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Today in White Sox History: December 26

Bill Veeck fends off a late run from Charlie Finley.

By Mark Liptak
Sports Contributor Archive 2018
Yes, Charlie Finley would have moved the Oakland A’s to Chicago had the White Sox left the city in the 1970s. But did you know he nearly swept in a bought the White Sox from under Bill Veeck in the 1950s?

1958

In the middle of a family fight involving the Comiskeys and the attempt to sell the Sox, Charlie Finley (yes, THAT Charlie Finley) offered $500,000 for the club. Dorothy Comiskey immediately began to give serious consideration to selling it to him, because that was a gigantic amount of money for its time, and surpassed the initial offer that came from Bill Veeck’s group. However, Veeck had purchased (for $100!) an option period where he would have the first right to buy the team. Dorothy and her advisors tried to determine a fair price to buy that option back and instead sell to Finley, but were never able to pull it off.

Thanks in part to a final judicial ruling in March 1959, and because he raised his initial offer, Veeck’s group finally took control of the White Sox right before the start of the regular season.

Finley would eventually get into baseball as the controversial owner of the Kansas City and later Oakland Athletics.

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