The History of the Chicago White Sox - Part 2

        The 1906 Cubs are one of the greatest baseball teams of all time. They were making the first of four World Series appearances in five years, and their roster featured four players who would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The 1906 Cubs won the National League with a record of 116-36, which to this day is the highest win rate (76.3%) in MLB history. This was their seventh NL title. The Cubs were undoubtedly baseball royalty, one of the NL’s premier franchises. 

The thing is, the White Sox were a premier franchise, too. At this point, the White Sox were the most successful team in American League history. They had won three of the first seven AL pennants. In the last part, I spent a lot of time talking about Ban Johnson, the American League’s first commissioner, and Charles Comiskey, the founder of the White Sox. I talked a lot about how they were good friends, and that close relationship made sure that the White Sox were set up to be the AL’s premier team, not just on the field, but also in status, promotions, and name recognition, since before they were founded. 

The 1906 Sox were interesting. Because they couldn’t hit. At all. 

The 1906 White Sox had a team batting average of .230, good for last in the American League. Despite this, they went 93-58 and got a trip to the World Series. As you might expect from a team that had a lot of success and couldn’t hit, their pitching was incredible. Ed Walsh and Doc White, both future Hall of Famers, led a pitching staff that was second in the AL in ERA. 

The Cubs were massive favorites in this series, something that the White Sox wasted exactly zero time proving wrong. In game one, Sox pitcher Nick Altrock shut down the Cubs offense, leading to a 2-1 win. In game two, The Cubs got back on their feet, doing what everybody thought they would. Winning in blowout fashion by a score of 7 to 1. Game 3 was an easy one for the White Sox, as they watched Ed Walsh throw a complete game shutout against the Cubs in a 3-0 win. In game 4, the Cubs took a risk. Down 2 games to 1 in the best of 7 series, they decided to throw out their ace, Mordecai Brown, for the second time in four days. 

The attitudes around pitching in the early 20th century were vastly different than they are today. Starting pitchers often pitched the whole game, pitched on short rest, and played through injuries. Teams would carry less than 10 pitchers on their rosters, and it wasn’t unheard of for a starting pitcher to threaten to retire on the spot if a manager even thought about taking them out of the game before it was over, even if they were injured. This absolutely flies in the face of modern sports medicine. Knowing what we know today, current MLB teams consider “short rest” to be four days between starts. Mordecai Brown was pitching on two days of rest. Somehow, it worked out. Mordecai Brown didn’t allow a hit in the 5 and ⅔ innings that he pitched in game 4, a 1-0 Cubs win. 

Game 5 was something that nobody expected in this series. A shootout. Ed Walsh got lit up for 3 runs in the first inning, and the White Sox responded by scoring 4 in the fourth. Doc White came in behind Walsh and pitched 3 shutout innings to lead the Sox to an 8-6 win. 

The Cubs’ backs were now against the wall. The Sox entered game six with a chance to win the third World Series in MLB history. The White Sox were having Doc White, who had thrown three innings in relief the previous day, start. The Cubs decided to counter with… Mordecai Brown. Pitching on one day’s rest and for the third time in six days. This is not how arms work. Pitching a baseball is an extremely unnatural motion that puts an incredible amount of stress on the shoulder, wrist, and elbow. It’s something that has to be managed extremely well to avoid disaster. The Cubs cannot just keep sending the same person out to pitch without proper rest and get away with it. 

They didn’t. 

The White Sox crushed Mordecai Brown, chasing him from the mound after just 1.2 innings, and 7 earned runs. The rout was on early, and the Sox never looked back on their way to the franchise’s first World Series Championship. 

The 1906 World Series set the tone for the first era of the White Sox’s existence. They would only have a losing record twice in the next ten years, as incredible talent came and went, and the Sox were well-established as an elite franchise. 

By the late 1910s, a new core had arrived in Chicago. In 1917, a team built around pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Red Faber, and outfielder “shoeless” Joe Jackson stormed to the franchise’s first 100 - win season. They won the American League pennant, going back to the World Series, where they met the New York Giants. No, not the football team.

The 1917 World Series was a pitching showcase by Red Faber, who was the winning pitcher in three of the games. Him and Cicotte were the only two White Sox pitchers to start games in the six game series, which had mercifully put in rest days between games. Not for the players’ health, of course, but to allow for travel time. 

The White Sox dominated the 1917 World Series, winning the franchise’s second title before winning the AL championship again in 1919. This is what the White Sox were made to do. Dominate. Win game after game, season after season, championship after championship, garnering national attention along the way as the flagship franchise of the American League. This is exactly what Comiskey and Johnson had in mind when they came up with the idea to move the St. Paul Saints to Chicago in 1900. Sold out stadiums, rivalry games, a loyal fan base, and elite talent on the field. The White Sox were baseball royalty. Exactly what they were meant to be.