48 Fun Facts About Chicago White Sox

In which division do the White Sox play?

AL Central. The White Sox came over from the AL West when the leagues went to three divisions in 1994, and were leading the new division when a players' strike ended that season in August.

Which part of Chicago is home to the White Sox?

South Side. When Pope Leo XIV was elected, his brother confirmed he was a White Sox fan, and the club marked the seat where he had watched Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.

Where did the White Sox franchise begin in 1894, as the Cornhuskers?

Sioux City, Iowa. The Cornhuskers won the Western League pennant in their only season there, and a new owner promptly moved the champions to St. Paul and, in 1900, to Chicago.

For which White Sox minor-league team did Michael Jordan play during the 1994 season?

Birmingham Barons. Jordan batted .202 with 30 stolen bases for the Double-A club in 1994, then gave up baseball the following spring and went back to the Bulls.

Whom did the White Sox beat to win their first World Series in 1906?

Chicago Cubs. They had gone 116-36, the best record of baseball's modern era, yet lost in six games in the first World Series ever played between two clubs from one city.

Why were the 1906 White Sox nicknamed the 'Hitless Wonders'?

Their .230 average was the AL's worst, and they hit only seven home runs all season, yet 19 straight wins in August carried them into first place and on to the pennant.

Which team did the White Sox lose the fixed 1919 World Series to?

Cincinnati Reds. They took the best-of-nine Series five games to three, and Chicago's ace hit the first Reds batter with his second pitch, long said to be the signal that the fix was on.

How many White Sox players were banned for life over the Black Sox scandal?

Eight. Buck Weaver took none of the gamblers' money and batted .324 in the Series, yet he was banned with the rest for knowing about the plot and keeping quiet.

Which commissioner banned the Black Sox players?

Kenesaw Mountain Landis. A federal judge hired as baseball's first commissioner, he barred the players a day after a jury cleared them, in an edict that began 'Regardless of the verdict of juries'.

Which gambler is often said to have bankrolled the 1919 World Series fix?

Arnold Rothstein. He always denied it and was never convicted, but the legend stuck: F. Scott Fitzgerald turned him into Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who fixed the World Series in The Great Gatsby.

Who claimed to copy Shoeless Joe Jackson's swing?

Babe Ruth. He said he copied Jackson's style because he was the greatest natural hitter he ever saw; Jackson's .356 career average is one of the highest in major-league history.

How did Joe Jackson earn the nickname 'Shoeless'?

New shoes made him play in socks. His new spikes were too painful to wear, so he played one game in his stockings; he said it was the only time he ever did, yet the name followed him for the rest of his life.

Which pitcher earned his 300th career win in a White Sox uniform in 1985?

Tom Seaver. Chicago had claimed him in 1984 when his old club left him off its protected list, sure that nobody would want a 39-year-old; he won No. 300 the next summer at Yankee Stadium.

Which team's 86-year title drought ended the year before the White Sox's 88-year one?

Boston Red Sox. They won in 2004 after 86 years; Chicago, without a title since 1917, then swept them out of the first round of the 2005 playoffs on the way to ending an even longer wait.

What nickname did the pennant-winning 1959 White Sox earn?

Go-Go White Sox. They hit the fewest home runs in the 1959 American League but stole 113 bases, 45 more than any other club, and ran their way to the team's first pennant in 40 years.

Who beat the White Sox in the 1959 World Series?

Los Angeles Dodgers. Chicago won the opener 11-0 and then lost four of the next five; the three games in California each drew more than 92,000 to the Coliseum, still a World Series record.

Which White Sox owner unveiled baseball's first 'exploding scoreboard' in 1960?

Bill Veeck. His scoreboard shrieked and shot off fireworks whenever a White Sox batter homered, and the club drew 1.6 million fans that year, its best attendance to that point.

In 1960 the White Sox became the first major-league team to do what?

Put players' names on jerseys. The names went on the road uniforms in 1960 and the home ones a year later, and the idea caught on until almost every club in baseball had copied it.

What unusual item did the White Sox wear for a 1976 doubleheader game against Kansas City?

Shorts. The owner added the Bermuda-length shorts to that year's new uniforms as one more stunt, and the experiment was dropped after only a few games that summer.

Which radio shock jock blew up a crate of records at Disco Demolition Night in 1979?

Steve Dahl. Tickets cost 98 cents with a disco record, a nod to his station's 97.9 FM; the stunt filled the park to capacity and left thousands more shut outside the gates.

What became of the doubleheader's second game after the Disco Demolition Night riot?

The White Sox forfeited it to Detroit. The Tigers' manager would not send his players onto the wrecked field, and the league ruled the next day that the home club had failed to provide a playable one.

Which manager led the 1983 'Winning Ugly' White Sox to their first division title?

Tony La Russa. He had just finished a law degree when the Sox made him, at 34, the youngest manager in the majors, and he was admitted to the Florida bar a year into the job.

Which Florida city nearly lured the White Sox away in the late 1980s?

St. Petersburg. The city built a domed stadium to tempt a team and nearly landed the White Sox, but Illinois came up with money for a new park and the dome sat without a ball club for almost a decade.

What was the White Sox's current ballpark commonly called when it opened in 1991?

New Comiskey Park. Officially it simply took the old park's name, Comiskey Park, and kept it until 2003, when the naming rights were sold and the park became U.S. Cellular Field.

What is Frank Thomas's nickname?

The Big Hurt. A White Sox broadcaster coined it to sum up both the first baseman's size and what he did to a baseball, and Thomas soon justified it with back-to-back MVP awards.

