Song Lyric Sunday: “Let’s Go, Go-Go White Sox”

Song Lyric Sunday, Song of the Day 2 Minutes

Jim assigned us sports songs this week, which for me was very easy. I come from Chicago, where we have lots of sports teams and lots of songs to go with them. My favorite team of all is the Chicago White Sox, who after years of frustration finally won the World Series in 2005.

The Sox were one of the original eight teams in the American League, and were a powerhouse through most of their first two decades, winning the American League pennant in 1906, 1917, and 1919. They won the World Series in 1906 against their crosstown rivals the Cubs, in 1917 against the New York Giants in 1917, and were favored to do the same in 1919 against the Cincinnati Reds, but lost. Turns out that eight of the Sox players had conspired with gamblers to throw the Series, and earned a lifetime ban from the game in 1921.

It was 40 years before the Sox won the American League pennant again, in 1959. That was the year of the Go-Go Sox, a team that was built around pitching, fielding, and speed, particular from the "Keystone Twins," second baseman Nellie Fox and shortstop Luis Aparicio. That year, former White Sox minor leaguer Al Trace and his friend Walter "Li’l Wally" Jagiello wrote the song and suggested it to Tom "Captain Stubby" Fouts, leader of the country band Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, which performed on WLS, at the time the Prairie Farmer station. He agreed to do the song, and it was issued on Jagiello’s record label, Drumboy Records. It was popular in 1959 and for a while after that, then was all but forgotten until 2005, when the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had defeated the White Sox in the 1959 World Series, were coming to town for an interleague series. Someone found the record and played it before the game, and again after the Sox won that day. After that, it was played frequently after Sox wins. The "official" fight song for the Sox in ’05 was Journey’s "Don’t Stop Believin’," but I like this one better.

Wikipedia had the lyrics to the song, as well as the information I gave you above…

White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox
We’re with you all the way!
You’re always in there fighting,
And you do your best.
We’re glad to have you out here in the Middle West.
We’re gonna root-root-root-root White Sox.
And cheer you on to victory.
When we’re in the stands,
We’ll make those rafters ring;
All through the season,
You will hear us sing.
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox,
Chicago’s proud of you!

White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!

Root-Root-Root for the White Sox.
We’ll cheer you on to victory.
When we’re in the stands,
We’ll make those rafters ring;
All through the season,
You will hear us sing.
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox,
Chicago’s proud of you! (Play ball!)
White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox!
Chicago is proud of you!

That’s Song Lyric Sunday, and Song of the Day, for August 22, 2021.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

27 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: “Let’s Go, Go-Go White Sox””

  1. Pingback: The Back-To-School Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

    1. I was surprised to hear that the Sox were favored over the Dodgers in that series. The trick in the playoffs and World Series, I’ve realized, is to score lots of runs, and the Sox were not especially good at that. They had a hell of a pitching staff and were excellent in the field, but didn’t score like they had to. Now, they had an excellent Game 1, where they won 11-0, but couldn’t get rus when they needed them…

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  4. Great choice, John. I’ve been a Sox fan since 1939. My grandmother used to take me to games on Lady’s Day. She got in free and I got in free because of my age. Great memories. Looking forward to the post season. Sox are really good this year.

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    1. Haven’t heeard from you in a while! Hope all is well…

      Mom said she went to the ballgames with Beads as well, and that she kept a scorecard and everything. I didn’t know her very well (she was alive briefly when I was young), but from the stories I’ve heard she was a great lady.

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      1. Yes, she always kept a score card. i have read everything you post. Don’t comment as much. I used to type my comment and my email address and name would automatically appear. That doesn’t happen anymore so I guess my laziness is showing. Any idea how I can get it to automatically appear like it used to?

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      1. It was fun. Reminded me of going to the park to see Rocky Colavito play for the Indians (Next year the Guardians). Baseball has certainly changed over the years.

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        1. The Sox traded for The Rock in ’67 when they were really close to winning the AL Pennant, as well as Ken Boyer from the Mets. They didn’t help much, and Rocky spent ’68 with the Dodgers and Yankees while Ken was released and ended up with the Dodgers.

          Eventually, I suppose they’ll be able to pressure the Braves into changing their name. I hope they change it to one of the team’s earliest names, the Beaneaters (when they were in Boston) or the Crackers (the minor league team that was here before them). I can see them renaming the team the Hammers, after “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron, but I hope they go with something else…

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          1. Cleveland refers to the Colavito curse because they did so poorly after the trade. I just remember seeing those trumpets come out of the scoreboard and the fireworks. It was a great era of baseball. All this name change business makes me dizzy. I understand it, I suppose, but we have become awfully sensitive to everything it seems. I have been called a hillbilly, a stump jumper, and a ridge runner, and a hick, etc. all my life, but I guess that’s different.

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            1. That was 1960, when they traded him to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn. Indians fans were not pleased. He eventually went back to Cleveland in ’65, but as you say they were pretty bad by then…

              We’d have flying cars by now if people put the energy they use complaining to better use.

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