A Major League Baseball team, the Chicago White Sox is based on Chicago’s South Side. They have played in Chicago since the American League’s first season in 1901, making them one of the league’s original eight members.
The White Sox media guide for 2020 states that Comiskey bought a franchise from Sioux City, Iowa, and relocated it to St. Paul, Minnesota, as a member of the Western League, in 1893.
On March 21, 1900, those St. Paul Saints formally relocated to Chicago and changed their name to the White Stockings as a member of the recently established American League.
Originally, the Chicago Cubs, a National League franchise competitor on the city’s North Side, went by the name of the White Stockings.
Richard Lindberg, who has published four books about the White Sox and is regarded as the unofficial team historian, claims that while there was no restriction placed on a nickname, the Saints were not allowed to spell out Chicago on their jerseys.
According to several previous reports, the team’s name was shortened to White Sox so that it would be simpler for newspaper editors to put the team’s name in headlines.
According to the White Sox media guide timeline, they played as a Chicago club for the first time on April 2, 1900, defeating the University of Illinois, 10-9, in Champaign, Illinois.