My Hitless Wonders

Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez all snagged themselves Silver Slugger Awards yesterday, to which I say: Congrats, now do it again (and again). Naturally, the news got me reminiscing about White Sox teams from long ago. The Sox were “Hitless Wonders” almost from the start; the label dates to the 1906 team (with a league-worst team batting average of .230) that shocked the heavily-favored Cubs four games to two in Chicago’s only crosstown World Series. With the construction of Comiskey Park four years later, friendly pitching dimensions made “hitless wonders” and “White Sox” more or less synonymous, at least for lazy sportswriters, and, Yes, I realize that may be redundant. It would be more accurate to call Sox teams “homerless” wonders courtesy of the home park. Consider that dead centerfield could be as much as 440 feet from home plate. I was too young to make sense of baseball in the 1950s, the era of the Go-Go White Sox, but I do know those teams have been labelled, unfairly, as “hitless wonders.” In fact, from 1951-59, Sox teams twice led the league in batting while finishing one point off another time. That compares to a league-leading team ERA of one time (1959, of course). Did they ever lead the league in homeruns in the ’50s? Don’t be silly; that was the Yankees’ domain. How many times during the decade did they lead the league in stolen bases? Every year, ’51-59. Bill Veeck traded away a ton of hitting talent after 1959: Earl Battey; Norm Cash; Johnny Callison; Don Mincher; John Romano. That helps explain the batting averages of teams I do remember: 1964 (.247); 1965 (.246); 1966 (.231!) and 1967 (.225!!). Like the saying goes, You can’t steal first base. Me, I’d just like to take those Silver Sluggers and put them on the ’64 team that finished all of one game behind the pennant-winning Yankees or the ’67 squad that nearly snuck in ahead of Hawk Harrelson’s Red Sox. Now, that would’ve been sweet.