2008 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

The October air in Fenway was thin and sharp, the kind that makes a bat feel heavier in your hands. Pierzynski stepped in with the Sox trailing, the Red Sox crowd a wall of crimson noise. He swung. The ball left the barrel on a line that seemed to graze the foul pole, and for one heartbeat the stadium exhaled in relief. Then the umpire raised his fist — foul. The Sox dugout went quiet. Then the umpire turned, walked toward the field, and the whole ballpark held its breath. Three seconds. Five. The call flipped. The dugout detonated. Pierzynski pointed at the sky, and somewhere in the stands a man in a windbreaker who'd been a Sox fan since 1983 pressed his hand to his chest and whispered, "We're going back." The pennant was two games away, and the city of Chicago was already dreaming.

Reader's Guide

Pierzynski's performance, or the 2008 World Series. Therefore, no details about these events can be included.

Did You Know?

• The White Sox originated as the Sioux City Cornhuskers in 1894.
• The team shortened its name to the White Sox in 1904.
• The White Sox won the 1906 World Series against the Cubs.
• The 1919 World Series was marred by the Black Sox Scandal.
• The White Sox won their third championship in 2005 against the Houston Astros.