Not since Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven others received lifetime banishments from baseball had White Sox fans suffered a collective depression akin to the one on October 8, 1959—Chicago’s beloved team from the South Side lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the transplanted team from Brooklyn in its second year of basking in the southern California sunshine. And so, the Windy City shrugged its big shoulders as a dream of a World Series championship became a daymare punctuated by the formidable batsmen from the City of Angeles.
With a 22-10 record, veteran right-hander Early Wynn propelled the White Sox to a World Series birth; Wynn’s number of wins led the major leagues in 1959. The man whom Ted Williams called “the toughest pitcher I ever faced” criticized the press as the White Sox prepared for Game Six, which turned out to be the deciding game. “They made us look like a lousy ball club just because we’ve had some bad experiences in that circus grounds they call a ball park out there,” said the 39-year-old hurler of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in an article penned by Richard Dozer for the Chicago Tribune. “They’ve been saying we ought to try to get into the their major league.”
This statement referred to the Continental League, an idea spearheaded by Branch Rickey. It ultimately failed, but gave rise to National League expansion in 1962 with the Houston Colt .45s (later Astros) and the New York Mets.
Game Six was Wynn’s third time taking the mound in the series. He blanked the Dodgers 11-0 in Game One, held at Comiskey Park. Though Wynn started Game Four, he did not get credited with the 5-4 loss.
Trailing the Dodgers three games to two, the White Sox were poised to even the series in Game Six. It was a crucial moment for Wynn et al. “The White Sox are in excellent position for pitching. Wynn worked only three innings, a victim of semi-liners, pop hits and fielding blunders by his teammates in a four-run third inning,” wrote Edward Press in the Chicago Tribune, absolving Wynn of blame for the Game Four loss. “So the 39-year-old butcher should be sharp. He is still dunking his elbow in the whirl pool.”
Alas, it was not meant to be for the White Sox. 1959 belonged to the Dodgers. Game Six secured the first World Series title for Los Angeles’s National League team, thanks to 13 hits and nine runs. Wynn took responsibility. “I threw some bad pitches,” said Wynn in an article by Robert Cromie for the Chicago Tribune. “But I did nothing different today. I thought I had pretty good stuff, and I wasn’t tired. There were no effects from the two-day rest or anything.”
Wynn’s ’59 performance earned him the Cy Young Award. It was the culmination of a season of excellence in the autumn of his playing years—he retired after the 1963 season with a lifetime 300-244 win-loss record.
Led by manager Al Lopez, the White Sox compiled a 94-60 record in 1959, spurred by future Hall of Famers Wynn, second baseman Nellie Fox, and shortstop Luis Aparicio. Fox racked up 191 hits, notched a .306 batting average, and led the major leagues in plate appearances (717). Aparicio’s prowess resulted in 157 hits, 98 runs scored, and a league-leading 56 stolen bases.
Lopez, himself a Hall of Famer, managed the Cleveland Indians from 1951 to 1956 and the White Sox from 1957 to 1969. The Hall of Fame inducted Lopez in 1977. When he took the reins in Chicago, the team became known as the “Go Go Sox” because of an emphasis on speed instead of power. Lopez lived just long enough to see the White Sox bring a World Series title to the South Side in 2005—the team’s first championship since 1917—he died four days later.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on April 29, 2016.