The History of the Chicago White Sox - Part 9

         We kind of got ahead of ourselves in the last part. I was so determined to highlight how absolutely ridiculous Bill Veeck’s life was, I skipped about 20 years of history without talking about baseball. Let’s back things up to right after the 1959 World Series and see what the most entertaining owner in team history put on the field. 

The White Sox finished second in the AL five times in nine years from 1957 to 1965, and they were rewarded with absolutely nothing. The Sox were by no means the only team to suffer a fate like this, but they were one of the more notable examples. Eventually, by 1969, MLB had decided that the postseason would expand past the World Series. Each league would be split into two divisions, and the winner of each division would play each other for the right to represent their league in the World Series. The White Sox would now be fighting in the A.L. West, far away from the Yankees. Or at least, they would be if the go-go era hadn’t collapsed by then. 

The wheels completely fell off in 1968, when the team went 67-95 in the last season before the change to divisions. Aparicio returning to the team after five years in Baltimore did absolutely nothing for the team other than sell a ton of tickets. These teams were absolutely terrible. The go-go sox got the job done through speed, defense, and pitching. These teams in the late sixties kept the pitching, but the defense was only good, not great, and the speed was completely gone. Turns out you need to score runs to win a game of baseball. 

Attendance plummeted after the ‘68 season, and the team spent the rest of the sixties and most of the seventies as a rudderless ship. The team couldn’t build anything sustainable, and there was a good reason for that. Free agency. 

The way that MLB had worked since its inception was that a player could only negotiate contract extensions with their own teams. The only way that MLB players could change teams would be if they were traded. If you didn’t like the offer that your old team gave you for your new contract, tough luck. Your options are to either take the deal or retire. In 1972, a player named Curt Flood decided to do something about this. Flood sued MLB under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court. The court sided with the league, but it changed the way that MLB players thought about their contracts. A strike in 1972, a lockout in 1973, and finally, another lockout in 1975 led to the 1976 collective bargaining agreement that established free agency mostly as we know it today. 

After a certain amount of time on a rookie deal, MLB players would now be free to sign with whatever organization they wanted to. They didn’t want to sign with the White Sox very often. 

The Sox struggled a lot in the new free agency era. They felt the impact of free agency before it even started. In 1975, the team’s best player was Rich “Goose” Gossage. His contract would expire after the 1976 season once free agency was implemented, and the Sox couldn’t afford the massive payment that he would get, so they traded him away. 

1975 was also the year that Veeck repurchased the team, saving them from being moved to Seattle. As far as sports team owners go, even at the time, Veeck was poor. “Poor” in this context meaning millions instead of billions. Veeck, as he always did, hatched a scheme to deal with this. Veeck would acquire players who were in their last seasons before entering free agency. These players, wanting to look good and earn a big payday, would have incredible seasons. Veeck wouldn’t be able to pay them and keep them around, but he could take advantage of other teams in the same situation. This plan went into action in the buildup to the 1977 season. Veeck acquired Larry Anderson, Eric Soderholm, Royle Stillman, Richie Zisk, Silvio Martinez, and Fritz Peterson, all with no intention of keeping them around. 

This is why the Sox never built anything long-term during this era. Veeck counted on a constantly rotating roster made up of extremely highly motivated players chasing big deals. 

How did it go? 

The White Sox finished in third place in the AL West that year, missing the playoffs. It would seem that Veeck’s plan was a failure, but if winning isn’t your measure of success, things start to look very different. This team hit a lot of home runs. They broke the franchise record for home runs hit in a season. It seemed that this team was the opposite of the late sixties teams. Those teams could do everything but hit. These teams could do nothing but hit. Their poor pitching and great hitting created high-scoring shootouts that thrilled fans. Between Veeck’s exploding scoreboard and this being the first year of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” being played, the atmosphere at Comiskey Park was never better. 

Those loud fans made the White Sox pioneers in another MLB tradition: the curtain call. When fans continue to cheer long after a play is over, a player may come back out of the dugout and acknowledge the fans. It’s kind of like taking a bow at the end of a show. Nowadays this is pretty common after great performances, but back then it had a lot of opposition. Opposing teams, especially the Kansas City Royals, felt that the White Sox were vain, showboating to the fans and not taking baseball seriously. It kind of goes back to that “unwritten rules” debate around Tim Anderson from all the way back in part 0. This was the first time that the Sox were in one of those situations. 

Fans packed the stadium all year long to see the “South Side Hitmen” play. It also helped that they spent most of the year in a heated race for the AL West title with the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins. Even though they fell apart down the stretch and finished twelve games back, this season was absolutely magical. It created a generation of White Sox fans and renewed interest in the team after the down period of the late sixties. On the scale of winning, there have been many better seasons in the team's history. On the scale of fun, though? It’s one of the best years the team’s ever had. 

The party wouldn’t last for long, though. Those players did indeed walk after the ‘77 season, and their replacements weren’t as good. It’s hard work for a team to replace so many players every year, even if they’re working for a big contract. Veeck sold the team for the last time not long after in 1981, after he realized that he didn’t have the financial means to compete in the free agent era. 

    Something that did last from the 1977 season, however, was something more special than any one player. An identity. For the past 75-ish years, the White Sox had been one thing after another, never settling. The team’s logo would change every decade or so, and so would the team’s culture. From this point on, though, things finally started to slow down. The red, white, and blue logo and color scheme that the team adopted in 1976 would stick around for a while, and the team’s culture would stay longer than that. 

1977 was the beginning of the White Sox culture that we know today. Other teams hated the curtain calls so much that it led to a fistfight on the field against the Royals. Veeck was one of the only owners to side with Flood in his case. The scoreboard and songs created an incredible ballpark atmosphere. This formed the bedrock of what would become the White Sox brand. Gritty, loud, and rebellious. After decades as nomads, the White Sox are about to start an exercise in culture building. 

Keep an eye out for it in the rest of this series.