1906 Chicago White Sox: A Look at an Underrated Champion

They were called the “Hitless Wonders.” Chicago Tribune writer Hugh Fullerton wrote on August 21, 1906, “To those who have not seen the Sox in the wonderful winning streak, it is a wonder how they score so many runs on so few hits. Let them see the Sox cake every advantage of misplays and let them see them dash daringly around the bases and invite wild throws. Let them follow the quick accurate work of the fielders and their keen teammates. These wonderful fans will solve for themselves the methods which are winning game after game.”

1906 was in the midst of the Deadball Era. Offenses had plummeted from the high scoring 1890s. Just ten years earlier, the Boston Nationals had scored 1,025 runs in 135 games. The National League’s batting average in 1897 had been .292, and the average team scored 793 runs. In 1906, with two leagues and sixteen teams, it would have been reasonable to expect even more offense in the face of diluted pitching talent. But in ’06, the average National League team hit . 244, with an average of 549 runs scored. The American League hit .249 per team, with an average of 562 runs scored.

Several things had happened to help reduce the scoring. In 1900, home plate was changed from a twelve-inch diamond, pointing toward the pitcher, to the present five-sided plate, seventeen inches wide. This did not expand the strike zone, but it did give the umpires a better look as pitches crossed the plate. Walks per team dropped by 17 percent from 1899 to 1901. The National League adopted the modern foul strike rule in 1901. Before this time, foul balls counted as nothing. The American League followed suit in 1903. Strikeouts per team rose 54 percent from 1899 to 1903.

Pitchers were perfecting the use of foreign substances. Twirlers used spit, slippery elm, paraffin, rosin, or anything imaginable to cause the ball to change its course. Balls were rarely taken out of play, and often only two balls were used during a game. Balls hit into the stands were returned to the umpire. Balls with soft sides, cuts, flat spots, were used to the pitcher’s advantage. Shutouts per team jumped from 4.2 per team in ’97 to 17.6 in ’06. The White Sox hurled a record 32 shutouts on the season.

Players were becoming more adept defensively. Errors dropped from an average per team of 335 — 2.5 per game — in 1897, to 265 — 1.7 per game — in 1906. Sacrifice hits jumped from 94 per team in 1897 to 168 per team in 1906.

Interestingly, stolen bases dropped from an average of 223 per team, in a 134 game season in ’97, to 187 per team in 1906, for a 154 game season. Managers were hesitant to steal, potentially losing a valuable baserunner if caught. As the number of runs scored decreased, the value of a single baserunner or run increased.

Deadball Era players bunted for hits, sacrifice bunted, worked delayed and double steals, essayed hit-and-runs and bunt-and-runs. The squeeze play was still being perfected. Hitters were more defensive than offensive. They protected the plate, slapped at the ball, and played for one run.

In the field, the prevalence of the bunt required agile and skilled glovesmen at the corners, so the best defensive players usually manned first and third base. Catchers needed to be quick, with accurate arms.

Player-manager Fielder Jones embodied the White Sox. Jones would teach his team to play inside baseball, called by David Anderson in More Than Merkle, (University of Nebraska Press, 2000) “A mental game … a form of unrestrained psychological warfare from the first pitch to the last out.” Inside baseball was the use of any play or ploy to gain an advantage.

Strong on the mound

The White Sox finished in second place in 1905, on the strength of the AL’s best pitching staff. The team finished the season with a 92-60 record, just two games behind Philadelphia. Frank Owen paced the team with a 22-14 record, posting a 2.10 ERA. Nick Altrock finished with a 1.88 ERA and a 21-11 mark. The Sox led the AL with a 1.99 team ERA. Frank Smith won 19 games with a 2.13 ERA. Doc White added 18 victories with a 1.77 ERA. Ed Walsh was still perfecting his new out pitch in 1905. Used sparingly, Walsh had an 8-3 record and a 2.17 ERA.

Jiggs Donahue led the team with a .287 average and 76 RBIs. His RBI total was third best in the AL. Donahue also stole 32 bases. The Sox had a few players who stood out offensively in ’05. Frank Isbell, in the role of utility player, hit .296 in 94 games. George Davis hit .278 with 31 stolen bases. Catcher Ed McFarland hit .280 in 80 games. But the Sox had four regulars who hit .201 or less.

