It’s opening day and there might not be a team in baseball that looks forward to wiping its slate clean more than the Chicago White Sox, who set a record for most losses in 2024.
As the team begins its 125th season, here’s a look back at highs — and lows — of the city’s South Side franchise.
Back then, the team owned by Charles Comiskey was called the White Stockings — not to be confused with the previous White Stockings, which later became the Cubs.
The team’s debut was also the first American League game. Roy Patterson pitched the White Sox to their first victory, an 8-2 win over Cleveland at 39th Street Grounds.
The Cubs faced the White Sox in both teams’ first trip to the World Series. It was also the first World Series matchup between teams from the same city.
The North Siders were 3-1 favorites and the South Siders were considered the underdogs. The Sox had earned the nickname “Hitless Wonders” after a club-record 19-game winning streak during August, rising from sixth place to clinch the American League pennant Oct. 3.
As Chicago Tribune reporter Don Pierson noted in 1996: “Because pro football, basketball and hockey weren’t invented yet, the 1906 baseball season had little competition for sporting excitement in a town still rebuilding from the 1871 fire. World wars hadn’t even been invented, so a World Series was indeed a happening.”
The teams split the first four games, and then the White Sox took Game 5. They needed only one more game to win the Series. Nearly 20,000 jammed Comiskey Park, and thousands waited in the streets. With Cubs ace “Three Finger” Brown on the mound, a seventh game seemed certain.
The Cubs scored a run in the first inning, but the Sox scored three, then exploded with four in the second. In the Cubs’ ninth, with the score 8-3 and two out, Frank Schulte hit a weak ground ball to the mound. Doc White tossed to first, then ran for his life as Sox fans swarmed onto the field and into the streets. That night, bonfires were set for a party that lasted into the morning.
April 24, 1901
Back then, the team owned by Charles Comiskey was called the White Stockings — not to be confused with the previous White Stockings, which later became the Cubs.
The team’s debut was also the first American League game. Roy Patterson pitched the White Sox to their first victory, an 8-2 win over Cleveland at 39th Street Grounds.
Oct. 14, 1906
The Cubs faced the White Sox in both teams’ first trip to the World Series. It was also the first World Series matchup between teams from the same city.
The North Siders were 3-1 favorites and the South Siders were considered the underdogs. The Sox had earned the nickname “Hitless Wonders” after a club-record 19-game winning streak during August, rising from sixth place to clinch the American League pennant Oct. 3.
As Chicago Tribune reporter Don Pierson noted in 1996: “Because pro football, basketball and hockey weren’t invented yet, the 1906 baseball season had little competition for sporting excitement in a town still rebuilding from the 1871 fire. World wars hadn’t even been invented, so a World Series was indeed a happening.”
The teams split the first four games, and then the White Sox took Game 5. They needed only one more game to win the Series. Nearly 20,000 jammed Comiskey Park, and thousands waited in the streets. With Cubs ace “Three Finger” Brown on the mound, a seventh game seemed certain.
The Cubs scored a run in the first inning, but the Sox scored three, then exploded with four in the second. In the Cubs’ ninth, with the score 8-3 and two out, Frank Schulte hit a weak ground ball to the mound. Doc White tossed to first, then ran for his life as Sox fans swarmed onto the field and into the streets. That night, bonfires were set for a party that lasted into the morning.
July 1, 1910
Comiskey Park was officially opened, with the White Sox losing 2-0 to the St. Louis Browns before a crowd estimated at 28,000.
Oct. 9, 1919
The 1919 White Sox — considered by some baseball historians as one of the greatest teams ever to take the field — were heavy favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.
But in the best-of-nine series (Major League Baseball decided to expand from the best-of-four format because of postwar demand), the Reds dominated.
“The Reds beat the greatest ball team that every went into a World Series,” Sox manager Kid Gleason said after the Reds won the series. “But it wasn’t the real White Sox. They played baseball for me only a couple or three of the eight days.”
There had been rumors and reports that the fix was in, and indeed the Sox’s performance was suspect.
Aug. 4, 1921
Eight White Sox players were charged with throwing the World Series. Despite earning the nickname the “Black Sox,” the men were acquitted by a jury that deliberated just 2 hours and 47 minutes.
A day after their acquittal, however, baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis ruled that the players allegedly involved — Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar Emil “Happy” Felsch, Chick Gandil, Frederick William McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver and Lefty Williams — would be banned for life from organized baseball.
July 6, 1933
Comiskey Park hosted the first All-Star Game, which brought the biggest names in baseball together to play against each other for the first time.
The brainchild of Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, fans selected the starting nines on the 18-player teams, with the managers picking the rest. The Tribune and 55 other newspapers around the country distributed ballots to millions of readers.
The game — played in ideal weather — brought out a capacity crowd of 47,595 fans to see Lou Gehrig, Gabby Hartnett, Al Simmons, Jimmy Foxx and more. Babe Ruth — who hit a two-run home run to deep right field in the third inning off National League starter Bill Hallahan of the St. Louis Cardinals — was the star in a 4-2 American League victory.
Feb. 29, 1940
Before Comiskey died in 1931, he had suggested his son J. Louis Comiskey would take over ownership of the Sox but didn’t leave a will. The younger Comiskey, who had avoided the club’s front office until his father’s death, became president. And like his father, Louis Comiskey also turned down outside offers to buy the team.
But Louis Comiskey’s time in charge of the Sox was brief. He had long been in poor health. It was difficult for him to climb the steps to his office, which lead to the installation of a one-man elevator, the Tribune reported. Louis Comiskey died of pneumonia on July 18, 1939, after suffering a heart attack.
