John Washburn

As I write this in mid-June, the Chicago White Sox have the worst record in Major League Baseball.  It’s not even close. Their record puts them eight games behind the team with the next worst record.  I haven’t really followed baseball very closely for a long time, but such a record does seem noteworthy.   

When I was much younger, I was an avid fan of the White Sox.  I had a team jacket, collected too many baseball cards--which have gone to wherever duplicate Frank Howard baseball cards go--and checked the sports page daily in hopes of finding that somebody on the White Sox was among the league leaders in some category. 

The White Sox were not always so awful as they seem to be today.  When I was eight in 1959, the “Go Go Sox” made it to the World Series, only to go down to defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.   Having taken the Dodgers to six games, there was reason for hope, and my dad took my brother and me to Opening Day at Comiskey Park in 1960.

In those years, the White Sox were owned by Bill Veeck, one of baseball’s most creative promoters.   As owner of the St. Louis Browns, he had once sent a player named Eddie Gaedel to the plate. Gaedel-- 3 ft. 7inches tall and 60 pounds--was walked on four straight pitches and then pulled for a pinch runner.  Veeck’s inventiveness did not stop when he became the owner of the Sox.  He was responsible for the “exploding scoreboard,” which erupted with fireworks whenever a White Sox player hit a home run.  As I recall, he also had a little pipe installed in the middle of home plate which could be raised like a periscope on a submarine to blow the dust off. 

All of which brings me to my collection of tickets stubs.

In addition to the ceremonial raising of the American League pennant, Opening Day 1960 introduced another Veeck innovation.  Starting with that game the White Sox tickets featured pictures of players—turning ticket stubs into instant souvenirs. My ticket –shown here--featured the photo and vital statistics of the legendary Orestes “Minnie” Minoso, a fan favorite who was returning to the team after two years in Cleveland.

Although that was pretty cool by itself, it was Minoso’s performance that day that turned the ticket stub into something special.  Early in the game, Minoso hit a grand slam home run to the thrill of the packed house. Then, coming up to bat in the bottom of the ninth, he homered again to win the game.  What more could a fan ask for? 

I have other ticket stubs with the pictures of Sox greats Early Wynn, Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, and others (though sadly no Luis Aparicio), but the Minoso ticket stub is the only one that brings back any memory of what actually happened at a game. 

Despite that auspicious beginning to the 1960 season and some good seasons after that when the Sox finished high in the standings, the White Sox never made it back to the World Series until 2005, when they managed to win it all.  That championship ended the longest World Series drought in American League history—88 years. 

Can you guess what team from either league holds the record for longest championship drought of 108 years?  If you said, “the Cubs,” you are right. They went from 1908 to 2016 without winning a World Series.

I guess it’s some comfort that both Chicago teams won it all at least once in my lifetime.