Go-Go Sox

Lore & Background

In 1959, the team won its first pennant in 40 years, thanks to the efforts of several eventual Hall of Famers – manager Al López, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox (the league MVP), and pitcher Early Wynn, who won the Cy Young Award. Veteran catcher Sherm Lollar led the team in home runs and RBIs. The White Sox acquired slugger Ted Kluszewski in August from the Pittsburgh Pirates. After the pennant-clinching victory, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley ordered the city's air raid sirens set off, causing fear and confusion during the Cold War. The Sox won Game 1 of the World Series 11–0, their last postseason home win until 2005. The Los Angeles Dodgers won three of the next four games and captured their first World Series championship since moving to the west coast in 1958. 92,706 fans witnessed Game 5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the most ever to attend a World Series game. The White Sox won that game 1–0 over Sandy Koufax, but the Dodgers clinched the series 9–3 two days later at Comiskey Park.

In Their Own Story

The July heat sits on the South Side like a wet wool blanket. The bleachers at Guaranteed Rate Field are packed shoulder to shoulder, the air thick with the smell of hot dogs, spilled beer, and the particular ozone tang of a Chicago summer. The Sox are down two runs in the bottom of the seventh. The pitcher walks to the mound, and the crowd—fourteen thousand, twenty thousand, a sea of navy and white—drops into the stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Clap. The rhythm finds you in the chest before your brain catches up. A woman three rows ahead, maybe sixty, maybe seventy, slaps her palms together on the beat, eyes closed, mouthing the words. Her kid, maybe eight, stomps his sneakers on the concrete, grinning, not quite understanding why his whole body is shaking. The pitcher throws. The batter swings. And for one suspended second, the South Side holds its breath, then detonates—or doesn't—and the stomp starts again, louder, because the Go-Go Sox does not stop. It never stops. It just waits for the next pitch.

Reader's Guide

The 1959 White Sox are known as the Go-Go Sox, emphasizing speed and defense. Key players included Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Early Wynn, Sherm Lollar, and Ted Kluszewski. The team's Opening Day lineup featured Aparicio, Fox, Jim Landis, Lollar, Norm Cash, Al Smith, Johnny Callison, Bubba Phillips, and Billy Pierce. Notable transactions included the trade for Kluszewski on August 25, 1959, and the return of Claude Raymond to the Milwaukee Braves on May 11, 1959.

Did You Know?

• Nellie Fox became the last player in the 20th century to have five hits on Opening Day.
• Al López was the only manager to interrupt the New York Yankees pennant run between 1949 and 1964, having also managed the Cleveland Indians to the World Series in 1954.
• The White Sox won Game 1 of the 1959 World Series 11–0, their last postseason home win until 2005.