If a team is “winning ugly” it could be that they win games in bad looking uniforms or they just win ugly games.

Despite reason to believe that the 1983 Chicago White Sox were in ugly uniforms with the multicoloured SOX written across their chest they did win some games by huge scores. They had great power hitting through their line-up and often would win games by their power alone even if their pitching would not be up to the task some nights. The next night they might be just as likely to pitch a one hitter and lose the game.

Fact is Winning Ugly was a term used to describe the 1983 White Sox team as they were having one of their best years of a half century. The White Sox went 60-25 after the All-Star break that year to run away with the American League West division after stumbling to a .500 start.

They finally pulled it together and Winning Ugly was born.

Winning Ugly was actually a style of play; the term was used by an opposition manager and then affectionately copied by White Sox media. The White Sox were winning ugly games by playing feisty scrappy baseball despite inconsistent play. By the second half of 1983 the term was really out of place as all facets of their game worked until the playoffs when they lost to Baltimore in four games.

The Sox have had other monikers to cover other years in their franchise history, and with the lack of championships it is a good way to differentiate between different teams and styles of play throughout the years. After all it is not like they will ever be recalled in the same breath as the great Yankees are with teams listed by decade.

Prior to the 1983 formation of Winning Ugly the circa 1977 era Sox were labelled “The South Side Hit Men”.

In 1976 the Sox fielded the worst team in their history winning only 64 games. Something had to change and it did in 1977 as the Sox were one of the first teams to start renting players. Since they had such low attendance in the early 1970s they could not afford lengthy contracts. Attendance doubled in 1977 when good hitters arrived with simple one year deals to play in Chicago.  The only problem is that any improvements only lasted season to season with the player turnover. By July of 1977 the team was 24 games above .500 and leading the division, but they would ultimately slide back to third place at the end of that season.

Players who signed for 1977 like Oscar Gamble and Richie Zisk moved on but the team just replaced them with new bodies like Bobby Bonds in 1978. They were hired guns for one year and like a mob contract they were there to hit. So the moniker worked.

Also during those seasons with the extra rowdy fans in the stands the stadium was considered intimidating for opponents. Fans would sing songs like “Kiss Him Goodbye” when the other team had to remove a pitcher. Despite complaints about the fans though the league could do nothing and the South Side Hit Men and their fans survived.

In the 1950s the Sox teams were known as “The Go-Go White Sox” probably because the team philosophy had morphed into one emphasizing speed on the base paths and heroic defence that used faster players.  In 1951 the White Sox first black player, Minnie Minoso, led the league in stolen bases, was athletic in the outfield and still hit over .300.

At the turn of the century the Sox were labelled “The Hitless Wonders”.

Ever wonder why?

In 1906 the White Sox won the World Series by beating the Chicago Cubs even though the Cubs had won 116 games that season. Somehow the Sox team won the American League pennant despite posting the lowest batting average in the entire league. So they were generally hitless all season, but won everything even beating an overwhelming favourite and that leaves much to wonder.

More recent fans of baseball may remember the “Good Guys Wear Black” slogan of the early 1990s. This really was a reference to uniforms as the Sox started wearing black uniforms again after they moved into their new Comiskey Park. In 1990 White Sox uniforms were merchandising hits and the Sox led baseball that year in jersey sales just as black became fad in sports.

The White Sox were really the first in baseball to capitalize on that trend and locally they were the good guys, so it went to figure that in the south side anyway, a tough and tumble end of Chicago the Good Guys wore black.

The year 2000 saw the White Sox best team since the  1983 Winning Ugly season and it was after a string of years of the team trading out popular older players (1997 had the White Flag Trade which some say conceded the division to Cleveland) to bring in some perceived as washed up malcontents that were just happy to be playing.

With a sudden turn around to win 95 games and a division title the slogan “These Kids Can Play” caught on in Chi town. Meaning not so much they were kids, but they could play well despite dire projections of the Sox fortunes that preseason.

That team ignited something good and it continued for the next four seasons that they fielded pretty good teams that just missed making the postseason. 

That was until “Win or Die Trying” phenomena arrived at Chicago’s South Side.

For much of 2005 the White Sox were far and away the best team in baseball, but they slumped terrible the last two months of the year. They finished second in all baseball with 99 wins, and almost lost the division on the last week. Nobody counted on them winning in the playoffs because they turned ice cold and  backed into the post season.

After a sweep of the defending champion Boston Red Sox in the divisional playoffs the White Sox really started getting breaks in the American League Championship series against Anaheim.

At home in game two the teams were tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth when A.J. Pierzynski struck out to end the inning. As he was walking back to the dugout Pierzynski realized the umpire did not call him out because the catcher had not cleanly caught the ball – so he ran to first base as a player would on a dropped third strike. A pinch runner then stole second base before teammate Joe Crede singled to win the game for the Chicago.

Literally this team was meant to win or die trying.

They did everything possible to blow a huge lead and still made the playoffs. Then Pierzynski was practically in the dugout conceding the final out of the inning before they found a way to get him on base and win anyway.

From that point on the old dominant White Sox were back and they never looked back winning eight straight games to become World Champions. Included in that run of games were four consecutive playoff complete games by starters against Anaheim. Something that had not been accomplished in baseball since the Texas Rangers did it in the 1983 regular season.

Remember 1983 – the winning ugly season – the season that another manager declared the Sox to be winning ugly in their games.

That manager by the way was Doug Rader, the 1983 Texas Rangers manager.

One could say that all through their history while different slogans have been used to describe Chicago baseball that Winning Ugly was always the most suitable description for their play.

From uniforms with short pants, to the word SOX in techno colour it’s always looked rather ugly.

From winning without any batting, winning with misfits, winning despite long losing slumps, winning despite starting slow, or winning after giving up on the play almost all winning in White Sox history whichever way has been non-traditional and somewhat ugly.

As Jim Croce wrote in his hit song “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” the meanest man in the whole darn town hailed from the south side of Chicago which not only may seem scary and ugly it’s very fitting because ther south side according to Croce’s lyrics is also “the baddest  part of town”.

What could be a more encompassing motto than Winning Ugly
for a team that plays on the end of town that nobody wants to visit?