Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are a charter member of the American League, founded in 1901 by Charles Comiskey on Chicago's South Side, where they have remained ever since. The franchise's early history is forever marked by the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which eight players -- including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson -- were banned from baseball for conspiring to fix the World Series. That stain haunted the organization for decades and gave the White Sox an outlaw mystique that their North Side counterparts never carried.

The franchise's identity has always been rooted in toughness and working-class pride. The 1959 Go-Go Sox brought pennant fever back to the South Side with their speed-and-pitching approach. The Winning Ugly team of 1983 and the explosive lineups of the early 1990s -- featuring Frank Thomas, arguably the greatest hitter in franchise history -- provided thrilling chapters. But the crowning achievement came in 2005, when the White Sox swept the Houston Astros to win their first World Series since 1917, ending an 88-year championship drought that had lived in the shadow of the Cubs' more famous curse.

Guaranteed Rate Field, the team's home since 1991, sits in the Bridgeport neighborhood and offers a no-frills, baseball-first experience that reflects the franchise's personality. The White Sox have endured long stretches of losing and have often struggled to match the Cubs' cultural cachet, but their fan base -- fiercely loyal and proudly distinct from the Wrigleyville crowd -- represents a different tradition of Chicago baseball, one built on South Side solidarity and an appreciation for the grittier side of the game.