Wednesday, October 19, 2005
The 1959 White Sox fell to the Dodgers in six games.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Those "Go-Go Sox" stole more bases than they hit homers, were built for defense and speed, batted .250 as a team and had a 39-year-old as their ace.
When the White Sox last ended a four-decade pennant drought, the year was 1959: Castro came to power in Cuba, Alaska and Hawaii came on board as states, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened and a first-class stamp cost four cents.
It was also the year current Chicago coaches Harold Baines and Greg Walker were born.
Managed by Al Lopez, the White Sox featured the up-the-middle defense of shortstop Luis Aparicio and steady second baseman Nellie Fox and the pitching of 22-game winner Early Wynn -- all Hall of Famers. These White Sox sent a baseball-hungry town into a tizzy.
Celebration
When they beat the Cleveland Indians to win their first AL pennant since the scandal-scarred "Black Sox" in 1919, air raid sirens went off in the city.
"When we came back at 2 o'clock in the morning -- there are forty or fifty-thousand people at Midway Airport -- that was tremendous," left-handed pitcher Billy Pierce recalled Tuesday.
"Then, we were driving home in a taxicab. It was 2:30 by that time or 2:45, and the lawns had flares on them. People were sitting on their porches."
Earlier, people went rushing into the streets, not necessarily to celebrate but because there was a Cold War going on with the Soviet Union and not everyone was sure why the sirens were sounding at night.
"After 40 years of waiting for a pennant in the American League, I assume that everyone who was watching the telecast was happy about the White Sox's victory," mayor Richard J. Daley said in the Chicago Tribune, adding that the sirens were sounded "in the hilarity and exuberance of the evening."
Back in the Fall Classic
Now 46 years later, Daley's son, Richard M., is running the city and finally the White Sox are back in the Fall Classic to face St. Louis or Houston, beginning Saturday.
There are plenty of differences, some similarities, too.
The 1959 team, like the current one, was very good in one-run games, going 35-15. This year's team is 37-20, including the playoffs.
Wynn was the ace and won the Cy Young. Fox hit .306 and was the MVP. Jim Landis patrolled center field with grace, catcher Sherm Lollar hit 22 of the team's 97 homers -- last in the AL -- and Aparicio had 56 of the league-best 113 stolen bases.
They made a great late-season pickup by getting Ted Kluszewski, who had 10 RBIs and three homers in a six-game World Series loss to the Dodgers.
Coming up short
The White Sox won the opener 11-0 behind two homers from Kluszewski, lost the next three, and beat Sandy Koufax before 92,706 at the Coliseum 1-0 before the Dodgers defeated Wynn in the Game 6 clincher at Comiskey Park.
In one of baseball's most memorable pictures, left fielder Al Smith got a beer bath from a fan as he was chasing a home run by Charley Neal in a Game 2 loss at Comiskey.
"I thought we had a very good team, player for player, against the Dodgers. When we won the first game 11-0, I figured, 'Boy, this going to be it,' " Pierce said. "It didn't turn out that way, but I still think we had a great ballclub."
Landis and Pierce were watching Sunday when the current White Sox finished off the Los Angeles Angels in the AL championship series, thrilled that the long wait since they were in the spotlight is finally over.
"What can you say? The Red Sox waited so many years. The White Sox waited so many years, and they're there now," Landis said.
"You never know when. Some people think [1959] was a fluke. Well, I don't feel that way. I always say the '59 team was a great club, and three Hall of Famers came from that club so that's a pretty good indication."
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