TommyJohn
10-01-2004, 08:16 PM
I know there was a thread on this a while ago, but I want to start another one. We have been predictably inundated by the Chicago media and "Is this the most disappointing Cubbie season ever? Ever ever ever? I am ready to gag. So I am offering an alternative. Almost. I am asking what was the most disappointing White Sox season ever ever ever. Or at least since 1959, the last time that Chicago played in the World Series. After all, us White Sox fans have suffered greatly too, ya know. Not as much as people who deal daily with famine and pestilence, but it's up there. I know I shouldn't be Cubantic about this, but what the hell. Of course, the CMA's (sneering Chicago Media Asses) will tell us that we haven't come as close as their Cubbies, no one cares about us, and people get mugged in our ghetto ballpark. Still, I care, so I am writing this. But I also wonder what was the most memorable moment from those years? After all, it was Jean Shepard (I think) who once said that White Sox fans measure victory in terms of defeat.
The nominees:
1964: Peter Sellers was having trouble controlling his arm, Slim Pickens was
riding to his doom on a nuclear bomb (screaming YE-HAH!! all the way),
Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and the White Sox came achingly
close to the American League pennant. They lost their first 10 games to the
Yankees and finished 1 game back. They were actually about 4 games back
going into their last nine, which they won to make the final margin a little
closer than it actually was. Still, win one or two of those games against the
Yankees and it is a different season.
Memorable moments: Dave Nicholson's over-the-roof home run, four game
sweep of Yankees in August. A memorable, seldom-mentioned gaffe by
Jim Bouton was a highlight of that series. But the Yankees won the pennant
so it didn't matter.
1967: The Summer of Love. Vietnam was in full swing. Eddie Stanky was in
the dugout and the White Sox were at the end of an era, their last of 17
straight winning seasons. They were in the midst of a 4 team pennant race
for the entire season, even with a team batting average of .225 and only
89 team home runs. Pitching was the key to this team, as in Gary Peters,
Joel Horlen and Tommy John, complimented by a bullpen of Hoyt Wilhelm,
Bob Locker and Wilbur Wood. They held first place for over 60 days, holding
off Boston, Minnesota, Detroit and their sexy big boppers. That is, until the
final weekend of the season.
(To the tune of Everything's up-to-date in Kansas City)
Twi-night double header in Kansas City,
half-a-game behind with five to goooooo,
the A's are down in last place, worst team in the league.
Who the heck's Joe Rudi? Sal Bandoooooo?
Winning two from them is a just a gimme,
then they go on home to clinch the flaaaaaag,
Peters and Horlen, rested, ready-to-go
sittin' pretty, hey it's in the baaaaaaag!
That's as far as I can get now. Rodgers and Hammerstein I ain't. Anyway,
many Sox fans know what happened next. Two losses to KC, then on to
home to get swept by Washington Senators II. They finish 3 games back
of Boston, thus allowing their "Impossible Dream" to come true. Of course,
Boston loses the World Series, and Bosox fans have been impossible to deal
with ever since. Soxers Tommie Agee, Don Buford, J.C. Martin and Al Weis
destined for World Series greatness elsewhere.
Memorable moments: Horlen's no-hitter, Tommie McCraw's three home run
game vs. Minnesota, Eddie Stanky's countless verbal jabs and his locking
the Vice-President of the United States out of the locker room at the end
of a loss in Minnesota. Imagine a scum Sox manager doing that today.
1972: The '70's. Polyester. Leisure suits. Shaggy haircuts. Don McLean.
Bell bottoms. The Godfather. In 1972, The Brady Bunch was still on the
air, two years away from being consigned to Rerun Heaven. And the
White Sox challenged the mighty Oakland A's.
Robert Redford was still 12 years away from starring in the film adaptation of
The Natural, about an ungodly slugger who takes a second division team and
lifts them into pennant contention, but the 1972 White Sox lived their very
own version of that story.
He was Dick Allen, acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He now
was with a team that had gone 56-106 and 79-83 the past two seasons. With
his bat in the lineup, the Sox surprised baseball by breathing down the necks of
the A's, even claiming first place for a while. Wilbur Wood, Carlos May and
Stan Bahnsen also contributed mightily to the cause. They would fall achingly short
of course, 5.5 games back. Allen, though, was Roy Hobbs incarnate, with 37 HR's,
113 RBI's and a .308 batting average. The MVP vote was a formality. Still, what
could've been. Bill Melton hurt his back in the off-season and was finally sidelined
after he played in 57 games.
Memorable moments: Dick Allen's game-winning pinch-hit blast off Sparky
Lyle of the Yankees, Dick Allen's monster bleacher shot against the Yanks,
Dick Allen's two inside-the-park homers in Minnesota, Dick Allen. This
season should've ended with Allen crushing a pennant-clinching home run
off one of the Comiskey light towers, then jogging around the bases in slow
motion as his teammates celebrated and sparks flew everywhere.
1977: Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and The Love Boat and Howard Cosell
were on ABC. Yikes! How did we ever get through it all? Anyway, Bill Veeck was back
in town, Harry and Jimmy were in the Sox booth and the White Sox were two years
away from Disco Demolition (do I owe Steve Dahl a royalty?) infamy.
