A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 07, 2007
“Winning Ugly” (Texas Rangers manager Doug Rader)

The 1983 Chicago White Sox won their division, but Texas Ranger manager Doug Rader didn’t think they were all that good.
 
“They’re not playing that well. They’re winning ugly,” Rangers manager Doug Rader said, sometime in August 1983. The remark quickly became a slogan for the 1983 Chicago White Sox.
 
     
Wikipedia: Doug Rader
Douglas Lee Rader (born July 30, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois), nicknamed “The Red Rooster”, is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball who was known primarily for his defensive ability, winning five straight Gold Glove Awards from 1970 to 1974.
       
White Sox Interactive
Not everyone was impressed.  One out of town writer dismissed the team as no better than fifth in the A.L. East.  Texas manager Doug Rader theorized that the Sox’s bubble had to burst.  “They’re not playing that well.  They’re winning ugly.”  Thanks, Doug.  We Sox fans needed a rallying cry. 
   
White Sox Interactive
Nick@Nite
09-01-2003, 09:32 AM
Too me, the whole thing about 1983 was the battle cry “Winning Ugly”. I remember that it was Doug Radar, manager of the Texas Rangers who said… “Their bubble has got to burst. They’re not playing that well. They’re winning ugly. At least that’s what our reports say”.
 
I’m trying to remember/research the exact date of that remark (I can be compulsive). So far, all I can find is that it came before the start of a four game series with Texas, which I’m guessing came after the All-Star game. I swear that I heard/read a retort from Greg Luzinski saying to the effect “oh yeah, tell Radar his old man is ugly”.
 
Am I hallucinating? 
(...)
Lip Man 1
09-01-2003, 02:11 PM
Wow….this is a hell of a thread. Some of these memories are very touching.
Pinch: The “Winnin’ Ugly” remark was uttered by Rader before the four game series in Texas. That series started on August 19. The Sox took 3 of 4 and left Dallas with an eight game lead over the Rangers.
   
30 August 1983, Chicago Daily Herald, section 4, pg. 1, col. 1:
Less than two weeks ago, it was Rangers manager Doug Rader who started the whole tempest by saying the first-place White Sox were “winning ugly.” Before long, T-shirts were cropping up in Chicago with “Winning ugly is no miracle on 35th Street” emblazoned on them. The idea became a rallying point for local fans and a bit of a sore point in Texas.
 
4 September 1983, Chicago Daily Herald, “Sox Win ‘Ugly’ Again,” section 3, pg. 1, col. 1:
If Doug Rader watched the nationally televised White Sox-Red Sox game Saturday afternoon, he must have felt vindicated.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Sunday, January 07, 2007 • Permalink


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