Fielder Jones lost 75 percent of his outfield for 1906. He was the sole holdover. Danny Green, Ducky Holmes, and Nixey Callahan were gone. Green was banished to the minors after hitting .243. The thirty-six-year-old Holmes left the team after hitting just .201 to manage in the minors. Callahan left to play with and manage a semipro team he owned in the Chicago area. Callahan had been the most productive of the three, hitting .272 with 26 stolen bases and 43 RBIs.

The Athletics were the favorites going into the 1906 season as they returned virtually the same championship team. First baseman Harry Davis led the A’s. Davis paced the American League in ’05 in home runs, doubles, runs scored, and RBIs. They also had veterans Socks Seybold and Danny Murphy. The pitching staff had three 20-game winners: Rube Waddell, Eddie Plank, and Andy Coakley. The A’s also had a 16-game winner in twenty-two-year-old Chief Bender.

The Tigers, the third-place finishers, returned most of the same team and expected to have nineteen-year old Ty Cobb for the full season. Cobb would team up with another future Hall of Farner, Sam Crawford. Detroit returned a pair of 22-game winners in George Mullin and Ed Killian. Boston, the fourth-place finisher, returned two of the Al’s top starters, Jesse Tannehill and Cy Young. Player-manager Jimmy Collins led the Pilgrims in batting and RBIs.

Cleveland’s performance suffered in 1905 as Nap Lajoie played in just 65 games. Lajoie’s .329 average would have led the American League had he played more games. Lajoie was the best hitter in the AL and his availability for the full season made the Naps stronger. Lajoie, the team’s player-manager, would have Elmer Flick in the outfield. Flick led the AL in batting, slugging, and triples in ’05. Cleveland had Addie Joss to lead the pitchers.

The Highlanders struggled in 1905 but had two of the league’s best twirlers in Jack Chesbro and Al Orth. Chesbro was just one year removed from his 41- victory season. The New Yorkers also had a fine young hitter in Hal Chase, and veterans Wee Willie Keeler and Kid Elberfeld. On paper, only St Louis and Washington didn’t look competitive. Going into the 1906 season, the Sox had pitching and defense but little offense.

Position players

The White Sox were a strong defensive team. Jones led the team from center field with George Davis anchoring the infield. Davis, a future Hall of Farner, played shortstop and hit cleanup in 1906. Davis had started his major league career in 1890 with Cleveland. He proved to be an outstanding hitter early, hitting .355 in 1893. Davis hie over .300 for nine straight seasons, 1893-1901, all with New York. He led the National League in RBIs with 134 in 1897. He started his career in the outfield, moving to third base in 1893, and to shortstop in 1898.

Davis quickly became one of the best defenders in the game. Total Baseball‘s runs saved formula says Davis led the National League in that category in 1899 and 1900. According to those statistics, he saved 33 and 43 runs more then the average National League shortstop during those years. NL great Ozzie Smith, in comparison, saved 43 runs above average in his best season.

Davis was a clutch hitter. Total Baseball’s clutch hitting formula claims Davis led the major leagues in 1906 with an index of 179. This shows that Davis’s RBl total was 79 percent higher than expected. Davis led the team with 80 RBIs and 25 doubles. His .277 average was second on the team. Davis, who turned 36 during the season, was the oldest player on the roster. His experience helped anchor both the defense and offense.

The team’s leading hitter for average in 1906 was Frank Isbell. Isbell played where he was needed, covering every position during his career. At second base in ’06, this career .250 hitter paced the team with a .279 average. He also tied for second on the team with 57 RBIs and had a team-high 37 stolen bases. He hie 18 doubles and a team leading 11 triples. Not known for his power, he did set a World Series record, tagging four doubles in one game. Isbell was the team’s weakest defensive player. He made five errors in the World Series.

The team’s third baseman was Lee Tannehill, brother of Boston pitcher Jesse Tannehill. In 1906 Lee supplied less offense then any of his teammates with 100 at bats. Tannehill hit .183 with eight doubles, three triples, 33 RBIs, and seven steals. Tannehill was a career .220 hitter. Despite this offensive ineptitude, four different managers kept him in their lineups at shortstop and third base because of his great range and soft hands. Total Baseball’s formula says Tannehill saved a league high 27 runs above average at third base in ’06-in just 99 games. Tannehill led American League third basemen in assists four times and double plays twice. At shortstop in 1903, Tannehill led the league in double plays.

