A rookie manager rarely equals huge success for the Chicago White Sox

Pedro Grifol has his work cut out for him.

History has rarely been kind to rookie Chicago White Sox managers like Grifol. There have been 25 men before Grifol who have taken the position of full-time White Sox manager without any previous major league managing experience.

None of them won a World Series though one (Kid Gleason in 1919) saw eight of his players take bribes to lose one.

So blame it on The Kid and his eight men out if the latest rookie Sox manager doesn't win a World Series in his maiden season. Before Gleason and his nefarious bunch, most rookie White Sox managers did quite well.

The Chicago White Sox haven't had much success with rookie managers.

Clark Griffith won the pennant in 1901 but some rookie had to do it since it was the American League's first season.

Fielder Jones went 66-47 his rookie year in 1904 and won a World Series two years later over the Chicago Cubs. Pants Rowland had a similar experience going 93-61 and finishing third his rookie year (1915) and winning the World Series in 1917 over the New York Giants.

Over the last 100-plus years, though, no rookie White Sox manager has come close to winning a championship of any kind in his debut season. Ozzie Guillen, however, nearly beat The Kid's Curse by winning the 2005 World Series over the Houston Astros in his second year.

The 53-year-old Grifol, though, doesn't have the luxury of a mediocre, getting-to-know-you season. If he goes 83-79 in his first year like Guillen in 2004 he might not get a second year.

Grifol's White Sox are clearly in the win-now phase of a lengthy rebuild and the rookie manager is expected to lead the way to the promised land.

White Sox rookies Don Gutteridge in 1969 (60-85), Larry Doby in 1978 (37-50), Don Kessinger in 1979 (46-60), and even Tony La Russa in 1979 (27-27) or 1980 (70-90) didn't have nearly the pressure or expectations that will greet Grifol each day he comes to work this year.

All of the numerous rookie White Sox managers in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s (such as Ray Schalk, Ted Lyons, Jimmy Dykes, and Lew Fonseca) also had little pressure to win.

The goal during those three sleepy White Sox decades was simply selling enough tickets and hot dogs to meet payroll and not necessarily to compete with the New York Yankees.

In fairness to all of the unfortunate rookie White Sox managers of the past, we must point out that the White Sox's track record of hiring experienced managers also is a bit suspect.

It didn't even help all that much when some of that experience came on the south side of Chicago. See the return of Al Lopez in 1968 and 1969, Paul Richards in 1976 and La Russa in the last two years.

A look back, in no particular order, at the five most memorable seasons for a rookie White Sox manager since the invention of television:

Ozzie Guillen - 2004

Ozzie Guillen is the greatest manager in Chicago White Sox history.

Ozzie Guillen was only seven seasons removed from his days as a White Sox shortstop when he took over as manager at the age of 40 in 2004. The very interesting Guillen took over a team that had won 86 games under tranquil manager Jerry Manuel in 2003 and promptly won 83 in 2004.

That 2004 team, though, was hampered by injuries that limited Magglio Ordonez to 52 games and Frank Thomas to 74.

Pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who won 21 games and finished second in the Cy Young voting in 2003, won just nine games with an ERA of 4.86 in 2004 and was traded to the New York Yankees in late July.

Guillen, though, had the Sox at 52-42 and in first place through July 24 but losses in 11 of the next 13 games led to an eventual second-place finish, nine games behind the Minnesota Twins.

Fan bases, however, didn't have the patience for never-ending rebuilds in 2004 as they do now. The roster was revamped after Guillen's rookie year and the Sox found themselves World Series champions on Oct. 26, 2005.

Robin Ventura - 2012

Robin Ventura is one of the worst Chicago White Sox managers ever.

Robin Ventura's one legitimate, productive, and promising season as White Sox manager was when he seemingly had no idea what he was doing in his rookie season on the job. Ventura's 2012 White Sox went 85-77 and finished second after spending more than 100 days in first place.

The Sox of 2012 won nine games in a row in late May and were basically in first place for all but a handful of games from May 29 through Sept. 25.

The Sox won just 79 games the previous year in Guillen's final year in charge. But they were 81-66 and three games ahead in first place on Sept. 18, 2012, under Ventura.

