All-Time White Sox Team

The White Sox were somewhat difficult as they have had multiple Hall of Fame players at a few positions. It becomes very subjective based on one's own measures of greatness to choose between those players. When compiling these lists, we have tended to shy away from dead ball players, except for the legends (Cobb, Speaker, etc.). Trying to find legitimate "All-Time" caliber pitchers, however, proved difficult for the White Sox. They have not had much dominant pitching in the past 50 years. Buehrle is pretty good, McDowell won a Cy Young as did Wynn and Lamar Hoyt, but no dominating careers predominantly with the Sox. Outfield was surprisingly weak also given the team's long history. Here's my list for your scrutiny...

C - Carlton Fisk
1B - Paul Konerko
2B - Eddie Collins
SS - Luke Appling
3B - Robin Ventura
OF - Joe Jackson
OF - Harold Baines
OF - Magglio Ordonez
DH - Frank Thomas
SP - Ed Walsh
SP - Wilbur Wood
CL - Hoyt Wilhelm

I left at least 3 Hall of Famers off the list (Ray Schalk - C, Nellie Fox - 2B, and Luis Aparicio - SS). Ed Walsh was a dead ball era pitcher, but he is the career leader in ERA for all of MLB. I struggled with Joe Jackson for two reasons. His best years were with Cleveland, but he did hit .340 in parts of six years with Chicago. The other reason was his banishment for alleged cheating. Hersh and I have taken a hard line approach against proven steroid users as well as high probability users, to the point of excluding them from all time teams. Hitting .375 in the 1919 WS shows me that he didn't let up, so I picked him for the team. If that makes me a hypocrite, then so be it.

Interesting side note: Hard to believe the #3 all time leader in batting average (Joe Jackson) never won a batting title.