Jiggs Donahue manned first base, and batted .257 with 57 RBIs, 24 extra base hies, and 36 stolen bases. Like Tannehill, he played because of his defense. He led the league in fielding percentage 1905-1907, set, ting records during 1907 with 1,846 putouts and 1,998 total chances. He once recorded 21 putouts in a nine-inning game. The National Game, published in 1911, lists Donahue and Fred Tenney as the best first basemen of the day.

Jiggs was one of the stars of the ’06 World Series. He hit a team-high .333, and had the only Sox hit in Game 2, breaking up Ed Ruelbach’s no-hit bid. Donahue played nine years and had a career batting average of .255.

The team’s utility infielder was George Rohe. Rohe played mostly at third base during ’06, hitting .256 with 25 RBIs. He was not a power hitter, getting just six extra base hits. Rohe, like most of the infield, excelled on defense, though he was the offensive star in the first two Sox World Series victories. When George Davis missed the first three games, Rohe started at third, with Tannehill moving to short. His heroics were such that when Davis returned to the lineup in Game 4, Rohe stayed at third base, with Tannehill going to the bench. Rohe’s .333 average tied Donahue for the best in the Series. Afterwards, owner Charles Comiskey promised, “Whatever George Rohe may do from now on, he’s signed for life with me!” Rohe was released after the 1907 season when he hit .214.

The Sox struggled when Billy Sullivan was not catching. During the Jones years, Sullivan was the principal catcher and the White Sox finished no lower than third place. In the years when he missed major portions of the season, the Sox finished over 30 games behind. Like so many other Sox, “Sully” was not in the lineup for his offense. His lifetime average of .212 is second lowest of all players with 3,000 at bats. He hit .214 in 1906 with 24 extra bases, 33 RBIs, with two home runs. But he was one of the finest defensive catchers of the day. Ty Cobb called him the best catcher “to ever wear shoe leather.”

“Sully” missed 36 games in 1906, due to food poisoning and a hand injury. While Sullivan was out, the Sox tried four others to fill the spot. Ed McFarland got into seven games, hitting .136. Hub Hart caught 15 games, hitting .162. Frank Roth caught 15 games, hitting .196. Babe Towne, the most successful of the backups, hit .278 in 13 games.

To rebuild the outfield, the Sox brought in two journeymen. Bill O’Neill, a switch hitter, was entrusted with the leadoff spot early in the year, stole 19 bases, but his on-base percentage of .287 was unacceptable. O’Neill totaled just six extra-base hits and batted .248. He would be the team’s fourth outfielder by midsummer.

Rube Vinson was purchased from Cleveland. He was the opening day left fielder, but made four errors in four games in the field and was gone after eight games.

On May 9, with the team’s record at 8-8, the Sox acquired Ed Hahn. Hahn came to majors with New York at age 30 in 1905, played in 43 games, and hit . 319. He started the ’06 season hitting .091, though, and the Highlanders released him. Jones inserted him into the leadoff spot. Hahn was the sparkplug the Sox needed. He hit just .22 7 for the Sox but finished third in the league in walks and led the Sox in runs scored with 80.

Hahn was a sure-handed fielder without great range, who would lead the American League in fielding percentage in 1907. On a team with a pitching staff that induced ground balls, Hahn set a record that year for fewest putouts and chances for a full-time outfielder. Center fielder Jones was a speedy takecharge outfielder, so it is clear that Hahn conceded his manager any fly ball within reach.

Patsy Dougherty joined the team after being claimed off waivers. He had jumped the Highlanders in a contract dispute, hitting .192 at the time. After joining the Sox in late July, he hit .233 the rest of the season. He added 11 stolen bases, driving home 27 runs. He also hit one of the team’s seven home runs. Like Fielder Jones, he was a good, fast outfielder, and he finishing just one percentage point behind his league-leading manager in fielding percentage.

Patsy was the first American League player to hit two home runs in a World Series, doing it for Boston in 1903. He was also, after the 1906 Series, the first AL player to appear on two championship teams.

The Sox unsuccessfully tried a few other players during the season. Frank Hemphill played 13 games in the outfield and hit .075. Shortstop Lee Quillen played in four games, going three of nine at the plate. Gus Dundon saw action as a backup middle infielder, appearing in 33 games, getting 96 at bats, and batting .136.

