When Charles Commiskey moved his minor Western League St. Paul franchise into Chicago in 1901, Chicago's N.L. club let him have the use of a decaying stadium called Brotherhood Park under one condition - Commiskey's team could not identify itself as a Chicago club! Commiskey agreed to this provision and then got around it by calling his club the White Stockings. The N.L. club had long since stopped using this nickname, yet everyone knew it was a name that belonged to Chicago.
It was all part of a move to upgrade the Western League (renamed the American League) to major league status. That year the White Stockings won the first A.L. pennant behind the pitching of manager Clark Griffith, who won 24 games for the club. In 1904 the club became known as the White Sox when the Chicago Tribune shortened their name for headline writing purposes.
The White Sox won their next pennant in 1906 mainly due to the pitching rotation of: Spitballer "Big Ed" Walsh (17-13 and a league leading ten shutouts), Doc White 18-6 and a league leading 1.52 ERA), Frank Owen (22-13) and Nick Altrock (20-13). The team's batting average was a measly .230, which was why they became known as "the Hitless Wonders". Although the White Sox only hit .198 in the World Series, they nevertheless outscored the Cubs in total runs 22-18, and defeated their cross-town rivals four games to two.
The following season the White Sox slipped down to third place, and didn't win another pennant until 1917. That year pitcher Eddie Cicotte (28-12 and a league leading 1.53 ERA) helped lead them to their most successful season ever. The White Sox finished up with a 100-54 record, which gave them a .649 winning percentage, the best in club history.
In 1919 the White Sox won another American League pennant. They finished with a 88-52 record and were 5-1 favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.
But even before the Series began there were rumors swirling about that a "fix" was on. And when Cincinnati took the best of nine series - 5 games to 3, it didn't sit well with a lot of baseball fans. One year later a Chicago Grand Jury blew the whole thing wide open naming eight Chicago players as having conspired with gamblers to throw the series.
As it turned out, Chicago's poorly paid players (Owner Charles Commiskey was one of the stingiest men in baseball) were easy pickings for the gamblers who had offered the eight teammates $100,000 (but were actually only paid $10,000) to loose the series.
The most famous conspirator was outfielder "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, an illiterate farm boy from South Carolina, whose lifetime batting average of .356 and outstanding running and fielding abilities would have eventually put him in the Hall of Fame, if it hadn't been for this tragedy.
Rocked by the scandal, Major League Baseball appointed it's first commissioner, a stern, no nonsense federal judge by the name of Kenesaw Mountain Landis to try and restore the game's reputation for integrity.
Landis ruled baseball with an iron fist, and even though the eight players were acquitted in a conspiracy trial (after some of the transcripts of their testimony mysteriously disappeared from court files) Landis nevertheless banned them all from baseball for life.