By Woodrow Carroll
With the death of Major League Baseball icon, Willie Mays, last week, the distinction of being the oldest living Hall of Fame member belongs to former Chicago White Sox great, Luis Aparicio. In addition Aparicio, 90, is the lone Sox member alive of the 1959 World Series team.
Aparicio joined the White Sox in 1956 and instantly became a fan favorite, thanks to his slick fielding at shortstop and base-stealing skills.
The son of a Venezuelan baseball star, Aparicio was 22 when he came on board with the White Sox. Along with second baseman, Nellie Fox, the Sox had a formidable infield. Aparicio stole 56 bases in 1959 and was a key to the Sox American League championship that season. It was Fox and Aparicio who finished one-two in that order in the voting for the American League Most Valuable Player Award that year.
Both Mays and Aparicio experienced defeat in their first World Series appearances. Mays and his New York Giants were taken out in six games by the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series. As for the 1959 White Sox, after a fast start, the Sox lost in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
How often does a team score the first 13 runs in a World Series and still lose? The 1959 White Sox did!
Game one of the 1959 World Series was a 11-0 White Sox victory. Ted Kluszewski’s hitting and Early Wynn’s pitching wrapped up a Sox victory early.
In game two of the 1959 World Series saw the Sox took a 2-0 lead after the first inning, but, this time the Dodgers successfully fought back!
The Dodgers were ahead, 4-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning when, with a run in, the Sox’ Sherm Lollar, representing the tying run, was thrown out at the plate. It probably was the key play in the Series. The Dodgers won, 4-3, to tie the Series at one-game all.
Games three, four, and five were struggles for the Sox. Playing in front of monster 90,000-plus crowds in the LA Memorial Coliseum, the White Sox dropped 5-4 and 3-1 decisions in games three and four.
If you are looking for an unusual statistic, take a look at game five of the 1959 World Series. No RBI was recorded in that game that set the record for the largest crowd, 92,706, ever to attend a World Series game.
In the top of the fourth inning of the Sox’ first batter, Fox, singled. Center fielder Jim Landis of the Sox singled to send Fox to third base.
Lollar hit into a double play that and Fox scored on the play, however, no RBI is given on a double play that brings in a run.
Sox pitching in the 1959 World Series was not bad. Lack of timely hitting after the first game was the Sox’s major problem. Sox pitching in game five kept the Dodgers at bay after the Sox scored on Lollar’s double play. In the process, the Sox handed future Hall of Fame member, Sandy Koufax, a 1-0 defeat.
Game six in Chicago was all Los Angeles. The Dodgers scored the first eight runs before the Sox mounted any offense. The final ended 9-3 to give the Dodgers the World Series championship four games to two.
As for Willie Mays, after losing to the Yankees in the 1951 Fall Classic the results were far different in 1954. Mays was the highlight of the Giants’ four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians, including tracking down the long blast by Vic Wertz blast to center field in game 1 of the Series.
Aparicio gained a modicum of revenge over the Dodgers in 1966. Then with the Baltimore Orioles, Aparicio was four-for-16 hitting and the Orioles swept Los Angeles four games straight to capture the franchise’s first World Series championship.