1959 Chicago White Sox

[Calif_Eagle]

Anyone ever take a hard look at the full season roster of the 1959 AL Champion Chisox? Now thats an interesting team, when you look at the different people that team had access to over the course of its season.

This team had HOF-ers Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Larry Doby in a part time role, Early Wynn & Billy Pierce who while not a HOF-er has a lot of support to be there and may one day get to the Coop via the Vets Committee.

Other name players, some regulars, but many in mostly part-time roles include Sherm Lollar Earl Torgeson, Al Smith, Jim Landis, Jim Rivera, former 1950 AL batting king Billy Goodman, future Indian star catcher Johnny Romano, future Phillies star & 1964 All-Star game MVP Johnny Callison, future Tigers star & 1961 AL batting champ Norm Cash, former Reds HR Champion slugger Ted Kluzewski, former Phillies slugger and RBI man Del Ennis (1946 Sporting News Rookie of the Year) former Tiger 3rd base star Ray Boone, future AL All-star catcher Earl Battey, the well traveled Harry "Suitcase" Simpson, future Mets spare part & 1 game World Series hero JC Martin, former Giants All-Star and 1954 NL batting runner-up Don Mueller and Indians 20 game winner to be, & TSN Pitcher of the Year for 1962, Dick Donovan. As well as record setter for balks Bob Shaw.

Has any team ever had a cast quite like that one?

The recent threads on most interesting team to win a World Series and Worst team to win one brought this to mind. While looking over the weak (for a WS Winner that is) 1959 LA Dodgers team, I was also glancing over the 1959 Chisox roster and was struck by how many "names" they had on that team, even if all some of these players had that season was the proverbial cup of coffee. Has any team ever had a collection of so many players that either went to the HOF, were successful, were successful for other teams before they got to the Sox, or would go on to be successful elsewhere? It seems almost the whole Sox roster fit at least one of those criteria.

I just thought this would be an interesting team to talk about. The Sox from the mid 50's to the late 60's were under achievers, just missing the flag a few times and it looks as though they traded away what could have been the foundation for more than one championship season in the 1960's.

The Sox finished 2nd 5 times between 1957 and 1965. They also were only 3 games back in the super close 1967 AL pennant race, which of course was won by the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox, with the Twins & Tigers tied for 2nd a game back. Players such as Callison, Cash, Romano, Battey and Don Mincher (who was traded with Battey for Roy Sievers in spring of 1960, Mincher apparently having been a Triple A farmhand for the Sox in 1959.) might have given them the sticks they needed to win some of the close pennant runs they made and just fell short on.

[Steve Jeltz]

Has any team ever had a collection of so many players that either went to the HOF, were successful, were successful for other teams before they got to the Sox, or would go on to be successful elsewhere? It seems almost the whole Sox roster fit at least one of those criteria.

To answer this question, none other than the 2005 White Sox come to mind. A.J. Pierzynski was an All Star in Minnesota, Jermaine Dye had a few seasons of driving in over 100 RBI with Kansas City and Oakland and was an All Star. Scott Podsednik was second in ROY voting with Milwaukee in 2003, while Carl Everett was a star in Houston, Boston and Texas. Aaron Rowland was a future All Star and dark horse MVP candidate in Philly.

Bench player Chris Widger was an okay catcher in Montreal, Geoff Blum was, and still is, an excellent utility infielder with Montreal, Houston, Tampa Bay and San Diego.

Pitcher Freddy Garcia had 16, 17, and 18 win seasons with Seattle and was 3rd in the 2001 Cy Young balloting. Jose Contreras had a good rookie year with the Yankees in 2003 before being dealt to the Sox. "El Duque" Orlando Hernandez was an integral part of the Yanks starting staff during their World Series title winning teams in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Closer Dustin Hermanson was a well traveled vet who was an ace of Montreal in the late 1990's. Luis Vizcaino was workhorse out of the bullpen for Milwaukee before becoming a White Sox in 2005. Vizcaino continued being an excellent arm out of the pen in subsequent stops in Arizona and with the Yanks.

While those players may not be HOF caliber, they were solid players who were accustomed to some type of success in their careers.