The "Sox" identity

Lore & Background

The White Sox originated in the Western League, founded as the Sioux City Cornhuskers in 1894, moving to Saint Paul, Minnesota, as the Saint Paul Saints, and ultimately relocating to Chicago in 1900. The Chicago White Stockings were one of the American League's eight charter franchises when the AL asserted major league status in 1901. The team, which shortened its name to the White Sox in 1904, originally played their home games at South Side Park before moving to Comiskey Park in 1910. Comiskey Park was demolished in 1991 after the new ballpark opened; the current ballpark, now known as Rate Field, is a completely new stadium built adjacent to the original site.

In Their Own Story

It is a Tuesday in late September, 1987, and the wind off the lake is cutting through the stands at Comiskey Park. You are in the upper deck, third base side, where the seats are cracked vinyl and the concrete under your sneakers is cold even in August. The air smells like the particular mix of hot dog grease, spilled beer, and the faint chemical tang of the South Side streets beyond the outfield wall. Somewhere below, in the concession stand, a woman is arguing with a teenager about the price of a nacho. A kid your age is balancing a bat on his knee, pretending to take a swing, and his mother is calling his name from two rows back.

The game is a tie in the eighth. You are not a big fan. You came because your uncle came every Tuesday, and his uncle before him, and the ticket stubs are in a shoebox in the basement of the house on 23rd that you will not live in for much longer. The pitcher winds up. The ball crosses the plate. You do not remember the pitch. You remember the sound of the crowd — not a roar, a long, low, collective exhale, like a neighborhood holding its breath and finally letting go. You remember the weight of the bat the kid next to you is still pretending to swing. You remember that the white socks of the batter in the box are the same white socks your uncle wore to work on Saturdays, and that this is what it means to be from here: the white is not a color. It is a promise that you will come back next Tuesday, and the one after, and the one after that, even when the team is bad, even when the team is gone, even when the neighborhood is changing around you. The Sox are not a team. They are the Tuesday. They are the shoebox. They are the white.

Reader's Guide

The White Sox won their first World Series, the 1906 World Series against the Cubs, with a defense-oriented team dubbed "the Hitless Wonders", and later won the 1917 World Series against the New York Giants. Their next appearance, the 1919 World Series, was marred by the Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the White Sox were found to have conspired with gamblers to fix games and lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. In response, the new Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned the players from the league for life. The White Sox have only made two World Series appearances since the scandal. The first came in 1959, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, before they finally won their third championship in 2005 against the Houston Astros. The 88 seasons it took the White Sox to win the World Series stands as the longest MLB championship drought in the American League, and the second longest in both leagues, to the Cubs' 108 seasons. From 1901 to 2025, the White Sox have an overall win-loss record of 9,654–9,714–103 (.498).

Did You Know?

• The White Sox are known as the "South Siders" because their home park is located on Chicago's South Side.
• The team shortened its name from the Chicago White Stockings to the White Sox in 1904.
• The White Sox won the 1906 World Series against the Cubs, earning the nickname "the Hitless Wonders".
• The 1919 World Series was fixed by eight White Sox players in the Black Sox Scandal.
• The White Sox's 88-season championship drought is the longest in the American League.