Kevin Youkilis hit 15 homers, Dayan Viciedo hit 25, Gordon Beckham hit 16, A.J. Pierzynski hit 27, Alex Rios hit 25 and even Adam Dunn blasted 41 in 2012.

Alejandro De Aza stole 26 bases, Chris Sale won 17 games, Addison Reed saved 29, and Nate Jones went 8-0 in relief. None of it, except Sale, of course, was sustainable for long and Ventura's managerial career declined rapidly after 2012.

Ventura, who never seemed to want the job in the first place, never won as many as 79 games in any of his next four painful seasons. He disappeared after the 2016 season, prompting the current White Sox rebuild.

Paul Richards - 1951

Paul Richards was a rookie White Sox manager during the 1951 season.

The 42-year-old Paul Richards, with general manager Frank Lane's help, helped transform White Sox baseball in 1951. The Sox finished 60-94-2 in 1950 under managers Jack Onslow and Red Corriden and attracted just 781,330 fans to Comiskey Park. It was their seventh losing season in a row.

The Sox in 1951 under Richards went 81-73-1 and set a franchise record attendance of 1,328,234 fans. It would turn out to be the the first of 17 consecutive winning seasons through 1967.

The Go So Sox excitement took hold in early June when 42,718 showed up for a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox.

It boiled over for a three-day series with the New York Yankees when 53,940 showed up on a Friday, 24,726 returned on Saturday afternoon and 53,054 saw a Sunday doubleheader.

Richards, it seemed, arrived in Chicago at just the right time. Nellie Fox, Chico Carrasquel, Jim Busby and Eddie Robinson were all entering their second season with the team in 1951 and Billy Pierce was headed into his third year.

But the biggest boost came from rookie Minnie Minoso who scored 109 runs, hit 10 homers and 14 triples, drove in 74, and stole 31 bases.

The White Sox stole 99 bases under Richards in 1951 (they stole 19 the year before) and hit just 86 homers (93 the year before). The 1951 Sox were 20-5 in the month of May and went 26-4-1 from May 4 through June and found themselves in first place by 4.5 games.

Richards lasted just four seasons in Chicago, winning 89 games in 1953 and 91 in 1954. But he established a new, exciting small ball style of play with the White Sox that Fox and, later, shortstop Luis Aparicio (starting in 1956) literally ran with all the way to a 1959 pennant (under Lopez).

Gene Lamont - 1992

Gene Lamont would become the White Sox manager in the early 90s.

Gene Lamont, like Grifol this year, took over a loaded White Sox roster in 1992 and guided it to an 86-76 record and third-place finish in the American League West.

They went 94-68 in 1990 and 87-75 in 1991, finishing second both years under manager Jeff Torborg (who left to take over the New York Mets and lost 90 games in 1992).

Frank Thomas hit .323 with 115 RBI, Steve Sax stole 30 bases, Robin Ventura drove in 93 runs, Tim Raines scored 102 runs and stole 45 bases and Lance Johnson stole 41 in 1992. Even George Bell hit 25 homers and drove in 112.

A 26-year-old Jack McDowell went 20-10 with a 3.18 ERA while three relievers (Bobby Thigpen, Roberto Hernandez, and Scott Radinsky) all saved between 12 and 22 games.

The quiet Lamont just kind of sat back and let the team run on autopilot, a sound strategy because the roster was full of leaders like Carlton Fisk, Ventura, Thomas, Bell, Raines, Johnson, McDowell, Thigpen, and others.

Hurting Lamont in 1992, though, was an injury to Guillen that limited him to just 12 games. Lamont then had to split shortstop between Craig Grebeck, Esteban Beltre and Dale Sveum.

Guillen's injury, though, was likely the biggest reason the 1992 Sox under Lamont didn't really hit its stride until August and September when it went 36-21.

The Sox got Guillen back in 1993, added veterans Bo Jackson and Ellis Burks and rookie Jason Bere, and won the West Division title in Lamont's second year. They were also in first under Lamont in 1994 when the season ended because of a strike in early August.