 World Series, Eight Men Out, he told a dramatic story of undereducated and underpaid Chicago White Sox ballplayers, disgruntled by their low pay and poor treatment by team management, who fell prey to the wiles of double-crossing big-city gamblers offering them bribes to lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, and the other Black Sox players were all banned from organized baseball for life. But the real story is a lot more complex. We now have access to crucial information that changes what we thought we knew about “baseball’s darkest hour” — including rare film footage from that fateful fall classic, legal documents from the criminal and civil court proceedings, and accurate salary information for major-league players and teams. All of these new pieces to the Black Sox puzzle provide definitive answers to some old mysteries and raise other questions in their place. However, the Black Sox Scandal isn’t the only story worth telling about the 1919 Chicago White Sox. The team roster included three future Hall of Famers, a 20-year-old spitballer who would go on to win 300 games in the minor leagues, and even a batboy who later became a celebrity with the “Murderers’ Row” New York Yankees in the 1920s. All of their stories are included in Scandal on the South Side, which has full-life biographies on each of the 31 players who made an appearance for the White Sox in 1919, plus a comprehensive recap of Chicago’s pennant-winning season, the tainted World Series, and the sordid aftermath. This book isn’t a rewriting of Eight Men Out, but it is the complete story of everyone associated with the 1919 Chicago White Sox. The Society for American Baseball Research invites you to learn more about the Black Sox Scandal and the infamous team at the center of it all. With contributions from Adrian Marcewicz, Andy Sturgill, Brian Cooper, Brian McKenna, Brian Stevens, Bruce Allardice, Dan Lindner, Daniel Ginsburg, David Fleitz, David Fletcher, Gregory H. Wolf, Irv Goldfarb, Jack Morris, Jacob Pomrenke, James E. Elfers, James R. Nitz, Jim Sandoval, John Heeg, Kelly Boyer Sagert and Rod Nelson, Lyle Spatz, Paul Mittermeyer, Peter Morris, Richard Smiley, Rick Huhn, Russell Arent, Steve Cardullo, Steve Steinberg, Steven G. McPherson, and William F. Lamb. Table of Contents: 1. Introduction, by Jacob Pomrenke 2. Prologue: Offseason 1918-19, by Jacob Pomrenke 3. Joe Benz, by William F. Lamb 4. Eddie Cicotte, by Jim Sandoval 5. Eddie Collins, by Paul Mittermeyer 6. Shano Collins, by Andy Sturgill 7. Dave Danforth, by Steve Steinberg 8. Red Faber, by Brian Cooper 9. Season Timeline: April 1919 10. Happy Felsch, by James R. Nitz 11. Chick Gandil, by Daniel Ginsburg 12. Joe Jackson, by David Fleitz 13. Bill James, by Steven G. McPherson 14. Joe Jenkins, by Jacob Pomrenke 15. Dickey Kerr, by Adrian Marcewicz 16. Season Timeline: May 1919 17. Nemo Leibold, by Gregory H. Wolf 18. Grover Lowdermilk, by James E. Elfers 19. Byrd Lynn, by Russell Arent 20. Erskine Mayer, by Lyle Spatz 21. Hervey McClellan, by Jack Morris 22. Tom McGuire, by Jack Morris 23. Season Timeline: June 1919 24. Fred McMullin, by Jacob Pomrenke 25. Eddie Murphy, by John Heeg 26. Win Noyes, by Bruce Allardice 27. Pat Ragan, by Andy Sturgill 28. Swede Risberg, by Kelly Boyer Sagert and Rod Nelson 29. Charlie Robertson, by Jacob Pomrenke 30. Season Timeline: July 1919 31. Reb Russell, by Richard Smiley 32. Ray Schalk, by Brian Stevens 33. Frank Shellenback, by Brian McKenna 34. John Sullivan, by Jacob Pomrenke 35. Buck Weaver, by David Fletcher 36. Roy Wilkinson, by William F. Lamb 37. Season Timeline: August 1919 38. Lefty Williams, by Jacob Pomrenke 39. Owner: Charles Comiskey, by Irv Goldfarb 40. Manager: Kid Gleason, by Dan Lindner 41. General Manager: Harry Grabiner, by Steve Cardullo 42. Executive: Tip O’Neill, by Brian McKenna 43. Batboy: Eddie Bennett, by Peter Morris 44. Season Timeline: September 1919 45. Walking Off to the World Series, by Jacob Pomrenke 46. The 1919 World Series: A Recap, by Rick Huhn 47. The Pitching Depth Dilemma, by Jacob Pomrenke 48. 1919 American League Salaries, by Jacob Pomrenke 49. The Black Sox Scandal, by William F. Lamb 50. Epilogue: Offseason 1919-20, by Jacob Pomrenke

