Which is your favorite White Sox team of All Time?

[ottawa_sox]

The underlying theme of this thread is that fans are branded for life when exposed to an exciting, competitive team during formative, influential years. How many 10 year olds in Chicago this summer will be branded SOX fans, as opposed to CUB fans. You were a kid once, weren't you Jerry? For the record, I found the '77 SOX thrilling because they won games by hitting, which was the anti-formula for past SOX success. I turned onto the SOX in '60 after preventing the Yankees from winning in '59. In the early 60s, it was Horlen, Peters and John winning suits from the manager for recording 20 groundball outs, helped by the high infield grass. It was effective, but there was something about the improbability of Gamble and Soderholm et all continually smashing baseballs in '77.

[quade36]

grhhhh, painfully the 1994 team. Back then I was a huge Jason Bere fan. He was 12-2 that year. They had the team. Everything clicked. They brought in Julio Franco. It was suppose to be....

[YASNY]

For me, it's the '83 team. That was the first time in my memory that the Sox finished first.

[BlackSox]

The '77 season was electric, but I was a tad too young to get out to the park a lot.

 

The second half of 1983 was awesome... it seemed like we won every night and the park was one huge party. I even drove up from school (Champaign) a couple of times that September to catch some games. And the team was full of characters, they were so much fun to watch.

[elrockinMT]

WOW! I started reading the posts on this subject and it is great. I have said before that my favorite White Sox team was the '67 team and that's still the most exciting memories I have of a pennant race we lost. Of course I liked the '83 Sox with the Bull, Lamar Hoyt, Ron Kittle, et al; the '93 and '94 Sox and the '00 Sox because we won and it was fun. '67 was something special with 4 teams in the race till the last week. Eddie Stanky kept that group in it till the end. Pitching led by Horlen, Peters, John, Locker, Wilhelm and Wood. No hitting to speak of and I think Pete Ward led the team with 18 homers and less than 70 RBI's.

 

I do remember the '77 team as something special too. First Sox games I ever went to was a 4 game series in Anaheim versus the California Angels and Bobby Bonds. The Na na na Heh Heh song was something special to hear. I remember in LA the Sox fans were walking around the stadium after a Sox win singing that song. One game there I remember that the Sox pitcher (I think Chris Knapp) struck our Bonds 4 times.

[soxfan420]

Alan Bannister also threw a ball into the crowd from shortstop which let in 2 runs.

 

 

Ahhh can hear Harry Carey in the Back of my head right now....

 

He threw it away.... He could have walked the ball to first and he threw it away... Ahhhhh

you forgot to input the drunkin slur.

[kramer99]

my favorite sox year was 1999...it was the year that i first became obsessed with the sox and, it was a year where things were looking up.

 

they were young, exciting, and we knew that all they could do is get better.

[Bighurt52235]

Greg.. your post gave me goose bumps!! 

Me too, even though I wasn't born for another 9 years after that. s***... I miss watching Sox baseball so much.

[SoxAce]

Man I remember that '94 team even though I was a kid. I was just growing up watching the sox with my dad. He said we probably would have went all the way with that team. Even though noone mentioned the 1919 black sox, Shoeless Joe was one of the greatest players to put on a sox uni. I like that team too from what I read in their history. Loved the 2000 season as well.

[southsider2k5]

I'm 53, so I've got a lot of favorites, but the 1990 team was something special. Remember in 1989 they started off just Godawful, especially defensively. There was a stretch of 6 home games in May, where they not only lost every game, by an average score of 9 to 2, they never lead in any game. Not once. But later in the year you could see they were bottoming out and were getting better. Then in 1990 they played hard every day, never quit, and talk about grinders: Fletcher, Robin, Grebeck, Gallagher, Ozzie, Calderon, Johnson, Pasqua, Fisk, Thiggy, Rad, Donn Pall, Karko, Kitty, Barry Jones, Hibbard, Samme, McDowell and later on in the year, Frank and Alex. This was also the last year of Comiskey, and the year they were no hit on the last anniversary of the park, and they still beat the Yankees. So you could see the progress, and you just knew that in the next couple of years they were going to be even better.

