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

What fans don't love to relive the good times of their favorite team? Likewise, in a twisted sort of way, what fans can really resist a self-pitying look back on some of those times that tested their allegiance? Those disastrous games, seasons, and plays that made the good times even better?

 

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly includes the best and worst teams and players of all time, the most clutch performances and performers, the biggest choke jobs and chokers, great comebacks and blown leads, plus overrated and underrated players and coaches.

 

If you're a through-thick-and-thin sports fan, The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly is especially for you. It will remind you of the great times and bring a smile to your face knowing you stuck with the team through the bad times, proving your loyalty. For everyone else, this warts-and-all portrait will provide countless fond memories, goose bumps, and laughs.

Ozzie Guillen, Keith Hernandez wow hundreds of fans
Late last month Ozzie Guillen appeared at Anderson's Bookshop in Downers Grove, IL to sign copies of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Chicago White Sox and more than 400 fans were able to meet the Chicago White Sox's manager and a blockbuster event. Not to be outdone by his former opponent on the field, Keith Hernandez met Guillen fan-for-fan at his book signing at Border in Westbury, NY for his book Shea Good-Bye. Guillen's next book signing appearance will be later this season. Information about Hernandez's future apperances can be found here.

GBU White Sox Press Release

The Good, The Bad, &

The Ugly: White Sox

Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching

Moments From White Sox History

By Mark Gonzales/Foreword by Bill Melton

 

What fans don't love to relive the good times of their favorite team? Likewise, in a twisted sort of way, what fans can really resist a self-pitying look back on some of those times that tested their allegiance? Those forgettable games, seasons, and plays that made the good times even better?

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Chicago White Sox by Mark Gonzales (foreword by Bill Melton) presents all the best moments and personalities in the history of the White Sox. It also unmasks, but doesn't revel in, the bad, the regrettably awful and the unflinchingly ugly.

 

In entertaining-and unsparing-fashion, this book sparkles with White Sox highlights, lowlights, wonderful and wacky memories, legends and goats, the famous and the infamous. You'll relive the magical run to the '05 World Series title, but also the notorious Black Sox Scandal that rocked the foundation of the sport.

 

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Chicago White Sox includes the best and worst White Sox teams and players of all time, the most clutch performances and performers, the biggest choke jobs and chokers, great comebacks and blown leads, plus overrated and underrated White Sox players and coaches. There are White Sox you loved for all the right reasons, and those you couldn't stand, sublime and embarrassing records, and trades, both savvy and savagely bad.

 

If you're a through-thick-and-thin Sox follower, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: White Sox is definitely for you. It will remind you of the good and great teams and bring a knowing smile about some of those other times, when you proved yourself to be a loyal fan. For everyone else, this warts-and-all portrait of the Sox will provide countless fond memories, goose bumps, and laughs.

 

About the author:

Mark Gonzales has been covering sports since Barry Bonds was a skinny high school outfielder in the early 1980s. His work has appeared in the Peninsula (CA) Times Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the Arizona Republic, Sports Illustrated, Baseball America, The Sporting News, and other publications. He currently reports on the White Sox for the Chicago Tribune.

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CONTACT: Josh Williams, Triumph Books, 312-252-1261, j.williams@triumphbooks.com

 

 

GBU White Sox Review

GBU: White Sox Book Review

by Julie Hunt, 3/22/09, Publish Chicago

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly is a series of books featuring highlights from the history of various major league baseball teams from Triumph Books, a Chicago area publisher specializing in books about sports. This book, authored by Mark Gonzales, features the Chicago White Sox, and it was recently featured on our March 2009 list of the best books published in Chicago.

The book is somewhat of a crash course in the history of the White Sox, featuring players, managers and owners, draft highlights, and even a few scandals. The book goes through the Sox’s history, but doesn’t move chronologically, rather it has sections featuring various aspects of the team’s history. Each section includes a lot of anecdotes and information from primary sources, rather than simply citing information from newspapers. It’s a book that can teach a casual fan of the White Sox new things about their team. For example, speaking off the record about current Manage Ozzie Guillen before he was added to the team, scout Jerry Krause said, “You can’t quote me on a guy who is as good as Aparisio…he’ll be our short stop next year and for the next ten years afterward. This sucker is going to play” (36).

One particularly interesting section of the book focuses on long-time Sox trainer Herm Schnieder working with Bo Jackson, Robin Ventura, Ozzie Guillen, and Michael Jordan. The section details how Schnieder helped these athletes recover from injuries to go on to play important roles for the White Sox, and how Schnieder helped prepare Jordan to play in the MLB. It was widely publicized that Jordan attempted a Major League career resulting in a spectacular failure, but few people know how hard he worked to try to make it. For example, he had a schedule of six secret work outs a week. “Schnieder devised a plan: Jordan would call him when he was five minutes away from U.S. Cellular Field, and Schnieder would unlock the chain that would enable Jordan to pull into the park past the television docks” (95). “‘These were long days, but this was something he wanted to do,’ Schnieder said. “It was far from a cakewalk…A lot of people who would have tried it probably wouldn’t have survived, but he survived’” (97).

In the section of the book about the Sox’s front office, Gonzales tells the story behind Harry Caray’s switch from the Sox’s announcing booth to the cross town rival Cubs’ and WGN-TV, a move that rocketed the Cubs to “nationwide popularity” (63). It was a dark moment in the Sox’s history akin to the familiar 1919 “Black Sox,” an scandal that Gonzales also details in the book.

I knew of many of the stories in the book (the new U.S. Cellular field, the 2005 Championship, etc.), but Gonzales took it just enough further that, as a casual baseball fan, it continued to hold my interest without being too heavy. He quotes enough batting averages and win-loss records to explain the history, but doesn’t dwell on stats. The book really reads as one big exposition to the team: straight forward, with a little humor and a great many anecdotes. It was those anecdotes, particularly in sections like those about Manager Ozzie Guillen and previous owner Bill Veeck, that make the book uniquely interesting. Gonzales covers what seems to be all the highlights of the Sox with a tone that allows you to breeze through and enjoy it, provided you’re at least interested in baseball or, preferably, the Sox (as a Tigers fan, it was tough). The factual reporting style of the writing really matches the subject, and there’s even enough pictures—I found the historical ones of particular interest because I hadn’t seen any of them before—to supplement appropriately.

I could pull out quotes all day that a Sox fan would definitely appreciate but if you’re a fan of the Sox and you think you’d be interested, I would suggest you just pick up the book. It was a thoroughly entertaining read and I think that any fan (of any age) would not only enjoy this book, but would learn a bunch of interesting anecdotes about their team. For those of you who are fans of other baseball teams, there are The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly series books about many MLB teams (by various authors), including one on the Tigers for people like me.