Leadership

In 1906 manager Fielder Jones, a lifetime .285 hitter, batted a career low .230, but he finished second in the league in walks. He had 28 extra-base hits including two homers. He also swiped 26 bases. He was considered, offensively and defensively, one of the best outfielders in the game. While he never led a league in any offensive category, he finished second in runs scored twice and second in walks four times. Jones stole 359 bases in his career, finishing in the top ten five times.

Jones took over the managerial role with the White Sox on June 8, 1904. T he Sox had been sputtering with a 22-18 mark under Nixey Callahan, who was considered too soft on the players. Jones demanded discipline, and led the Sox to a 67-4 7 record to finish the season in third place. The Sox would finish no worse than third in the seasons he managed.

Defensively, Fielder lived up to his name. His career fielding percentage is 17 percentage points higher then the league average during his years. In comparison, Tris Speaker, known for his defensive prowess, finished his career with a difference of ten points above the league average. Mixing modern computations with traditional statistics, Jones’s range factor is 18 percentage points higher than league averages. He led his league in outfield double plays, fielding percentage, range factor, and putouts, twice each. The STATS All-Time Baseball Sourcebook selected Jones as one of the Gold Glove outfielders for the decade from 1901 through 1910.

The ballpark and the pitchers

The Sox played at the 39th Street Grounds (a.k.a. South Side Park), four blocks south of the new Comiskey Park. The ball yard was similar to others of the day with an extremely large outfield. The Sox kept the infield grass long and the ground soft to slow down ground balls. In 1906 the park was very good to the team. The White Sox had a winning percentage of . 701 at home, as opposed to .527 on the road. The park helped cut down on home runs and scoring. The White Sox hit just two home runs at the 39th Street Grounds in ’06. Their opponents tallied just one. While on the road, the Sox hit five roundtrips, while allowing ten. The Sox scored equally at home and on the road, tallying 275 runs at home compared to 295 on the road.

The large ballpark did help the team’s pitching staff. Sox hurlers allowed just 180 runs at home, while giving up 280 on the road. Chicago finished second in the league in ERA with a 2.13 mark. The staff tossed 32 shutouts-a record that still stands. Over a third of the team’s victories came from shutouts. The rest of the American League averaged 15 shutouts per team.

Righthander Frank Owen led the staff with 22 wins, appearances with 42, starts with 36, and innings pitched with 293. For the year, Owen had a 2.33 ERA. Owen was a workhorse for three years, 1904- 1906, winning 64 games. He would earn just 18 more victories during his career, which ended during the ’09 season. He finished with a lifetime 2.55 ERA and an 82-67 record.

Guy “Doc” White was a graduate of Georgetown University, with a degree in dental surgery. He led the league in ERA in 1906, with a 1.52 ERA in 219 innings. White started 24 games, appearing in 28, going 18-6. Ty Cobb, who hit a lifetime .197 against White, called the lefty the toughest pitcher he ever faced. White’s mark of 65 innings pitched without issuing a walk was once an AL record. He won thirteen 1-0 shutouts during his career and once held the major league record of tossing 45 consecutive scoreless innings. His lifetime record was 187-156 with a 2.39 ERA. Like his teammates, White was a good fielder. He twice led American League pitchers in fielding percentage. He is certainly one of the best pitchers not in the Hall of Fame.

Future Hall of Farner Ed Walsh emerged as a star in 1906, when he mastered the spitball. Sam Crawford, in The Glory of Their Times, described Walsh and what it was like to hit against him, “Great big, strong, good-looking fellow. He threw a spitball-I think that ball disintegrated on the way to the plate and the catcher put it back together again. I swear, when it went past the plate it was just the spit went by.” Walsh understood the psychology of the spitter. He would use the spitter to set up his other pitches. The threat of the spitter once got Nap Lajoie to strike out looking with the bases loaded. Lajoie watched a fastball cut across the heart of the plate while expecting a spitter to dip low and out of the strike zone.

ln 1906, “Big Ed” appeared in 41 games, starting 31, and went 17-13 with a 1.88 ERA. Walsh led the league with 10 shutouts and the team with 171 strikeouts. Walsh’s lifetime ERA of 1.82 is the lowest in the history of the game.