Great call on the 1990 team. A lot like the 2000 team, except the 2k team achieved a little more.

[baggio202]

greg..as others have said..great memories of that '77 team..man was that fun

[elrockinMT]

Great call on the 1990 team.  A lot like the 2000 team, except the 2k team achieved a little more.

I think it was the 1990 team when the networks broadcast the last couple of games the Sox played at Boston because of the Bosox tight race with the Yankees(?). It was exactly as stated in another post in that you could tell this White Sox team was developing into something special. They battled the Red Sox right till the last pitch. I think it was Ozzie Guillen reaching out for a high outside pitch and pulling it into the RF corner where the Red Sox OF'er maybe a sliding catch to end the game. The camera couldn't get the angle and we had to wait for another camera to show the great catch that robbed the White Sox and gave Boston a win.

[JoshPR]

I think it was the 1990 team when the networks broadcast the last couple of games the Sox played at Boston because of the Bosox tight race with the Yankees(?). It was exactly as stated in another post in that you could tell this White Sox team was developing into something special. They battled the Red Sox right till the last pitch. I think it was Ozzie Guillen reaching out for a high outside pitch and pulling it into the RF corner where the Red Sox OF'er maybe a sliding catch to end the game. The camera couldn't get the angle and we had to wait for another camera to show the great catch that robbed the White Sox and gave Boston a win.

Tight race with the Yankees?? The Yanks Sucked in 1990 and Boston won the East. The race was with the Blue Jays

[C.Rector]

The underlying theme of this thread is that fans are branded for life when exposed to an exciting, competitive team during formative, influential years.  How many 10 year olds in Chicago this summer will be branded SOX fans, as opposed to CUB fans.  You were a kid once, weren't you Jerry?

How interesting that the most optimistic folks concerning the Cubs's chances are either in the media or are Internet Sox Fans. Most of the Cubs fans I know personally here in McHenry County are fairly pessimistic about the Cubs this year especially since Dusty Baker aka the Pitcher Torturer will still be the manager.

 

As for the idea that a team's success leads it to gain new fans, the White Sox have almost always outperformed the Cubs during the Reinsdorf Era, but that has not led to their out gaining the Cubs in the hearts and minds of the youth of Chicago. In the Second City, losing gets you farther than winning does as shown by the fact that the Bears and the Bulls regularly sell out their home games and the Blackhawks, despite their horrible record, still get more than 10,000 fans per home game. Finally, if you were to ask the typical Chicago sports fan what they think about the Chicago Fire, he or she would likely tell you that it was caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

[ottawa_sox]

How interesting that the most optimistic folks concerning the Cubs's chances are either in the media or are Internet Sox Fans.  Most of the Cubs fans I know personally here in McHenry County are fairly pessimistic about the Cubs this year especially since Dusty Baker aka the Pitcher Torturer will still be the manager. 

 

As for the idea that a team's success leads it to gain new fans, the White Sox have almost always outperformed the Cubs during the Reinsdorf Era, but that has not led to their out gaining the Cubs in the hearts and minds of the youth of Chicago.  In the Second City, losing gets you farther than winning does as shown by the fact that the Bears and the Bulls regularly sell out their home games and the Blackhawks, despite their horrible record, still get more than 10,000 fans per home game.  Finally, if you were to ask the typical Chicago sports fan what they think about the Chicago Fire, he or she would likely tell you that it was caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

True the White Sox have consistently outperformed the Cubs. Unfortunately that is not saying much. To really hook fans, you need a memorable season. The best the Sox have come up with are the sparse instances mentioned - '72, '77, '83, '94 (which ended up being more of a black mark than anything - and we know why), '00. Thanks in part to Cub incompetence, many young fans were turned onto the SOX during these years. At least that is the sense I get reading the younger posters on this board (and remembering how I thought as a youngster). Since nobody in this lifetime can remember what the effect of winning would be, one can only conjecture. But I would not be surprised if it did not have a huge effect for several years at least.

