Customer Reviews

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Chicago White Sox: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Chicago White Sox History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) (The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly)

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Mark Gonzales, the current Chicago White Sox beat reporter for the Chicago Tribune, has followed in the footsteps of Lew Freedman by producing this short volume of highlights of more than 100 years of White Sox history. Covering roughly 100 years in a little more than 200 pages obviously doesn't allow this book to be at all a definitive history. Rather, Gonzales aims to entertain White Sox fans by providing his own descriptions and insights on many of the team's major episodes (e.g. the Black Sox scandal, the Go-Go White Sox, the 2005 World Series, and the Winning Ugly team) and personalities (Ozzie Guillen, Frank Thomas, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Bill Veeck, to name a few).

Aside from a five-page chapter on the Black Sox scandal and some short bios on players such as Ed Walsh and Luke Appling, Gonzales mostly skips over the first 50 years of White Sox history, including the 1906 World Series win over the Cubs by the Hitless Wonders and the Charles Comiskey era. The last 30 years, which is the timeframe most familiar to current Sox fans of course, receive the most attention.

Gonzales writes in a straightforward, fairly simplistic style, as befits his training as a newspaper journalist, so as to appeal to the widest possible audience. He weaves in many quotes from the participants and firsthand observers; usually these are insightful, although sometimes, especially with Ozzie Guillen's, the quotes raise more questions than they answer. Another positive aspect of the book is the many black-and-white photos which accompany the text and bring Gonzales's words to life.

"The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly" is a fairly quick read. Being a White Sox fan who was already familiar with most of the names and episodes in the book, I was entertained and enjoyed revisiting the topics and personalities Gonzales chose to include. I did pick up some additional tidbits of knowledge. That said, Gonzales's book is not very ambitious, and covers much of the same ground as Lew Freedman's White Sox tomes, including "Then Harold Said to Ozzie". I slightly prefer Gonzales book to Freedman's, but would rank it below Richard Roeper's "Sox and the City" on the list of must-read histories about Chicago's winningest MLB team.

White Sox beat writer Mark Gonzalez provides a brief but readably informative look at the Chicago White Sox. This book is primarily geared to the Sox teams of recent memory, particularly over the last 10-20 years. Gonzalez examines many recent events, most notably the White Sox 2005 World Series Champions - the only team since the 1927 Yankees to hold first place all season and then sweep the World Series. We also get a look the team in the 1990's, the white flag trade, and some of the recent squads that challenged but (as so often happens) came up short. Gonzalez also looks at many top players, most notably Ozzie Guillen (as both player and manager), plus Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Robin Ventura, etc. The author devotes far less attention to the long history of this proud but rather hard-luck franchise. Still, we read about old-timers like Luke Appling, Luis Aparicio, and Ed Walsh, plus long-ago events like the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, the 1959 pennant winners, the GO-GO Sox, etc. Overall the book is revealing and easily read, although it does suffer a few minor factual errors. Still, this book should be of clear interest to White Sox fans.