The Los Angeles Dodgers return to Chicago’s South Side this weekend for the first time since the 1959 World Series, when Charlie Neal, Larry Sherry & Co. defeated the White Sox four games to two.
The very concept of a World Series being played in this city is utterly foreign to any Chicagoan younger than 50. Thus, it may be good to provide a reminder of what things were like that fall as the Sox prepared to face the National League champions, who had eliminated the Milwaukee Braves in a best-of-three pennant playoff.
The following is excerpted from the book “’59: Summer of the Sox,” by Tribune sports staffer Bob Vanderberg.
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The shocking realization that the White Sox actually were going to be in a World Series was finally beginning to sink in. Among the happiest with Chicago’s role as host were its restaurant and hotel owners, who conservatively estimated between $10 million and $12 million would be spent at their establishments during the Series’ first two days.
The city’s hotels expected an influx of at least 10,000 out-of-town guests. Among them were the Dodgers, who had arrived at the Conrad Hilton at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, after their red-eye flight from Los Angeles, plus a horde of sportswriters who had descended upon the LaSalle Hotel, which was serving as World Series headquarters. The proprietor of a barbershop in the Palmer House reported having had two interesting customers, both in town for the Series: an Alaskan Eskimo and a male hula dancer from Hawaii.
Attempting to capitalize on the festive mood, merchandisers around the area announced one “World Series sale” after another. Lytton’s tied its in with an anniversary sale, with imported worsted suits going for $53.50, Mansfield’s men’s shoes for $13.85 and fur-trimmed women’s coats for $98.
Maurice L. Rothschild put two-trouser suits by Don Richards on sale for $69.50, and, at Wieboldt’s, Maytag washers and Philco dryers were going for $169 and Westinghouse and Frigidaire 11-cubic-foot refrigerators for $199.
There were no such sales on tickets for Game 1, set for Thursday, Oct. 1. Seven-dollar reserved grandstand seats were being scalped for $50, and $10 boxes were commanding up to $150. About 500 people, who just wanted a seat, camped out overnight outside the Comiskey Park bleacher gate to be first in line for the 1,300 $2 bleacher tickets that were to begin being sold at 8 a.m. Thursday. Another 3,000 to 4,000 standing-room tickets were also available at $4.10 each.
Loop office workers knew they’d be able to sneak away to the nearest watering hole for a few innings, but, for those who perhaps wanted to make an afternoon of it, the Sheraton Towers at 505 N. Michigan Ave. was offering, free to the public, theater-sized closed-circuit TV in its seventh-floor ballroom, which held 1,500.
Meanwhile, on the eve of the Series, White Sox President Bill Veeck had rehired manager Al Lopez for 1960 at a salary said to be in the vicinity of $60,000, while Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley, trying to steal some of the newspaper space from the Sox, fired his manager, Bob Scheffing. He replaced him with Charlie Grimm, who had served as Wrigley’s manager in two earlier stints.
The only reason for the move had to be publicity: Scheffing had taken the Cubs from 62-92 and last place in his first year, 1957, to 74-80 and fifth place in ’59.
The Phillies’ Eddie Sawyer said: “The way I see it, Bob Scheffing was manager of the year in our league, and now he isn’t managing anymore. Sometimes this game is hard to figure.”
What was also hard to figure was baseball’s choice of radio broadcasters for the Series–Byrum Saam, voice of the Phillies, and the Yankees’ Mel Allen, who did the Series games practically every year as it was. Veeck had lobbied for Sox voice Bob Elson, to no avail. At least the Sox would be represented on the Series telecasts, available in Chicago on Channels 5 and 9, by Jack Brickhouse, who was teaming with the Dodgers’ Vin Scully.
Brickhouse and Scully, in their Series preparations, no doubt came to the same conclusions most other analysts had. The Dodgers, like everyone else, had the edge over the Sox in offense and power; their pitching (led by Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, Roger Craig, the still-developing Sandy Koufax and rookie reliever Larry Sherry) was comparable to Chicago’s (Early Wynn, Bob Shaw, Dick Donovan and Billy Pierce and the bullpen duo of Gerry Staley and Turk Lown).
