Tag: 1917

Today in White Sox History: April 14

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

Tres Garcías: On this day in 2017, the White Sox outfield made history. (@WhiteSox)

1910
White Sox pitcher Frank Smith fired what remains the franchise’s only Opening Day one-hitter as he beat the St. Louis Browns in Chicago, 3-0. Smith would later go on to pitch for the Red Sox and Reds.

1917
White Sox pitching star Eddie Cicotte no-hit the St. Louis Browns, in a 11-0 laugher. The game was at St. Louis and remains the earliest no-hitter ever thrown by a Sox pitcher in a season.

1942
Because of the intervention of President Franklin Roosevelt, Major League Baseball continued during World War II. The Sox would lose to St. Louis, 3-0, this Opening Day and according to the reports of the time it was a very quiet, somber crowd. Marines and sailors marched in carrying the American flag from center field. Pearl Harbor was still etched in everyone’s memories.

1953
Cleveland’s Bob Lemon, who’d go on to manage the White Sox in 1977 and some of 1978, almost duplicated Bob Feller’s 1940 Opening Day no-hitter, holding the Sox to one hit in winning, 6-0. Feller’s gem is the only Opening Day no-hitter in MLB history. 

1955
The White Sox and Sandy Consuegra defeated the Kansas City Athletics, 7-1, in the Comiskey Park home opener. The game was the first-ever between the Sox and the Athletics since the A’s move from Philadelphia to Kansas City. Sandy went the distance, allowing only three hits.

1964
The bittersweet 1964 season began with the White Sox dropping a 5-3 decision to the Orioles in Chicago. Hoyt Wilhelm gave up three late runs to lose the game. The 1964 Sox would win 98 games … only to finish one game behind the Yankees for the pennant.

1981
In the home opener for the season and for new owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, 51,560 fans poured into Comiskey Park to see the new faces and new attitude. The Sox put on a show in blowing apart Milwaukee, 9-3. The big blow was Carlton Fisk’s grand slam into left-center in the fourth inning off of former Sox hurler Pete Vuckovich.

2017
The White Sox started an all-García outfield at Minnesota, marking the first time in major league history a team’s three starting outfielders all had the same last name. All three collected hits, including Willy García, who doubled in his first big-league at-bat in the second. He played left field, with Leury García in center and Avisaíl García in right. The Alou brothers all played in the outfield for San Francisco in 1963 a few times, but all three never actually started a game together. The Sox won the contest, 2-1.

 

Today in White Sox History: April 11

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

Wheels: Paul Konerko — yes, that Paul Konerko — once hit an inside-the-park home run. (YouTube)

1917
The World Championship season began in St. Louis, where the Sox battered the Browns, 7-2. Claude ‘‘Lefty’’ Williams picked up the win. Just slightly more than six months later, the Sox would win the World Series, four games to two, over John McGraw and the New York Giants.

1969
The White Sox initiated major league baseball in Seattle as the first home opponent for the expansion Seattle Pilots. The Sox promptly rolled over and died to the new team, 7-0, getting shut out by future Sox pitcher Gary Bell who went the distance. Bell would be traded to the Sox in June.

1982
When the great blizzard hit the Midwest and forced cancellation of a number of games, the White Sox had to open on the road the following week … in New York … with a doubleheader. No problem, as the franchise which had already won a regularly scheduled Opening Day twinbill in 1971, put the wood to the Yankees by winning 7-6 in 12 innings, and then 2-0. It was the start of an eight-game winning streak to open the 1982 campaign, the best start in franchise history.

2000
For a man with no speed, he got around the bases fast enough this time! Paul Konerko hit an inside the park home run against Tampa Bay. It came in the first inning off Esteban Yan and drove in two runs. The Sox won, 13-6.

2011
White Sox utility player Brent Lillibridge belted the franchise’s 10,000th home run when he took a fastball from Oakland’s Dallas Braden and hit it out of U.S. Cellular Field. It came in the fifth inning of a game the Sox eventually lost 2-1 in 10 innings.

