Comiskey Park's Last World Series: A History of the 1959 Chicago White Sox

Comiskey Park's Last World Series analyzes the significance of the 1959 White Sox from a multitude of perspectives. The book presents much more than the White Sox being one of the few teams modern era to win a pennant with speed, pitching, and defense. The team is studied not just as a charter member of the American League but as a cultural institution that held a great deal of significance as this country's last "neighborhood" professional franchise. The team' historical importance to Chicago and the significance of the first South Side World Series in forty years is also covered in detail. There is an analysis of the economic landscape of baseball during the Golden Age throughout the book, looking at the characteristics of media markets and the different ways teams tried to maximize them in that era. Bill Veeck's unique and unusual theories about in-house promotions-everything from free giveaways to his theories about post-game fireworks- is discussed at length. The reader is also afforded an in-depth analysis of a team's ancillary sources of revenue and how critical everything from concessions to stadium rentals were to a team's bottom line during that era. No other book on the 1959 White Sox discusses the bitter legal feud Charles Comiskey and Bill Veeck waged throughout the season with as much detail and insight as this work does. Also, little has been written about why this uniquely talented 1959 White Sox team did not repeat as champions. This book ends with an entire chapter on that subject.