"This illustrated volume includes more than 200 player profiles, from Tommie Agee to Richie Zisk; season-by-season narratives spanning 11 decades of White Sox baseball; a battery of statistics and records; memorable moments, 'Sox Yarns,' and fun facts. Total White Sox is a must-have for anyone who considers him- or herself a die-hard Sox fan, as well as for anyone who loves the game of baseball enough to appreciate this franchise's unique place in the history of our national pastime"--Jacke

Everything About Everybody on the Go-Go Sox The 1959 Chicago White Sox broke a 40-year pennant drought on the city's South Side, begun after the 1919 Black Sox scandal. The scrappy Go-Go Sox, with pitching, fielding and timely hitting, finally overcame the New York Yankees' dominance of the American League, only to lose to the LA Dodgers in the World Series. Go-Go to Glory is a tribute to the men of that Go-Go Sox team. More than a simple memoir of a memorable season, it provides an in-depth look at an entire era of baseball through the prism of one remarkable team in Chicago. Here you'll find original biographies of every single player, coach, broadcaster and key front-office personnel who contributed to the magical 1959 season, as well as appreciations of the 1950s White Sox by fans and historians. The book features individual lifetime biographies of owner Bill Veeck, manager Al Lopez, and the following players, coaches and management of the 1959 White Sox: Luis Aparicio / Rodolfo Arias / Earl Battey / Ray Berres / Ray Boone / Johnny Callison / Camilo Carreon / Norm Cash / Johnny Cooney / Tony Cuccinello / Larry Doby / Dick Donovan / Del Ennis / Sammy Esposito / Nellie Fox / Billy Goodman / Hank Greenberg / Don Gutteridge / Joe Hicks / Ron Jackson / Ted Kluszewski / Jim Landis / Barry Latman / Sherm Lollar / Turk Lown / J.C. Martin / Jim McAnany / Ken McBride/ Ray Moore / Don Mueller / Gary Peters / Bubba Phillips / Billy Pierce / Claude Raymond / Jim Rivera / John Romano / Don Rudolph / BobShaw / Harry Simpson / Lou Skizas / Al Smith / Jerry Staley / Joe Stanka / Earl Torgeson / Early Wynn A project of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), this volume gathers the collective efforts of more than 40 SABR members and friends of this nonprofit research society.

The history of the Chicago White Sox professional baseball team from its inaugural 1901 season to today, spotlighting the team's greatest players and most memorable moments.

In the most famous scandal of sports history, eight Chicago White Sox players--including Shoeless Joe Jackson--agreed to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for the promise of $20,000 each from gamblers reportedly working for New York mobster Arnold Rothstein. Heavily favored, Chicago lost the Series five games to three. Although rumors of a fix flew while the series was being played, they were largely disregarded by players and the public at large. It wasn't until a year later that a general investigation into baseball gambling reopened the case, and a nationwide scandal emerged. In this book, Charles Fountain offers a full and engaging history of one of baseball's true moments of crisis and hand-wringing, and shows how the scandal changed the way American baseball was both managed and perceived. After an extensive investigation and a trial that became a national morality play, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts for all of the White Sox players in August of 1921. The following day, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's new commissioner, "regardless of the verdicts of juries," banned the eight players for life. And thus the Black Sox entered into American mythology. Guilty or innocent? Guilty and innocent? The country wasn't sure in 1921, and as Fountain shows, we still aren't sure today. But we are continually pulled to the story, because so much of modern sport, and our attitude towards it, springs from the scandal. Fountain traces the Black Sox story from its roots in the gambling culture that pervaded the game in the years surrounding World War I, through the confusing events of the 1919 World Series itself, to the noisy aftermath and trial, and illuminates the moment as baseball's tipping point. Despite the clumsy unfolding of the scandal and trial and the callous treatment of the players involved, the Black Sox saga was a cleansing moment for the sport. It launched the age of the baseball commissioner, as baseball owners hired Landis and surrendered to him the control of their game. Fountain shows how sweeping changes in 1920s triggered by the scandal moved baseball away from its association with gamblers and fixers, and details how American's attitude toward the pastime shifted as they entered into "The Golden Age of Sport." Situating the Black Sox events in the context of later scandals, including those involving Reds manager and player Pete Rose, and the ongoing use of steroids in the game up through the present, Fountain illuminates America's near century-long fascination with the story, and its continuing relevance today.