Today in White Sox History: December 24

1913

Future White Sox owner Arthur Allyn was born in Chicago. By purchasing Bill Veeck’s stake in the team in 1961, combined with buying out founder Charles Comiskey’s grandson, Chuck, Allyn was the end point of all Comiskey involvement with the White Sox franchise.

Allyn didn’t care much for baseball, buying the club as much for the tax breaks as anything. His innovative idea to replace Comiskey Park with a new, privately-financed ballpark (only serving the White Sox, located south of the city) was opposed by Mayor Richard J. Daley — and in turn Allyn resisted Daley’s efforts to build a multipurpose stadium in Chicago that would house the White Sox, Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks.

Allyn also was on the verge of selling the White Sox to Bud Selig for $13 million in 1969 when the prospect of the Milwaukee White Sox was averted — by Allyn’s brother, John.

Art wasn’t just a disinterested, villainous character in White Sox lore. He hired Ed Short to rebuild the White Sox on the fly in the early 1960s, became one of the first owners to provide a private plane to players for game travel, and also circumvented Florida’s barbaric segregation by purchasing a hotel for Black players on the White Sox to reside in during spring training.

But at the time of his death in 1985, if Allyn was remembered at all it was for nearly sending the White Sox out of town.