1976 American League Pennant

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, before demolishing and rebuilding Comiskey Park in 1990, which is now known as Rate Field. 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.

In Their Own Story

October 1976. The last out of the World Series. Comiskey Park is a pressure cooker of noise, the outfield grass still damp from an afternoon rain that never quite broke. Fingers steps to the mound for the final strike, the crowd a single thunderous wave. The Reds batter swings, misses, and the catcher's mitt snaps shut. The dugout erupts—Lindblad is already on the field, Aparicio is pulling his glove off and waving it at the stands, Oliva is running the baseline with his arms spread wide. Someone is crying in the third base bleachers. A kid in a too-big Sox cap is being carried on his father's shoulders. The scoreboard reads 4–0, and for one long, golden minute, Chicago belongs to the White Sox.

Reader's Guide

From 1901 to 2025, the White Sox have an overall win-loss record of 9,654–9,714–103 (.498). The team's home games are played at Rate Field on Chicago's South Side.

Did You Know?

• The White Sox were originally called the Chicago White Stockings when they joined the American League in 1901.
• The team's 1906 World Series victory over the Cubs is known as the 'Hitless Wonders' championship.
• The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 led to eight players being banned for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
• The White Sox did not win another World Series after 1917 until 2005, a drought of 88 seasons.
• In 1976, the White Sox finished 64-97, fifth in the AL West, while the New York Yankees won the pennant and were swept by the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.