October 9, 1906: Nick Altrock pitches White Sox to victory over Cubs in snowy World Series opener

From October 8 to 10, 1871, one of the most destructive fires in world history raged through Chicago, destroying an estimated 17,500 buildings, claiming 300 lives, and leaving 100,000 people – nearly a third of the city’s population – homeless. 

Although more than 2,000 acres of the city were destroyed, many of Chicago’s largest industries survived.1 Its prime trade location made it worth not only rebuilding but expanding. Thirty-five years later, Chicago’s population neared 2 million and it had overtaken Philadelphia as the second most populated city in the United States after New York.

In 1906 Chicago’s two major-league baseball teams – the Cubs, who played on the city’s west side and joined the National League in 1876, and the White Sox, who played on the city’s south side and joined the new American League in 1901 – were set to face off in the first all-Chicago World Series.

Chicago sportswriters quickly made a connection between the 1871 fire and the historic sporting event 3½ decades later. The day of Game One, on October 9, an article on the front page of the Chicago Tribune read: 

“Thirty-five years ago today the city was swept by a destructive fire, which marked an epoch in its history. Today a fire is raging though the city that has been smoldering for weeks past and will burst into its full fury at 2:30 o’clock this afternoon when Chicago’s two teams of champions face each other on the green battlefield. It will be a harmless fire of loyalty to one team or another, inspiring in its grandeur but not terrorizing or disastrous in its results.”2

Outside of the historical significance of two Chicago teams meeting in the World Series for the first time, the pregame commentary before Game One largely focused on the perceived imbalance of talent between the two rosters. 

The Cubs, led by manager and star first baseman Frank Chance, battled the New York Giants for first place during the first two months of the season, but Chicago took the top spot in the National League on May 25 and never looked back. The west siders, in their first full season of Charles Murphy’s ownership, had a particularly dominant run late in the season, winning 37 of 39 games from August 6 to September 16. They finished 116-36, 20 games ahead of the second-place New York Giants. As of 2025, their .763 winning percentage was still the best in a single season in the AL/NL since 1901. 

The White Sox, led by manager and center fielder Fielder Jones, did not have quite the regular-season résumé of the Cubs but still had a late-season run of their own to win the American League. Nine games back of the Philadelphia Athletics on July 26, the White Sox won 23 of their next 25 games to take a 5½-game lead by August 23. The New York Highlanders then overtook the White Sox by winning 19 of 20, but Chicago outlasted the Highlanders and won the pennant by three games.

“It comes a little easier than I anticipated,” said White Sox owner Charles Comiskey after the team clinched the AL championship on October 4, just before the season’s final weekend. “But I have been unable to see any other result since the club took its wonderful spurt the latter part of July and shot from the ruck to the van.”3

Despite their pennant, the White Sox were often dubbed the Hitless Wonders for their .230 team batting average, which was the worst in the AL. The south siders made up for it by leading the league in walks, hit by pitches, and sacrifices, which helped them finish third in the league in runs scored. The White Sox also finished second in the majors in fewest runs allowed. The Cubs, who had a National League-leading .262 team batting average and led the majors in both runs scored and runs allowed, were considered as high as a 2-to-1 favorite to win the Series.4 

In frigid temperatures and some snow at West Side Park, home of the Cubs, the 1906 World Series started with a classic Deadball Era pitchers’ duel. 

Right-hander Mordecai Brown, who finished the regular season with a major league-leading 1.04 ERA, got the ball for the Cubs. For the first four innings, the 29-year-old Brown stifled the White Sox lineup, retiring the first 12 batters he faced, striking out five. 

This early effectiveness might have doomed the White Sox if not for left-hander Nick Altrock matching Brown’s effectiveness. 

Although the 30-year-old Altrock had a strong 2.06 ERA in 1906, it still trailed those of teammates Doc White (1.52) and Ed Walsh (1.88). 

Altrock was, however, the team’s hottest pitcher, going 7-1 and surrendering just 18 runs in 79 1/3 innings since September 1. Walsh had gone 3-5 while allowing 23 runs in 71 2/3 innings in that time. White was dealing with fatigue down the stretch in 1906 and had pitched only eight innings since September 22.