Despite the nickname “Go-Go Sox,” the White Sox’s overall speed on the bases, represented by Luis Aparicio (56 steals) and Jim Landis, was not exceedingly more impressive than that of the Dodgers. The only real edge the Sox held was on defense, where its down-the-middle foursome of Landis (center field), Aparicio (shortstop), Nellie Fox (second base) and Sherm Lollar (catcher) was baseball’s best.
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Still, oddsmakers, taking into account the home-field advantage, had established the Sox as 6-5 favorites to win the Series. And when the fans began arriving in the late morning that Thursday, the home team was pumped, from the front office on down.
“There’s a number of things you want to do,” recalled Chuck Comiskey, then the team’s executive vice president. “First of all, you want to bring the big flag to Chicago. And then, you want to defend the American League honor. The league factor was very big. Don’t think it wasn’t.”
Gerry Staley was thrilled just to finally be in the Series after 13 years in the majors:
“That’s everybody’s goal, to get to the World Series. I’d missed the Cardinals’ pennant in ’46– I first came up in ’47. And I’d joined the Yankees too late in ’55 to be eligible for the Series. I threw batting practice for them in the Series, but I couldn’t even sit in the dugout during the game. So I’d just go back to the hotel and watch the game on TV.”
In his hotel room the night before the Series opener, rookie outfielder Jim McAnany recalled, “I said a little prayer: `Dear Jesus, just don’t let me screw up.’ I remember walking out of the dugout, and Jiminy Christmas, everybody was in a suit and tie, all dressed up. It was just different. It was not just another game. There was a lot of tension, a lot of pressure. I really noticed it.” . . .
A crowd of 48,103 gathered for the first Series at Comiskey Park since 1919, when little lefty Dickie Kerr beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 in Game 3 for the Sox’s only victory at home. Forty years later, Kerr was on the field again, this time with press credentials, reporting his observations for one of his hometown’s newspapers, the Houston Post.
Covering the Series for Look magazine was Yankees manager Casey Stengel, who noted: “I never realized that finishing third was so low until I talked to my bosses about a new contract.”
There were far more celebrities in the stands. Mayor Richard J. Daley and his wife–and their four sons–were in their third-base box, and not far away were Illinois Gov. William Stratton, former Gov. Adlai Stevenson, Chief Justice Earl Warren and former Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler.
From the entertainment world were Joan Crawford, George Gobel, Orson Welles, Joe E. Brown, Danny Thomas and Ralph Edwards, host of TV’s “This Is Your Life.” There were Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio and DiMag’s pal, restaurateur Toots Shor. And, hard by the Sox dugout, former Sox VP John Rigney, his wife Dorothy and ex-Sox slugger Zeke Bonura–plus a couple more Rigney guests.
“John had two Catholic priests with him,” remembered Al Lopez. “And I was in the dugout, and he hollered over at me, wanted to introduce me to the two priests and wish me luck. He said, `Hey, Al, we’ve got some help here.’ I said, `Thanks, John–we need all the help we can get.’
“About 20 minutes later, over on the first-base side, (Dodgers president) Walter O’Malley walks in with four priests.”
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Editor’s note: Being thus “outnumbered” perhaps was an omen, because, even though the Sox routed the Dodgers 11-0 that day behind Ted Kluszewski’s two home runs and five RBIs and Early Wynn’s pitching, they lost the next day 4-3–when Charlie Neal hit two homers and Sox third-base coach Tony Cuccinello’s decision to send home the lumbering Lollar killed off an eighth-inning rally. The Sox then dropped Games 3 and 4 in the not-made-for-baseball L.A. Coliseum. A thrilling 1-0 Game 5 Sox victory in Los Angeles–before 92,706, baseball’s largest postseason or regular-season crowd–sent the Series back to Chicago, but the Dodgers ripped Wynn and won 9-3 to wrap up the title.