1968 Chicago White Sox

Record: 67-95, Finished 9th in American League (1968 AL)

Managed by Eddie Stanky (34-45), Les Moss (12-24), and Al Lopez (21-26)

Coaches: Kerby Farrell, Marv Grissom, Don Gutteridge, Les Moss and Grover Resinger

Ballpark: Comiskey Park and County Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

The 1968 Chicago White Sox were coming off a season in which they had only been eliminated from the pennant race on the final weekend of the season. They had been a competitive team for two decades, having nothing but winning seasons since 1951, and were outdrawing the crosstown Chicago Cubs year after year. However, they had been winning for the past few years with pitching, defense, and an anemic offense, making for a dull kind of baseball that was not particularly attractive to fans. As Jerome Holtzman put it: "Fans want to see action. They get weary of watching ground balls and strikeouts." So while they were outdrawing the Cubs, attendance was not where it should be.

In 1968, the White Sox decided to counter that trend by moving nine of their games to County Stadium in Milwaukee, WI, a city that was known to be baseball-mad and was left without a team since the Milwaukee Braves had relocated to Atlanta, GA in 1966. Some observers thought the White Sox had some deeper thoughts in mind, not just adding a number of well-attended games, but were looking to eventually move to Milwaukee themselves.

The 1968 season started poorly. The White Sox were beaten, 9-0, by the Cleveland Indians on Opening Day on April 10th, with only 7,756 fans on hand. The game came a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King and there had been riots on the south side of Chicago. A number of fans considered that Comiskey Park was in an unsafe area, event though the closest rioting had taken place five miles away. Things only got worse on the attendance front, however. The White Sox had their first losing season in almost two decades, finishing at 67-95 and drew only 538,323 fans to 59 dates at Comiskey Park; in contrast, 265,552 came to the nine games in Milwaukee! Meanwhile, the Cubs were competitive for the first time in years and had a great season at the turnstiles (by the standards of the time), drawing over a million fans to Wrigley Field.

Awards and Honors[edit]

All-Stars: Tommy John and Duane Josephson
AL Reliever of the Year Award: Wilbur Wood
AL Gold Glove: Luis Aparicio (SS)

Standings[edit]

American League	W	L	Pct.	GB
Detroit Tigers	103	59	.636	--
Baltimore Orioles	91	71	.562	12
Cleveland Indians	86	75	.534	16.5
Boston Red Sox	86	76	.531	17
New York Yankees	83	79	.512	20
Oakland Athletics	82	80	.506	21
Minnesota Twins	79	83	.488	24
California Angels	67	95	.414	36
Chicago White Sox	67	95	.414	36
Washington Senators	65	96	.404	37.5