Walsh’s spitter was said to head towards the plate and then “dart two feet down or out.” An example of how many ground balls the pitch created comes from Walsh’s 1907 season. Walsh set a record for handling 262 chances, registering a total of 22 7 assists. He tied a record, set by Nick Altrock, for most chances by a pitcher in a game with 13. A comparison between Walsh and Nolan Ryan shows how the game has changed. Ryan, who pitched 27 years, had a career total of 546 assists, or about 20 per season. Walsh had a career total of 1,207 assists. From 1906 to 1912, Walsh averaged 12 7 assists. STATS lists Walsh as their Gold Glove pitcher of the decade.

The Sox other 20-game winner in 1906 was Nick Altrock, who, like so many of his teammates, was a fine fielder, twice leading American League pitchers in putouts and double plays. Altrock posted a 20-13 record and a 2.06 ERA. He tossed 288 innings, walking just 42 batters, which is just 1.3 walks per nine innings. The lefthander had won a total of 42 games in the two previous seasons. The lefty’s 62 wins during that three-year span were 75 percent of his career totals. 1906 was Altrock’s last good year. Many of his later appearances came while he was coaching with the Senators. His last appearance, in 1933, was a stunt to give him appearances in five decades. His career record was 83-75 with an ERA of 2.67.

The fifth Sox hurler during 1906 was Roy Patterson. Patterson was signed after he pitched a sandlot team to victory against Comiskey’s St. Paul Saints. In 1901, Patterson went 20-16 for the Sox. He won 19 games in 1902 and 15 in 1903. Patterson has the distinction of having won the first ever American League game. He finished his major league career in 1907 with an 81-73 record and a 2.75 ERA.

Patterson showed some of his former brilliance during the 1906 season. He started 18 games, pitched in 21, and posted a 10-7 record with a 2.09 ERA. In 1906 the Sox allowed a league-low 255 bases on balls (1.66 per nine innings), as opposed to the league average 354. Patterson led the Chicago staff, allowing just 1.07 walks per nine innings.

Frank Smith was the sixth pitcher on the staff. Smith pitched in 20 games, starting 13. He went 5-5, with a team-high 3.39 ERA. Despite his two career no-hitters, and his two career 20-win seasons, Smith was not popular. He crossed up his catchers so often that they feared for their safety.

During the season, Jones also gave a few innings work to twenty-one-year-old Lou Fiene. Fiene got into six games, starting two. He had a 1-1 record on the season and a 2.90 ERA. He played in parts of four seasons, compiling a record of 3-8 with a 3.85 ERA.

The pennant race

The Athletics started 1906 strong. They had the league’s best record through July. The A’s four starters drove the team’s early success. The Highlanders settled in as the league’s second-best club. Cleveland started strong when Bob Rhodes and Otto Hess proved that Addie Joss wasn’t alone on the staff.

The White Sox sat in sixth place at the end of May, improved to fifth in June, and to fourth by the end of July. They caught fire in August. The “Hitless Wonders” won 19 straight games, starting with back-to-back-to-back shutouts by Doc White, Ed Walsh, and Roy Patterson. The streak, which set an American League record, vaulted the Sox from nine games back into first place. The Highlanders and Naps kept pace as the A’s fell out of contention.

During the win streak, the Sox scored 97 runs, an average of 5.1 per game — 1.4 over their season average. Opponents scored just 31 runs. The Sox beat league leaders New York and Philadelphia for 13 of their 19 wins, defeating Cy Young (twice), Chief Bender, Rube Waddell, Eddie Plank, Jack Chesbro, Al Orth, and Jesse Tannehill. Walsh carried the Sox, winning seven games, four by shutout. One of the keys to the streak was that Jones finally had a set lineup after a season of injuries.

The Highlanders caught and passed the Sox three times in September. But Chicago, who won 21 of their 25 August games, stayed hot. They closed out the season going 22-12 in September and October, finishing three games in front of New York and five in front of Cleveland. Chicago, out of the race at the end of July, battled its way to the pennant. In the National League, the cross-town Cubs, dominant, moved into first place late in May and stayed there.

The Sox started slowly because they were plagued with small, nagging injuries, which at one point forced them to hire the trainer from the University of Chicago. Only one Sox player, Jiggs Donahue, stayed healthy for the entire season.

To win the pennant, the Sox defeated two powerful rivalss that were similar in many ways to the potent cross-town Cubs. The Highlanders, for example, had the two winningest pitchers in the league: Al Orth with 27 and Jack Chesbro with 24. The New Yorkers also finished second in the league in runs scored and batting average. Hal Chase, Willie Keeler, and Kid Elberfeld all hit .300.

