Chicago White Sox are a professional baseball team that plays in the American League Central division of Major League Baseball (MLB). The club was an original member of the American League and won the pennant in 1901, the league’s first major league season.
Charles A. Comiskey owned the team from 1901 until his death in 1931, and the team remained in the Comiskey family until it was sold in 1959. The team played in a stadium called Comiskey Park from 1910 to 2002. The original Comiskey Park was replaced by a new one in 1991. Today, the stadium is called Guaranteed Rate Field.
The White Sox won the 1906 American League pennant behind pitcher Ed Walsh and defeated their crosstown rivals, the Chicago Cubs of the National League, in the World Series. The White Sox also won the 1917 pennant and World Series. Led by second baseman Eddie Collins and outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chicago won the 1919 pennant but lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. During the 1920 season, eight White Sox players were accused of deliberately losing the 1919 series in return for money from gamblers. The players were acquitted of the charges in court, but baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight from the major leagues for life. The 1919 team became known as the “Black Sox” because of the scandal.
The White Sox rarely contended for the pennant from the 1920’s through the mid-1950’s, though they did produce such stars as shortstop Luke Appling and pitcher Ted Lyons. In 1959, Bill Veeck purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Comiskey family. Veeck’s showmanship and a competitive club earned the team the nickname the “Go-Go Sox” and greatly stimulated game attendance. The White Sox reached the World Series in 1959, but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Veeck sold the team in 1961. He repurchased the club in 1976 before selling it again in 1981 to Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the current White Sox ownership group.
The White Sox produced one of the game’s great hitting stars in first baseman Frank Thomas, who won consecutive league Most Valuable Player awards in 1993 and 1994. The team won the American League pennant in 2005, its first since 1959. The White Sox won the 2005 World Series, defeating the Houston Astros in four games. It was the team’s first World Series championship since 1917. Stars included first baseman Paul Konerko, third baseman Joe Crede, outfielder Jermaine Dye, and pitchers Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland. Since the 2005 World Series title, the White Sox have had many losing seasons.
