By Phil Ellenbecker
Having won the first two games of a showdown series with the Cleveland Indians, and increasing their American League lead over the Tribe to 3 1/2 games, the 1959 Chicago White Sox had a great chance to establish a foothold atop the league with a Sunday doubleheader on Aug. 30 at Municipal Stadium.
The ChiSox took full advantage by sweeping Cleveland 6-3 and 9-4 before a crowd of 66,586, second-highest of the season in Cleveland next to the 68,680 for a Sunday twin bill against the reigning world champion New York Yankees on June 21.
(Municipal had the largest capacity in the major leagues at 74,000.)
With the pair of wins Chicago further established its superiority this year over the Indans. The Pale Hose had a 15-7 record in head-to-head matchups.
The Sox took the opener behind ace and workhorse Early Wynn, who improved to 17-9. Wynn yielded to Gerry Staley after the Indians pulled within 5-3 n the eighth inning. Staley picked up his 11th save.
It was Wynn who got the Sox going on offense when he homered with one out in the sixth with Chicago trailing 2-0. Wynn's blast opened the door to a five-run inning that made the difference. Luis Aparicio followed in "Go Go Sox" fashion by beating out an infield single and stealing second. After Nellie Fox walked, Jim Landis doubled home Aparicio. Cleanup hitter Ted Kluszewski drew an intentional walk, and when Sherman Lollar was hit by a pitch Fox scored to make it 3-0.
(Kluszwewski, one of the top sluggers in the game earlier in the decade, now on the last legs of his career, was acquired Aug. 29 from Pittsburgh for Harry "Suitcase" Simpson and minor leaguer Robert Sagers in hopes of adding punch to the Pale Hose' power-hungry lineup. He gave them a moral boost if not a significant impact on the field. “When we got Ted, we all thought it was a very, very good thing for us, because he gave us a strong left-handed hitter with a good reputation," pitcher Billy Pierce said. "We never thought he was past his prime but that he would help us. We were very glad to have him on our ballclub."*
Billy Goodman singled in Landis after the walk to Klu, bringing an end to Cal McLish's day after he'd flirted with history earlier. He was perfect through three innings, retired the first 10 White Sox batters and 12 of the first 13.
(McLish, full name Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, had his best year in 1959, going 19-8. As for his name, “Until I came along, my dad never got to name any of the kids. So I suppose he was into the firewater and he named me," McLish said. John McLish, who worked as a farmer, was part Choctaw and Lulu was part Cherokee. Cal’s name has always been a bit of a mystery. Even though his father was a staunch Democrat and Calvin Coolidge was a Republican from Vermont, Cal took pride in being named after the 30th president. The reason behind the Julius Caesar portion of his name is unknown, at least to Cal. Tuskahoma, a Choctaw word meaning red warrior, is also the name of a tiny community in the southeast part of Oklahoma {McLish was born in Anadarko, Okla.}.*
Earl Torgeson drew a walk to bring in the final run of the White Sox's breakthrough sixth.
The White Sox put the tying run at the plate in the eighth when Minnie Minoso singled, bringing in Staley, and Tito Francona beat out a grounder to first. But Staley then retired Rocky Colavito, George Strickland and Woody Held in order and went 1-2-3 in the ninth to slam the door on the Tribe.
(Francona, father of World Series-winning manager Terry Francona, had his best season in 1959, finishing fifth in AL MVP voting with a .363 batting average, 20 homers and 79 RBIs. He fell one at-bat shy of the batting title, won by Harvey Kuenn with a .353 mark.)
Held had given Cleveland the early lead with a homer leading off the bottom of the fifth inning. Ed Fitz Gerald made it 2-0 when he singled, moved to second and third on McLish's sacrifice and Jimmy Piersall's ground out, and scored on Vic Power's single.
Wynn gave up three runs, all earned, while striking out five and walking three in his seven innings.
Let's win two After having to struggle a bit to get past the Indians in the opener, the White Sox pounced on the Tribe in the nightcap, taking a 5-0 lead through three innings and keeping Cleveland at bay from there.
Goodman led the ChiSox, going 3 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs. Al Smith was 2 for 5 with a two-run homer, three RBIs and two runs scored.
(Goodman, the AL batting champion in 1950 with a .354 average, was acquired by the White Sox from Baltimore in a seven-player trade in December 1957. He hit .300 for his career.)
Barry Latman did enough on the mound to improve his record to 8-5, which is where he finished the season after starting 0-2 and being banished to the bullpen. He faced the minimum nine batters the first three innings before surrendering a three-run homer to Rocky Colavito in the fourth and a solo shot to Held in the fifth, which cut the margin to 7-4.
Turk Lown came on after the fifth and blanked the Tribe the rest of the way in earning his 12th save. (Lown {2.89 ERA} and Staley {2.24} each finished with 15 saves, tying for the American League lead).
The White Sox opened a 3-0 lead in the second when Smith singled in Kluszewski and two runs scored on Latman's sacrifice fly. The margin went to 5-0 the next inning on Goodman's two-run single. Smith's two-run homer made it 7-3 in the top of the fifth. Sacrifice flies by Fox and Sammy Esposito added single runs in the eighth and ninth.
The Indians were never closer than 3 games of the Sox the rest of the way and finished 5 shy of Chicago at 89-65. The White Sox had the major leagues' best record of 94-60.
*—From Society for Baseball Research's Biography Project (http://sabr.org/bioproject
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