No longer will the 1917 White Sox be known as the last world champion produced by the franchise. Yet those Sox always will have a prominent place in team history–for good and bad.
On Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1917, the world never seemed brighter for the White Sox. Behind pitcher Red Faber, the Sox took a 4-2 victory over the New York Giants to win the World Series in six games.
The title looked to be the beginning of a dynasty. Instead, the Sox were on the verge of baseball’s worst scandal and a championship drought that lasted 88 years.
Game 6
This was Faber’s series. The future Hall of Famer went the distance for a 7-2 victory in Game 2. Then after losing 5-0 in Game 4, he got the Game 5 victory by pitching two innings of relief in the Sox’s 8-5 triumph.
Manager Clarence “Pants” Rowland sent Faber out to the mound two days later in New York. Again, he was tough, limiting the Giants to only six hits and two walks. The victory would be the crowning moment in a career that saw Faber win 254 games for the Sox.
First baseman Chick Gandil was the hitting hero. His single drove in two runs in the three-run fourth. Two years later, he would be at the center of a scandal that brought down the Sox and nearly all of baseball.
What might have been
Owner Charles Comiskey built a powerhouse in 1917. Second baseman Eddie Collins anchored an infield that featured Gandil at first and Buck Weaver at shortstop.
Catcher Ray Schalk was among the best in the league. Outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson hit .301, but he wasn’t even the hitting star of the team. Center fielder Happy Felsch hit .308 with 102 RBIs.
The pitching staff also featured Eddie Cicotte, who won 28 games in 1917.
Three members of that team–Collins, Faber and Schalk–went to the Hall of Fame.
In 1919, Gandil persuaded Jackson, Cicotte, Williams, Felsch, Risberg and infielder Fred McMullin to throw the World Series against the Reds. Weaver, who knew of the plan but never participated, also saw his career ruined. They all were banned after the 1920 season.
What they said back then
Given Comiskey’s penchant for penny-pinching, prompting his players to throw the 1919 Series, this description by Walter Trumbull of the New York World now seems a bit ironic:
“If the Giants had to be beaten, there are few fans who are not glad it was the club owned by Charles Comiskey which beat them. . . . No one begrudges him his success.”
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1917 in perspective
– Technicolor is introduced in movies.
– Albert Einstein presents the idea of stimulated radiation emission.
– A Sopwith Pup becomes the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship.
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Sources: Tribune archives; “The White Sox Encyclopedia” by Richard C. Lindberg.