The third-place Naps were an even closer match to the Cubs. Cleveland led the league in batting, slugging, and runs scored. It had four .300 hitters, led by Nap Lajoie’s .355. Claude Rossman, Bunk Congalton, and Elmer Flick also hit .300. The Naps pitching staff had three 20-game winners and the league’s best ERA.

The method

Playing and managing in the Deadball Era, Jones’s managerial style was designed to take ruthless advantage of his opponent’s mistakes and weaknesses. On defense, the 1906 White Sox were the second-best fielding team in the American League, making 2 7 fewer errors then the league average. They also allowed the fewest unearned runs in the league. The team was dubbed the “Hitless Wonders” because of their league-worst .230 batting average. The Sox were also last in slugging, 70 points behind the leader.

The Sox did have some punch, as measured in Deadball terms. They finished third in runs scored and also did well in walks (first), hit by pitches (first), stolen bases (third) and sacrifices (first). Nonetheless, this was a team that did more with less. They scored 570 runs and allowed 460. Applying these statistics to a modern formula, STATS estimates that the Sox should have had a record of 84-69, rather than their actual 93-58. The team overachieved by nine games.

Again using individual statistics and a modern formula, Total Baseball estimates that the 1906 White Sox should have scored a total of 531 runs, a total they surpassed by 39 runs. Total Baseball’s modern clutch-hitting index implies that this improvement was largely due to good hitting under pressure. The White Sox had an index of 111, the best in the majors.

Addie Joss, Cleveland Hall of Farner, described playing against Chicago, “The Sox are game to the core. They can stand the gaff with the best of them. They have the spirit and they make the inside play. When you go in the box against Chicago, you know you’ve got to pitch. That is the greatest secret of their success. They always make the pitcher pitch. Hahn, Dougherty, Jones, and that bunch won’t swing at anything unless it’s right over the plate. A pitcher who can cut the plate can beat them.” Few could.

The Series matchup

On paper, the 1906 World Series was a mismatch. Frank Chance, the Cub first baseman, hit .319 compared toJiggs Donahue’s .257. Cub third baseman Harry Steinfeldt hit .327 to Lee Tannehill’s .183. But the White Sox were about to demonstrate that the matchups to be concerned with are pitchers and defense against hitters.

Only one sportswriter, Hugh Fullerton, understood that the White Sox could beat the Cubs. Fullerton’s editor refused to run a column before the Series in which he predicted a Sox victory. Fullerton’s theory was that the Sox played with brains first, and then feet and hands.

The Sox were 3-1 underdogs going into the World Series. The Cubs led the National League in ERA (1.76), batting average (.262), runs scored, slugging, and stolen bases. They set a never-to-be matched record of 116 victories in a 154-game season. But they had not faced the same strength of opponent as the Sox.

Five teams in the American League had played . 500 ball or better in 1906, and only two were truly bad teams. The American League’s sixth-place team had a better record then the National’s fourth place team. Only three teams in the Senior Circuit played .500 ball or better.

Jones had instilled an aggressive nature into his team. The Sox may have been hitless, but they knew how to manufacture runs. The Sox could scramble for runs whereas the Cubs were used to bashing their way to victory. Bue the White Sox were unlikely victims for a bashing. The Cubs hadn’t faced a pitching staff like that of the Sox. Jones felt that the Cubs were susceptible to lefthanders and spitballers. On the season the Cubs had faced just four lefties who ultimately had double-figure victories and a winning record. Nick Altrock, Doc White, and Ed Walsh were pitchers who fit the bill to defeat the Cubs.

Jones knew that his players, who had just come through a grinding pennant race against two tough clubs, would not be in awe of the team from the West Side. He also felt the Cubs would be overconfident. Cubs’ manager Frank Chance proved that by announcing before the Series that “we’ll use our second-string pitchers.”

Chance was not yet the field general Fielder Jones was. The Cubs’ “Peerless Leader” had a great eye for talent but underestimated the Sox. He was known as a hunch manager and one who would fight to force players to do it his way. Jones, on the other hand, was an innovator and a great motivator. He is credited, for example, with creating the motion infield to defend against bunts. He created the “body-twist slide.” He carefully and successfully positioned his fielders according to batter, pitcher, and situation.

