But it was the playing field, not the battlefield, where the White Sox proved their mettle. Winning with pitching and speed the standard championship combination in the pre-Ruth era the 1917 club became the only White Sox team in history to win 100 games. They lacked power, but the team as a whole could slap out a hit and draw a walk. They led league with a .329 on-base percentage and kept busy once they got there, stealing a league high 219 bases. Nine players stole 10 bases or more.
More numbers tell more stories.
The pitching staff had a 2.16 earned-run average. But outside the numbers, the most important distinction of the 1917 White Sox is that they joined only the 1906 team in winning the World Series. It took 11 years for Charles Comiskey's team to return to the Series, a period where the team slowly evolved into championship form. Of that group, only Cicotte and Jackson are not in the Hall of Fame and were it not for a lifetime ban, Jackson also would be enshrined. At one point, Lefty Williams, in just his second full season, reeled off nine consecutive wins en route to a 17-8 record.