Altrock also had been the only White Sox pitcher to win against the Cubs in the 1905 edition of the postseason Chicago City Series. He used that bit of history to further persuade Jones to start him in Game One, saying, “I can just see the Cubs going back to the bench as fast as they face me.”5

After watching his three top starters warm up, Jones went with Altrock.

The Cincinnati native rose to the occasion, preventing the Cubs from finding the gaps, inducing nine groundouts in the first four frames. The only baserunner he allowed was Cubs right fielder Frank Schulte, who singled.

White Sox infielder George Rohe was not a regular starter for the team but was put in the field at third base and in the cleanup spot to replace the injured 36-year-old future Hall of Famer shortstop George Davis. Regular third baseman Lee Tannehill slid over to shortstop to make room for Rohe at third.

Rohe also rose to the occasion in Game One, hammering a ball to left that went under the overflow seats for a ground-rule triple to lead off the fifth inning. After first baseman Jiggs Donahue struck out, left fielder Patsy Dougherty bunted between Brown and catcher Johnny Kling. Brown threw it to the plate as Rohe raced home, but Kling mishandled the throw. Rohe scored to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. 

After another one-two-three inning by Altrock in the bottom of the fifth, the White Sox got to Brown again in the sixth. Altrock helped himself by walking and getting to second on a sacrifice by right fielder Ed Hahn. Altrock then tried to score on a single by Jones but was thrown out at the plate by Cubs center fielder Solly Hofman. 

Jones advanced to second on the throw home and took third on a passed ball by Kling that continued the Cubs catcher’s miserable day defensively. Moments later, Jones scored on Frank Isbell’s single to give the White Sox a 2-0 advantage. 

In the bottom of the sixth, the Cubs finally scratched a run off Altrock with some small ball of their own. Kling led off with a walk and Brown followed with a single. The batterymates moved to second and third on Hofman’s sacrifice. Altrock added to the game’s blunders by throwing a wild pitch, bringing home Kling and moving Brown to third. 

Despite the mistake, the White Sox lefty collected himself and induced a popout and a groundout to strand his opposing pitcher 90 feet from home. Donahue made a difficult grab at first base to get the last out of the inning after the throw from Rohe at third nearly pulled him off the bag.6

In the bottom of the seventh, Rohe shined in the clutch for the White Sox again. He caught a liner off the bat of Harry Steinfeldt that the Tribune guessed would have resulted in a triple if it had gone through.7

With the White Sox still hanging on by a score of 2-1 with two outs in the ninth, Chance got aboard on a single to center. That brought Steinfeldt, the 1906 NL hits leader, to the plate. It may have been a good opportunity for Chance, the NL’s stolen-base leader, to try to steal second but Steinfeldt swung at Altrock’s first pitch and flied out to center, securing Altrock’s complete-game win.

Altrock and Brown finished with nearly identical pitching lines, both pitching nine innings, allowing just four hits, one walk, and one earned run. Brown’s one unearned run that came on Kling’s error proved the difference in the game. 

Immediately after the contest, White Sox supporters rushed the field, swarming the players. It presented a potential danger to the players, so police escorted the hero Altrock off the field.8

“I knew how that game was coming out when I saw whom Fielder had chosen to pitch it,” Comiskey said about Altrock. “They’ll never beat us now, and I have heard two pennants flapping out in the south side center field for some time.”9

True to Comiskey’s prediction, the White Sox went on to win the World Series, four games to two.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Nick Altrock, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

The author relied on Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1906/B10090CHN1906.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN190610090.shtml

Notes

1 “150th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire,” National Weather Service, October 8, 2021.

2 Sy Sanborn, “Great Ball Games to Begin Today,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1906: 1.

3 “Sox Share with Giant Killers the Glories of Victory,” Chicago Inter Ocean, October 4, 1906: 4.

4 “Great Ball Games to Begin Today,” 2

5 “Sox Win the First,” Washington Post, October 10, 1906: 1.

6 “Full Score and Plain Details of the Game,” Chicago Tribune, October 10, 1906: 2.

7 “Sox Gain Victory in First Big Game,” Chicago Tribune, October 10, 1906: 1.

8 “Notes on the Side and Comment on the Game,” Chicago Tribune, October 10, 1906: 2.

9 “Notes on the Side and Comment on the Game.”