Chicago White Sox Baseball
The Chicago White Sox were one of the original American League franchises. They were originally called the White Stockings when they started back in 1900. Early on, they were one of the league’s favorite teams upsetting the highly favored Cubs in the 1906 World Series. The Chicago White Stockings only had a .230 batting average that season with only seven homeruns.
The Chicago team was plagued with a scandal in 1919. The Chicago White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, in which the Sox played uninspired baseball. They had not done this often during an 88-52 regular season. What turned up later is that eight players — Joe Jackson, Happy Felsch, Eddie Cicotte, Buck Weaver, "Swede" Risberg, Claude "Lefty" Williams and Fred McMullen — allegedly grew tired of owner Charles Comiskey's thrifty ways and decided to accept money from gamblers to "fix" the World Series. The commissioner banned the players from the game in 1921 and the 1919 White Sox team forever became known as the “Black Sox”.
In late September 2005, the White Sox were labeled chokers, as the hard-charging Cleveland Indians whittled what had once been a 15-game lead in the AL Central division down to 1 1/2 games. But, the White Sox were finally able to end their 88-year championship drought in 2005. They swept the Houston Astros in what was thought to be a very evenly matched World Series.
Comiskey Park - U.S. Cellular Field
The new Comiskey Park opened on April 18, 1991. The new park featured an exploding scoreboard, an old-time facade complete with arches and over 40,000 unobstructed-view seats.
In place of one of baseball’s oldest parks, the White Sox now have one of the most high-tech stadiums in the game. The 1,300,000-square-foot stadium has 12 escalators, 11 elevators, three industrial-strength garbage compactors, a fireworks launching pad beyond center field, and six outdoor pet-check kennels. The retired uniform numbers of eight players are displayed at U.S. Cellular Field: Nellie Fox (2), Harold Baines (3), Luke Appling (4), Minnie Minoso (9), Luis Aparicio (11), Ted Lyons (16), Billy Pierce (19) and Carlton Fisk (72).
U.S. Cellular Field contains 84 luxury skyboxes. The large scoreboard in center field replicates the one designed by Bill Veeck at the old Comiskey Park. The infield dirt was transported from the old park. U.S. Cellular Field was the site of the 2003 All-Star game.