The National Game mentions a game in which the St. Louis Browns had loaded the bases against Jones’s White Sox, with no outs. Jones warmed up all his pitchers and brought in a different one to get each of the next three hitters. The Sox escaped without a run being scored. The article indicates this was the first time this tactic had been used.

The 1906 World Series

The World Series captured Chicago’s imagination, and the city almost ground to a halt. The series was to be played on consecutive days, alternating from park to park. Many expected the powerful Cubs to sweep, especially since the Sox would be missing shortstop George Davis, who was out with a sore back.The Cubs won the coin flip for the home field advantage. The Cubs opened the Series with their ace Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown in West Side Park. Brown dominated the NL, going 26- 6 with a 1.04 ERA on the season.

The Sox countered with lefthander Nick Altrock. The two twirlers were perfect through three innings. The bitter October cold added to the batters’ troubles. The Sox scored first in the fifth as George Rohe tripled to left. He scored on a comebacker to the mound by Patsy Dougherty when catcher Johnny Kling couldn’t handle Brown’s throw to the plate. The Sox scored again in the sixth. Altrock walked, was sacrificed to second and tried to score on a Jones single. Altrock was out at the plate with Jones going to second on the play. After moving to third on a passed ball, Jones scored on a single by Frank lsbell.

The Cubs mustered a run in the bottom of the frame, getting two men on, with one scoring after a sacrifice and wild pitch. The Sox held the lead to win, 2-1. Altrock and Brown both tossed great games, each allowing just four hits and one walk. The Sox pitching shut down the Cub offense, while the offense scratched out enough runs to win. Fielder Jones was heard to say, “This should prove the leather is mightier than the wood.”

Game 2 moved to the South Side, where Ed Reulbach and Doc White faced off. Reulbach had a strong second season with the Cubs, going 19-4 with a 1.65 ERA. He pitched the biggest game of his career, while White struggled in the cold, gave up three runs in the second, another in the third, and was gone. Frank Owen pitched the final six innings, giving up three more Cub runs.

In classic Sox fashion, they scored in the fifth without a hit. Donahue led off with a walk. After a force out at second on a grounder from Dougherty, Johnny Evers threw wild to first, allowing Dougherty to move to second. With two out, Joe Tinker booted a grounder, allowing the run to score.

Reulbach took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before Jiggs Donahue slapped a single to center. It was the only Sox hit. The 7-1 victory allowed the scribes to gloat that the Cubs had hit their mark and were ready to finish off the Sox. Future commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis asked Sox fans, “What league is it your team plays in?”

Game 3 moved back to West Side Park, as Ed Walsh took the mound against rookie Jack Pfiester. Pfiester had gone 20-8 with a 1.51 ERA. The Cubs threatened with two hits in the first but a caught stealing took them out of the inning. That would be the only Cub scoring opportunity. Walsh did not allow another hit.

The game was scoreless through five. Pfiester had little trouble with the Sox until the sixth when Lee Tannehill led off with a single. After Walsh walked, Pfeister hit Ed Hahn with a pitch. The lefty bore down with bases loaded, getting Jones to foul out and fanning Isbell. Next up was fill-in Rohe. Kling taunted Rohe, calling him “busher,” saying he wouldn’t get a pitch to hit. Rohe responded with a triple. Walsh retired nine of the next ten batters to seal the 3-0 victory.

The Sox only had four hits and two walks, but, as they had done all season, found a way to score when needed. The National League’s best-hitting team got just two hits and a walk off Walsh, who fanned 12.

Game 4 featured the pitching matchup from Game 1, only this time at the White Sox home field. The Sox were buoyed by the return of George Davis. Altrock pitched a fine game, allowing seven hits, a walk, and a single run. But Three-Finger Brown was better. The future Hall of Farner allowed just two hits and two walks. The Sox got just one runner to third.

The Cubs threatened early but baserunning mistakes took them out of innings. They finally got to Altrock in the seventh. Hahn lost Frank Chance’s fly ball in the sun for a single. After being sacrificed to second and third, Chance scored on Tinker’s two-out single. The Cubs’ 1-0 victory was the fourth for the visitors in four games.

After Game 4, Fielder Jones tongue-lashed his team, especially Isbell. The Sox had just 11 hits in four games. Isbell was 1 for 16 at this point and had committed three errors. Jones himself was just 1 for 15. Yet the Sox had split the first four games. Sox pitching, with the exception of Game 2, had held the powerful Cubs to 13 hits and two runs.