In his will, Louis Comiskey expressed a desire for the team to remain in the family after his death. The Comiskey family owned all but 50 shares of the White Sox at the time and had no debt. But First National Bank of Chicago, the executor of Louis Comiskey’s estate, sought permission from probate court to sell the club anyway, claiming ownership of the team involved too much financial uncertainty.
Grace Comiskey, Louis Comiskey’s widow, took the bank to court. After a two-hour discussion on leap day 1940, a judge denied the bank’s petition and allowed the Comiskey family to keep ownership of the White Sox. Grace Comiskey became team president in March 1941. The Comiskeys retained the team until early 1959.
Sept. 22, 1959
Now owned by Bill Veeck, the “Go-Go” White Sox clinched the American League pennant in Cleveland against the Indians — a team they owned all season, beating them 15 times — and with plenty of dramatics. The first White Sox pennant since 1919 (yes, that team) came “with the bases filled with Cleveland Indians, only one out, and the White Sox in danger of losing a two-run lead,” the Tribune reported. Lopez brought in Gerry Staley to stem the bleeding.
The Tribune’s Edward Prell provided the historic play-by-play in the next morning’s edition: “Staley pitched one ball — a sinker low and outside. Vic Power swung and Luis Aparicio glided to his left, spearing the ball. For a split second, it seemed he thought of making the toss to Nellie Fox. But he flashed three or four steps, hit the base with his spikes, and rifled the ball to Ted Kluszewski at first base.”
May 1, 1960
Veeck‘s “exploding” scoreboard at Comiskey Park — the first in baseball — was christened when Sox outfielder Al Smith hit a two-run homer off Jim Bunning in the bottom of the first inning against the Detroit Tigers.
July 12, 1979
It was a decade of fun: Harry Caray! Nancy Faust! Shorts! The electrifying South Side Hitmen! But one event at Comiskey Park outshone them all — Disco Demolition Night.
What was supposed to be a doubleheader between the Sox and Tigers turned into a debacle. The Sox lost the first game 4-1 but never got to the nightcap.
Up to 50,000 people — admitted for just 98 cents and a disco record — showed up for a promotion in which radio personality Steve Dahl took to the field between games to blast thousands of dance-themed discs into oblivion.
Shortly after the detonation, Dahl’s fans flooded the field. Ninety minutes, 39 arrests for disorderly conduct and a half-dozen injuries later, the second game was called off. It was ruled a forfeit by the American League on Friday the 13th.
Sox owner Bill Veeck didn’t agree with the ruling, which was the first forfeit in the league in five years.
“This was a regrettable incident, but not sufficient grounds for forfeit,” he told reporters. “But we won’t go out of business because of it. It seems to me a Chicago paper ran a headline sayin’ Dewey defeated Truman some years ago. Did they go out of business?”
June 30, 1988
Sox owners were prepared to move the team to St. Petersburg, Fla. But several minutes past a midnight deadline, and with some arm-twisting by Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, the Illinois General Assembly passed an amended stadium bill that ensured the White Sox would stay in Chicago.
Sept. 30, 1990
On this final day at old Comiskey Park, a crowd of 42,849 fans turned out on a glorious, sunny autumn afternoon to say farewell to what had been proclaimed the “the Baseball Palace of the World” when it opened July 1, 1910. Many fans were teary-eyed, realizing that the place where they had spent so many happy times would soon be turned into a parking lot for the new Comiskey Park, which was rising just to the south at 35th Street and Shields Avenue.
“Years from now,” the Chicago White Sox ads had said all season, “you’ll say you were there.”
By the sixth inning, the Seattle Mariners were leading 1-0, but a triple by Lance Johnson, a single by Frank Thomas and a triple by Dan Pasqua put the Sox ahead 2-1. And that is how it stayed.
When it was over, after the crowd had joined organist Nancy Faust for a final rendition of “Na-Na Hey-Hey Goodbye” — the unofficial victory song of the Sox — veteran catcher Carlton Fisk looked out across the green grass and summed up the feelings of many others in the park. “I don’t know if I want to see it as it’s being torn down,” he said. “I think I’d rather see it now, when it’s all up, and then not see it. That way, I’ve got it in my mind what it was and what it continues to be. I have a lot of things from this ballpark, right between my ears, and I’ll keep them right there.”
Aug. 12, 1994
One of the most promising seasons in White Sox history ended abruptly as the major league players walked out on strike. The devastating work stoppage also wiped out the playoffs and the World Series. When play on the field ceased, the White Sox were in first place, with a record of 67-46. Frank Thomas was in the middle of an MVP season as the Sox led the American Leauge Central Division by one game over the Indians.
Oct. 26, 2005
The White Sox won their first World Series since 1917.
“They completed their stunning run in a manner that mirrored their amazingly successful season, riding the pitching of Freddy Garcia and the bullpen to a 1-0 victory over Houston and completing a four-game sweep of the 2005 World Series,” Tribune reporter Mark Gonzales wrote.
2000s-2010s
Fans said many goodbyes — Ozzie Guillen, Paul Konerko, Chris Sale and Robin Ventura.
Sept. 27, 2024
The White Sox set a new record for most losses in a season. They surpassed the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in modern-day Major League Baseball history. They finished the 2024 season with a 41-121 record.
The Sox broke the record with a 4-1 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit.
White Sox fans targeted their “Sell the team” chants at the ballpark toward team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who is reportedly open to doing just that.
