The History of the Chicago White Sox - Part 5

  In the 30 years from 1921 to 1950, the White Sox had six winning seasons. In 1951, Minnie Miñoso came to town. 


Miñoso was the first black player in White Sox history, and it took a lot for him to get to the majors. He spent the first two years of his career playing for the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues, the only place where black players were allowed to play at the time. Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier after Miñoso’s second season, and Miñoso gave it a shot the following year. He played 11 games in Cleveland’s minor league system and absolutely shredded single-a ball. He hit for a .525 batting average and a 1.412 OPS, numbers that were absolutely good enough to get him promoted to double-a, if not triple-a, but no promotion came. Miñoso returned to the Negro Leagues for the rest of the 1948 season. 


In 1949, Miñoso started the year in triple-a and eventually made his way to Cleveland’s major league roster. He only spent nine games in the majors before being sent back down for the rest of the year. In 1950, Miñoso again put up incredible numbers, this time a .945 OPS over a 169 game sample, but was never once called up to the big leagues. He started the 1951 season on Cleveland’s roster, but only played eight games before being traded to the White Sox for two mediocre pitchers. 


The White Sox took Minnie Miñoso and plugged him into their lineup as their everyday left fielder the second they got him. Finally given a real chance at consistent MLB playing time at age 27, long after he proved he deserved it, Miñoso in 1951 spent the whole year letting every other team know what they missed out on. 


Miñoso finished 4th in AL MVP voting and 2nd in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1951. Curiously, the person who finished in front of Miñoso in Rookie of the Year voting finished behind him in MVP voting. I don’t know why this would happen, and I wasn’t in the room with the voters, but given the state of things at the time, it just miiiiiight be that the voters couldn’t bring themselves to give an award like rookie of the year to a black man. 


Either way,  Miñoso, along with Billy Pierce on the mound and Nellie Fox at second base, led the Sox to an 81-73 record that started what is known as the go-go era. 


They called it that because the White Sox of the fifties and sixties were a team that was built completely on speed. Miñoso led the AL in steals three times in his career and Aparicio, who would join the team in 1956, led the AL in steals nine times. These teams pitched well, played good defense, ran hard, and took every marginal advantage they could get. They executed the “small ball” model perfectly, and they did it for the better part of two decades. 


Miñoso also led the league in something else. Times hit. Pitchers hit Miñoso with pitches constantly. When he retired, Miñoso was the fifth most hit batter in MLB history, and even today, he still ranks 11th. From a baseball standpoint, this makes no sense. Miñoso, with his stolen base skills, is one of the last people a pitcher would ever want to give a free pass to. Given how known these Sox were for turning small mistakes into big punishments, putting any of their runners on base is terrible. From the standpoint of a person in the 1950s, however, a hit by pitch is the outcome that causes the most pain to the batter. I’m not saying that these people were racists, it’s just that whenever Miñoso came to the plate, otherwise great pitchers just happened to lose control of their pitches. 



In 1952, the White Sox placed third in the American League, behind the Yankees and Indians. 


In 1953, the White Sox placed third in the American League, behind the Yankees and Indians. 


In 1954, the White Sox placed third in the American League, behind the Yankees and Indians. 


In 1955, the White Sox placed third in the American League, behind the Yankees and Indians. 


In 1956, the White Sox placed third in the American League, behind the Yankees and Indians. 


In 1957, the White Sox placed second in the American League, behind the Yankees. 


In 1958, the White Sox placed second in the American League, behind the Yankees.


The White Sox’ longest period of success in team history happened to line up with the longest streak of consecutive winning seasons in MLB history. From 1926 to 1964, the Yankees would have a winning season every single year. They won 19 World Series titles during this stretch. 


It would take everything that the Sox could possibly bring to beat them. And in 1959, that was exactly what they got. 

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