Why I Hope The White Sox Lose The World Series

“I became a Sox fan for one simple reason. It was bat day and I received a bat. I thought it was the coolest thing ever…” my eldest brother Louie reminiscing on how he discovered the Chicago White Sox at age 4/5.

By now the world knows; the Chicago White Sox have won the baseball pennant for the American League. Big fat hairy deal! But of course to south-siders in Chicago, it’s a huge deal.

Whatever was supposed to happen during the playoffs this year didn’t happen; last year’s world championship team the Boston Red Sox were eliminated almost immediately by the Chicago White Sox; the New York Yankees fell like a house of cards to the Los Angeles Angels; granted it was a given to the St. Louis Cardinals who easily swept past the San Diego Padres, but the Houston Astros eliminating the Atlanta Braves? That’s maddening!

Of course, the trouble with living on the north side of Chicago, northern suburbs, rather, is that one can get pigeonholed for being a Chicago Cubs fan, which I am no longer. I gave up on them when they kept letting themselves as a team, lose constantly and terribly, even if they managed to get into the playoffs, which they’ve done a number of times, but never end up anywhere.

The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox fans have always pitted themselves against each other and I guarantee it 100 percent; whether the Sox win or lose, fans will hold it against each other’s throats…I know at least my big brother Louie will against me.

So my philosophy is simple; I like any team that can beat the Chicago Cubs and the same holds true for the Chicago White Sox. Yep, I was rooting for the Boston Red Sox; they were truly a great team last year and I have no clue as to what transpired this year in the playoffs, other than that they lost big time.

And yes, I rooted for the New York Yankees to beat the Los Angeles Angels so they could face the Chicago White Sox and pummel them righteously. Of course that didn’t happen. And I rooted for the Los Angeles Angels to cream the Chicago White Sox and sadly, that didn’t transpire either.

Just because the Chicago White Sox made a playoff berth, doesn’t mean they will go all of the way and win. The last time they made it into the World Series was when Dwight D. Eisenhower was nearly finished with his presidency, that being the year of 1959. Ironically, there was a Mayor Daley in office then, as there is now.


But the Chicago White Sox still have some overwhelming oddities to get past, such as the great baseball scandal of 1919, that put them in the history books for life (check out www.1919blacksox.com) , two years after they won the baseball championship for the last time in 1917. The Black Sox scandal of 1919 consisted of eight players from the Chicago White Sox (later appropriately nicknamed The Black Sox) who were accused of throwing the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The scandal made headlines across America and even as the eight men were acquitted of criminal charges, all eight men including; “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams; infielders Buck Weaver, Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Fred McMullin, and Charles "Swede" Risberg, plus outfielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch were subsequently banned from professional baseball for life.

Is it any coincidence that the White Sox’s current team logo is black, almost as if to celebrate a part of history that brought them down decades earlier? Is it also coincidental that from that same Cincinnati Reds organization years later, came baseball great Pete Rose, who was also accused of betting on games, but never criminally charged, yet was found guilty from tax evasion and banned from professional baseball for life.

So now my hope lies with is the National League. I am praying hard that the St. Louis Cardinals will overcome their being behind two games and beat back the Houston Astros and then pummel the Chicago White Sox in four straight games.

Maybe the Pope can get a message out to God’s Angels and tell HIM to fix things up properly between the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals (that’s the Pope’s favorite team, FYI), so that the St. Louis Cardinals can win triumphantly over the Houston Astros and then pummel the Chicago White Sox.

That’s my hope, anyway.