This was also the year that the South Side Hitmen went on an amazing
run and almost took the AL West. The Rag-tag White Sox vs. The Rolls
Royce Yankees for the American League pennant. Oh, what a series that
could've been. Howard Cosell would've been speechless trying to come up
with phrases to describe it. Alas. 90-72, 12 games back. Hitting galore, but
not enough pitching.
Memorable moments: Richie Zisk. Oscar Gamble. Curtain Calls. Outslugging
Kansas City. Hitting hitting hitting. One forgotten stat: They were only shut
out twice that year, the first time in September by Nolan Ryan.
The nominees:
1964: Peter Sellers was having trouble controlling his arm, Slim Pickens was
riding to his doom on a nuclear bomb (screaming YE-HAH!! all the way),
Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and the White Sox came achingly
close to the American League pennant. They lost their first 10 games to the
Yankees and finished 1 game back. They were actually about 4 games back
going into their last nine, which they won to make the final margin a little
closer than it actually was. Still, win one or two of those games against the
Yankees and it is a different season.
Memorable moments: Dave Nicholson's over-the-roof home run, four game
sweep of Yankees in August. A memorable, seldom-mentioned gaffe by
Jim Bouton was a highlight of that series. But the Yankees won the pennant
so it didn't matter.
1967: The Summer of Love. Vietnam was in full swing. Eddie Stanky was in
the dugout and the White Sox were at the end of an era, their last of 17
straight winning seasons. They were in the midst of a 4 team pennant race
for the entire season, even with a team batting average of .225 and only
89 team home runs. Pitching was the key to this team, as in Gary Peters,
Joel Horlen and Tommy John, complimented by a bullpen of Hoyt Wilhelm,
Bob Locker and Wilbur Wood. They held first place for over 60 days, holding
off Boston, Minnesota, Detroit and their sexy big boppers. That is, until the
final weekend of the season.
(To the tune of Everything's up-to-date in Kansas City)
Twi-night double header in Kansas City,
half-a-game behind with five to goooooo,
the A's are down in last place, worst team in the league.
Who the heck's Joe Rudi? Sal Bandoooooo?
Winning two from them is a just a gimme,
then they go on home to clinch the flaaaaaag,
Peters and Horlen, rested, ready-to-go
sittin' pretty, hey it's in the baaaaaaag!
That's as far as I can get now. Rodgers and Hammerstein I ain't. Anyway,
many Sox fans know what happened next. Two losses to KC, then on to
home to get swept by Washington Senators II. They finish 3 games back
of Boston, thus allowing their "Impossible Dream" to come true. Of course,
Boston loses the World Series, and Bosox fans have been impossible to deal
with ever since. Soxers Tommie Agee, Don Buford, J.C. Martin and Al Weis
destined for World Series greatness elsewhere.
Memorable moments: Horlen's no-hitter, Tommie McCraw's three home run
game vs. Minnesota, Eddie Stanky's countless verbal jabs and his locking
the Vice-President of the United States out of the locker room at the end
of a loss in Minnesota. Imagine a scum Sox manager doing that today.
1972: The '70's. Polyester. Leisure suits. Shaggy haircuts. Don McLean.
Bell bottoms. The Godfather. In 1972, The Brady Bunch was still on the
air, two years away from being consigned to Rerun Heaven. And the
White Sox challenged the mighty Oakland A's.
Robert Redford was still 12 years away from starring in the film adaptation of
The Natural, about an ungodly slugger who takes a second division team and
lifts them into pennant contention, but the 1972 White Sox lived their very
own version of that story.
He was Dick Allen, acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He now
was with a team that had gone 56-106 and 79-83 the past two seasons. With
his bat in the lineup, the Sox surprised baseball by breathing down the necks of
the A's, even claiming first place for a while. Wilbur Wood, Carlos May and
Stan Bahnsen also contributed mightily to the cause. They would fall achingly short
of course, 5.5 games back. Allen, though, was Roy Hobbs incarnate, with 37 HR's,
113 RBI's and a .308 batting average. The MVP vote was a formality. Still, what
could've been. Bill Melton hurt his back in the off-season and was finally sidelined
after he played in 57 games.
Memorable moments: Dick Allen's game-winning pinch-hit blast off Sparky
Lyle of the Yankees, Dick Allen's monster bleacher shot against the Yanks,
Dick Allen's two inside-the-park homers in Minnesota, Dick Allen. This
season should've ended with Allen crushing a pennant-clinching home run
off one of the Comiskey light towers, then jogging around the bases in slow
motion as his teammates celebrated and sparks flew everywhere.
1977: Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and The Love Boat and Howard Cosell
were on ABC. Yikes! How did we ever get through it all? Anyway, Bill Veeck was back
in town, Harry and Jimmy were in the Sox booth and the White Sox were two years
away from Disco Demolition (do I owe Steve Dahl a royalty?) infamy.
This was also the year that the South Side Hitmen went on an amazing
run and almost took the AL West. The Rag-tag White Sox vs. The Rolls
Royce Yankees for the American League pennant. Oh, what a series that
could've been. Howard Cosell would've been speechless trying to come up
with phrases to describe it. Alas. 90-72, 12 games back. Hitting galore, but
not enough pitching.
Memorable moments: Richie Zisk. Oscar Gamble. Curtain Calls. Outslugging
Kansas City. Hitting hitting hitting. One forgotten stat: They were only shut
out twice that year, the first time in September by Nolan Ryan.