vorosmccracken: These Aren’t My Father’s White Sox

Good stuff from Voros here (including that picture of Nellie Fox dumping out a gritty gaedelkin)...

That said it’s important to note that this is the Chicago White Sox were talking about. In 1928 Lou Gehrig had an off year and only hit 27 Homers. That was three more than the White Sox did that year. This is a team that’s been around since 1901 and Jose Valentin is 10th all time in the team Home Run list. In 1987 Harold Baines set the All-Time White Sox Home Run mark, breaking Bill Melton’s record, when he hit his 155th home run of his career. Every player that’s ever hit 40 homers for the White Sox has played for the team within the last 10 years. Ozzie Guillen is 9th all time in total bases. The White Sox franchise spent 1921-1976 resisting Babe Ruth with varying degrees of seriousness until 1977 put an end to that fruitless endeavor.

The old time White Sox fans always viewed “wait for the homer” baseball to be the flavor on the north side and felt it was beneath them. They’d cheer sacrifice flies the way the Cubs fans cheered home runs. I think there may be just a tiny little bit of that era still lingering where a few of the White Sox faithful long for the return of the most consistently successful White Sox teams ever: the Go Go Sox of the 1950s and early 60s. Guys running all over the damn place is exciting, there’s no doubt about that. However, it’s worth noting that teams of that ilk often win more than “expected” due largely because those teams also tend to play exceptional defense.