Ed Walsh was given the start in Game 5, as Jones passed over Doc White. The Cubs countered with the curveballer Reulbach. The Sox scored one in the top of the first, as Isbell doubled home Hahn. The Cubs struck back with three in the bottom of the frame, taking advantage of two errors, including another by Isbell.

The Sox tied the game in the third with two doubles, one being Isbell’s second of the game, and a perfect double steal. Reulbach exited. The “Hitless Wonders” exploded in the fourth, scoring four runs on four hits, including three doubles, and two walks. Isbell hit his third double of the game during the rally. Down 7 -3, the Cubs got a run back in the fourth on a double steal, with Tinker stealing home. The Sox got that run back in the sixth when Isbell hit his fourth double of the game, scoring on a Rohe single.

Walsh was knocked out of the game in the sixth, when the Cubs scored two on a bases-loaded double by “Wildfire” Schulte. Doc White finished the game for the Sox, saving the 8-6 win. The “Hitless Wonders” scored eight runs on 12 hits, walking four times. The Sox had eight doubles in the game, including lsbell’s record four. Jack Pfiester and Orval Overall mopped up for the Cubs after Reulbach was removed.

Chicago was in a state of shock. The upstarts from the South Side had beaten the mighty Cubs three times in their own park. For Game 6, Frank Chance passed over a couple of rested pitchers to throw his ace, Brown, on one day’s rest. The Sox countered with White, even though he pitched three innings the day before. Fielder Jones still wanted the lefty against the Cubs.

The Cubs got to White in the first as Solly Hoffman singled, and scored on a double by Schulte. But Brown clearly didn’t have his best stuff. He was tagged for three runs in the bottom of the first and knocked from the box in the second, when the Sox scored four more runs. The “Wonders” ripped Brown and reliever Overall for 14 hits and three walks.

George Davis drove in three runs on two hits. Jiggs Donahue drove in three runs, going two for four. White went the distance, scattering seven hits and four walks, as the Cubs stranded nine baserunners. The White Sox won easily, 8-3. The World Series Championship was theirs.

Peter M. Gordon gives a more complete account of the series in the 1990 edition of the Baseball Research Journal. The journal’s editor titled Gordon’s article “The Greatest World Series Upset of All Time.” But was it an upset? Fielder Jones clearly underst0od what it took to win. He had disciplined his team to win against all odds. The Sox played the same style of ball that they were successful at during the season. The Cubs had their style of play taken away from them.

Chance’s team had opportunities during the Series but wasted them with mental errors like baserunning mistakes. Nor could the Cubs take advantage of Sox mistakes or get a timely hit. The White Sox “outhit” the Cubs on the Series, .198 tO .196. The Sox pitchers finished the series with an ERA of 1.50, t0 the Cubs’ ERA of 3.40. The White Sox put 55 runners on base via hit or walk, stranding 33. The Cubs put 54 men on base via hit or walk, stranding 36. The White Sox had poor defense during the Series, making 15 errors compared to seven for the Cubs. The Sox scored 22 runs in the six games while the Cubs scored 18.

Fielder Jones was a daring, aggressive player and manager. His team possessed the same qualities. The aging Henry Chadwick noted that the White Sox “won on generalship alone.” Cubs manager Frank Chance honored the Sox victory, but also said, “There is one thing I will never believe, and that is the White Sox are a better ball club than the Cubs. We did not play our game, and that’s all there is to it.” Chance was right, the Cubs didn’t play their game. The Sox didn’t let them.

Fielder Jones said of his team, “They were a club that a manager could depend upon. Called the ‘Hitless Wonders,’ it is true that their batting was light. But they hit at the right time, as you will notice if you look up the record. Every man knew his business. Baseball was at their fingertips. They won games because they were good ballplayers, and a good ballplayer can’t be manufactured out of batting averages.”

The Cubs were a dominant team of the era, going to the World Series three times in the next four years, winning two championships. But the White Sox were also a strong team, not by any means a fluke. They averaged 90 wins per season in the Jones years while the first-place American League teams averaged 92. In 1905 and 1908, the Sox lost chances at pennants when the first place teams played fewer games.

The Sox were built to play and win in the Deadball Era. The Sox played inside baseball, and used their talents to the utmost. Fielder Jones also taught the Cubs and Frank Chance a lesson: don’t take anything for granted.