Today in White Sox History: March 6

Bill Veeck gets the Comiskey keys

1914

The White Sox return home from their around-the-world series of exhibition games against the New York Giants. The Sox went 24-20-2, but the added 46 games took their toll when the regular season began in late April. For the year, the Sox would end up in sixth place, 30 games out with a record of 70-84-3.

In each of the three years previous, the White Sox were better than .500, at 77 or 78 wins — and 1914 would end up as just the third losing season in franchise history.

Among the players who participated in the exhibition series was New York’s Jim Thorpe, regarding as the greatest athlete in the world at that time because of his Olympic success.

The ship that brought the White Sox back to the U.S.? None other than the Lusitania — the ship sunk by a German torpedo little more than a year after the White Sox returned home safely from their world tour.

1959

Ignoring the fact that Dorothy Comiskey ignored the wishes of both her grandfather (Charles) and father (Louis) to keep team control in the family, a probate judge rules that Bill Veeck can purchase the White Sox. Dorothy’s spurned brother, Chuck, would press with appeals into 1960, but the White Sox were now Veeck’s to control.