Chicago in the World Series, 1903-2005: The Cubs and White Sox in Championship Play

When the White Sox met the Astros in the 2005 World Series, it marked only the second time a team from Chicago had appeared in a televised World Series. (The first time was in 1959, when to Go-Go Sox lost to the Dodgers.) Of the other 12 involving the Cubs or White Sox, seven Series came before the first radio broadcasts of baseball. Four more were on radio but were broadcast mostly during the workday. So fans of Chicago baseball turned to newspapers for their coverage, and to some of the greatest sports journalists of the last century. In reports filled with wit, color, and vivid language, they wrote about the great plays and players, the crowds, the memorable early victories and the losses that ate at Chicagoans for decades. With a chapter on each World Series involving a Chicago team, this book covers 100 years of October baseball in the Windy City, from the 1906 classic - which pitted the North Siders against the South Siders - to 2005, when the White Sox ended 88 years of frustration. Contemporary accounts from newspapers and sports publications complement the author’s informed commentary, providing two views of the teams and games - the one shared by those who were there and the one informed by the decades since.