At which university did future White Sox star Frank Thomas play football as a tight end?

Auburn. No baseball team drafted him out of high school in 1986, and he went to college on a football scholarship; seven years later he was the unanimous AL MVP, and he won the award again in 1994.

Which White Sox slugger won the AL MVP in 1972?

Dick Allen. In his first season in Chicago he led the league with 37 home runs and 113 RBIs, and on July 31 he hit two inside-the-park homers in a single game.

Who managed the White Sox to the 2005 World Series title?

Ozzie Guillén. The club's shortstop for 13 seasons and its 1985 Rookie of the Year, he came back as a first-time manager in 2004 and ended an 88-year title wait in his second season.

Whom did the White Sox sweep in the 2005 World Series?

Houston Astros. It was Houston's first World Series, and a sweep in name only: Chicago's four wins came by a combined six runs, one of them after 14 innings.

Who was named MVP of the 2005 World Series?

Jermaine Dye. He homered in the first inning of Game 1 and, in Game 4, singled home the only run of the 1-0 win that finished the sweep.

Which reserve infielder hit the 14th-inning home run that won Game 3 of the 2005 World Series?

Geoff Blum. He had come off the bench only an inning earlier, and the home run came in his one at-bat of the entire Series, in a game that ran 5 hours 41 minutes.

Which White Sox hitter charged the mound against Nolan Ryan in 1993 and ended up in a headlock?

Robin Ventura. Ryan, twenty years his senior, hit him with a pitch, caught him in a headlock and landed a string of punches; the umpires then ejected Ventura and let Ryan carry on pitching.

Against which team did Mark Buehrle throw his 2009 perfect game?

Tampa Bay Rays. With three outs to go, DeWayne Wise, sent in that inning purely for his glove, reached above the left-centre wall and took a home run away to save the perfect game.

Which Hall of Fame catcher joined the White Sox in 1981 after Boston mailed his contract a day late?

Carlton Fisk. The late paperwork made him a free agent; he reversed his old No. 27 to wear 72 in Chicago, caught there for 13 seasons, and the White Sox retired the number in 1997.

Who hit the walk-off homer to beat the Yankees in the 2021 Field of Dreams game?

Tim Anderson. He hit the first pitch he saw into the cornfield for a 9-8 win; the first White Sox walk-off homer against the Yankees had been hit in 1919 by Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Which team's modern record of 120 losses did the 2024 White Sox break?

New York Mets. The 1962 Mets lost 120 in their first season; the 2024 White Sox finished 41-121, sacked their manager in August and took loss No. 121 in Detroit in the final week.

Which White Sox great came out of retirement to bat in 1976 and 1980, becoming a five-decade major leaguer?

Minnie Miñoso. The 'Cuban Comet', the club's first Black player back in 1951, was a coach in his fifties when the owner put him in the lineup, and he singled in 1976.

Which White Sox organist turned 'Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye' into a stadium anthem in 1977?

Nancy Faust. She struck up the half-forgotten 1969 hit whenever a rival pitcher was pulled from the game, the crowd sang along, and the taunt spread from Chicago to arenas everywhere.

Which White Sox slugger reached 500 career home runs with a walk-off homer in 2007?

Jim Thome. Nobody had reached 500 with a walk-off before, and he later took the ball to Cooperstown with his father and gave it to the Hall of Fame.

The black cap from the White Sox's 1990 rebrand became a staple of which music scene?

Hip-hop. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre wore the new black SOX cap on magazine covers and in videos, and the club's merchandise became one of baseball's best sellers.

Where do the White Sox hold spring training?

Camelback Ranch, Glendale, Arizona. The White Sox trained in Sarasota, Florida, for almost four decades, moved west to Tucson in 1998 and settled here, in a complex shared with another club, in 2009.

Which White Sox first baseman hit a go-ahead grand slam in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series?

Paul Konerko. He hit the first pitch from a new reliever for a 6-4 lead, later caught the final out of the Series, and at the victory parade handed that ball to the club's owner.

Which White Sox catcher was punched by the Cubs' Michael Barrett after a home-plate collision in 2006?

A. J. Pierzynski. He flattened Barrett to score, slapped the plate and bumped him on the way back to the dugout; the punch emptied both benches and cost Barrett a 10-game suspension.

Which annual baseball showcase was first staged at the White Sox's ballpark in 1933?

All-Star Game. A Chicago Tribune sports editor proposed it as a one-off attraction for the city's 1933 World's Fair; 47,595 came to watch, and it has been played nearly every summer since.

Whom did the White Sox beat in the 1917 World Series for their second title?

New York Giants. The deciding game turned on a botched rundown: nobody covered home plate, so the Giants' third baseman could only chase Eddie Collins across it with the ball in his hand.

Which shortstop, nicknamed 'Ol' Aches and Pains', had his number 4 retired by the White Sox?

Luke Appling. He complained of every ailment going through 20 seasons with the White Sox, then at 75 hit a home run off Warren Spahn in an old-timers' game.

Which Venezuelan shortstop wore Luis Aparicio's retired No. 11 for the White Sox in 2010 and 2011?

Omar Vizquel. He had already broken Aparicio's record for games played at shortstop; the number came out of retirement so that the man who took the record could wear it in his forties.

Which manager took the 1959 White Sox to the pennant, five years after doing the same with Cleveland?

Al López. The Yankees won every other American League pennant from 1949 to 1964; the only two that got away both went to teams he managed, and Chicago's ended a 40-year wait.