Cleveland Guardians

From the 1959 pennant race to the corked bat and the 2023 brawl: Cleveland and the South Side.

The Cleveland Guardians count the Chicago White Sox among their rivals, a rivalry the Guardians' club history dates to the 1959 season, when the Sox slipped past the Indians to win the American League pennant, finishing five games ahead of Cleveland. It intensified when both clubs were placed in the newly created AL Central in 1994: that season the Indians were one game behind Chicago when the players' strike ended the schedule in August, and during a game in Chicago the White Sox confiscated Albert Belle's corked bat, after which Indians pitcher Jason Grimsley tried to crawl through the Comiskey Park clubhouse ceiling to retrieve it.

Belle signed with the White Sox in 1997, adding more heat. In 2005 the Sox led the division by 15 games in July, saw Cleveland cut the lead to a single game late in the season, then swept a three-game series to close the year, won the division by six games and went on to win the World Series.

Quick Facts

Established: 1896
Current league: American League
Division: Central Division
Past division: East Division
Nicknames: Guards
Ballpark: Progressive Field
World champions: 1920, 1948
Pennants: 1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997, 2016

Facts from the source article.

Background

On August 5, 2023, Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez and Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson set off a bench-clearing brawl after Anderson tagged Ramírez; Anderson tried to punch Ramírez, who knocked him down with a right hook, and the two were suspended five and two games respectively. In 2000 the White Sox won the AL Central by five games over the second-place Indians.