[knightni]

Gotta be 1993 with 1983 in a close second. For awhile, I had my hopes up that they could make it to the WS. The 2000 team didn't have me fooled at all.

[NO!!MARY!!!]

With having a lot of people on this board, both young and old, I'd really like to know what year was your favorite team and why.  I'd love to hear everyones thoughts.

 

My favorite Sox team was the 2000 Chicago White Sox.

It was my second year being a season ticket holder, and I went to a ton of the games. I really loved that team.  I also met my wife during that season so we had many dates to Comiskey.  That year was so much fun, and that team was so fun.  I'll never forget the 12 game road win streak, or how much fun that April was (it seemed like we scored 10 runs a game).  I'll also never forget being sad when we traded Brooke Fordyce for Charles Johnson and Baines.  Man I loved that team. For me, it will be very hard to ever replace the Summer of2000.

 

What about you?

I would have to say it is a toss-up between three teams.

 

1. 1983 was truly the most awesome Sox team in my lifetime. They were an

unstoppable machine in the second half of the season. I didn't watch many

games that year because we didn't have Sportsvision, but I listened to a lot

on the radio and was at a few. (Witnessed Luzinski's first roof shot against

Minnesota.) How that team got thrashed so badly in the playoffs is still beyond

me.

 

2. 1967 End of the Go-Go Era Sox is my favorite team to read about, discuss,

research, what have you. That season must have been a nail-biter from

beginning to end. I still can't believe that they lost a DH to the Kansas City

A's. Still, great games to read about from that season in both the win and loss

column. And Eddie Stanky was one of a kind. If he were the White Sox manager

today, the team would get fried in the media and Mariotti would take cheap

shots at him and scream from on high that Stanky is the devil.

 

3. 1906 is my second favorite, the legendary Hitless Wonders. No team has

pulled off an accomplishment of their magnitude and had it ignored. Imagine

if the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox or cuddly Cubbies had pulled off a season

like that. They would still be celebrated in plays, songs, poems and Norman

Rockwell paintings. Billy Crystal would have even made a sickly nostalgic,

barf-inducing movie about them. One of the great underappreciated teams

in baseball history.

[Pastime]

I loved that 1993 team. I went to 20 games that year, and they won 17 out of the 20 I attended, so it was all good.

 

Ellis Burks, Lance Johnson, Tim Raines, Ozzie Guillen, Frank Thomas, Joey Cora, Bo Jackson, George Bell, Robin Ventura, and Cowardly-Lion Karkovice were the main hitters, with Black Jack McDowell, Jason Bere, Alex Fernandez, Wilson Alvarez, Kirk McCaskill, and Roberto Hernandez as the main pitchers.

 

That team was a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun to root for.

[elrockinMT]

Tight race with the Yankees?? The Yanks Sucked in 1990 and Boston won the East. The race was with the Blue Jays

Thanks for reminding me of the actual team in the race. It was a good time for the Sox though as far as showing a developing team.

[greg775]

Hey OttawaSox,

Thanks for mentioning Soderholm.

I can't believe I forgot him.

That guy hit about 28-30 homers in 77 including one

off Marty Pattin in the seventh inning of that Sunday

doubleheader I was talking about.

It was amazing. The score actually for some freak reason

in the year the Sox bashed the baseball was 0-0 and in

the bottom of the sixth Soderholm broke up a no hitter

by journeyman Pattin with a homer in about the first row

in leftfield seats. We all went nuts and the Sox won 3-0

but Game Two was a disaster, the Royals won about 11-0

or something like that and the rest is history.

 

Great post. Like the one poster said, I remember those Ozzie

triples into the corner and doubles where he'd flick hit bat

out there. I hope Oz has some magic as manager.

I'm worried he's going to have some major growing pains

and in this day and age of talk shows and internet, poor

Oz may implode if we don't win and win big.

GO SOX and great post.