 

Today in White Sox History: October 15

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

(Appleton Evening Crescent)

1917 — The White Sox won their second World Series title, beating the New York Giants four games to two. The score in the series clincher was also 4-2. Future Hall-of-Famer Eddie Collins hit .409, with pitcher Red Faber, another future Hall-of-Famer, winning three games (and losing one!)

Afterwards a young federal judge and White Sox fan, one Kenesaw Mountain Landis, sent a telegram congratulating the White Sox for a job well done. The telegram read, “We did a fine job today … we disposed of the Giants.” Landis would go on to become the first baseball commissioner in the wake of the Black Sox scandal.

Today in White Sox History: September 29

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

Blood brothers: Ozzie Guillén and Ken Williams celebrate the division title.

Sept. 29, 1908 — White Sox starting pitcher Ed Walsh fired two complete games in a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox. He won both by the scores of 5-1 and 2-0. In 1908, Walsh would have arguably the greatest pitching year in the history of the game, winning 40 times with an ERA of 1.42.

Sept. 29, 1917 — With a 3-1 win in the second game of a doubleheader in New York, the White Sox won their 100th game of the season. That remains the most wins in a single season in franchise history. Eddie Cicotte picked up the win.

Sept. 29, 1920 — With the White Sox leading the American League late in the season, pitcher Eddie Cicotte and outfielder Joe Jackson confessed (without an attorney present) that they helped throw the 1919 World Series. Charles Comiskey suspended eight players; the Sox collapsed down the stretch and blew the pennant, losing out to Cleveland by two games.

Sept. 29, 1921 — One of the “clean” White Sox, pitcher Dickie Kerr, was honored with a day at Comiskey Park. Kerr then went out and fired one of his best games, blanking Cleveland on six hits to win, 5-0.

Sept. 29, 1967 — The Sox still had a chance for the pennant, but lost 1-0 to the Senators. The only run was set up when first baseman Tommy McCraw wasn’t able to catch a pop up off the bat of Washington’s Fred Valentine in the first inning. NBC-TV had erected a barrier for their field level cameras in case the World Series came to Comiskey Park, and Valentine’s pop fell into that enclosed area near the visitor’s dugout. Valentine then singled to drive in the only run.

The 1967 season marked the 17th straight year that the Sox finished better than .500.

Sept. 29, 1990 — The last night game ever played at the original Comiskey Park was won by the White Sox, 4-2. Frank Thomas slapped a two-run single up the middle off Seattle Mariners starter Matt Young to drive in the go-ahead runs.

Sept. 29, 2005 — The White Sox beat the Tigers in Detroit, 4-2, clinching the Central Division title. The Sox won 99 regular season games and led the division every day of the season (and remain one of the few teams in baseball history to go wire-to-wire). The Sox then blitzed through the postseason, going 11-1 on their way to the world championship. They swept Houston in four games to get it.

Sept. 29, 2008 — White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramírez set a major league rookie record when he hit his fourth grand slam of the season in an 8-2 win over the Tigers. The home run would also tie the franchise record for most grand slams in a season. Albert Belle originally set that mark in 1997.

Today in White Sox History: September 21

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

Endless waiting: An 11-year drought ended when the White Sox clinched the 1917 pennant.

Sept. 21, 1901 — The White Sox won the first “official” American League pennant despite losing to the Philadelphia A’s, 10-4. With a record of 83-53, the Sox would win the pennant by five games over the Boston Americans.  Unfortunately the World Series didn’t start until 1903, so this was the best that the South Siders could do.

Sept. 21, 1917 -— The White Sox clinched the pennant, beating the Red Sox 2-1 behind Red Faber. The final outs came when Babe Ruth rapped into a double play. The Sox would outdistance Boston by eight games in 1917 with a mark of 100-54, and then defeat the New York Giants four games to two for the World Championship.

Sept. 21, 1955 — Frank “Trader” Lane, one of the finest general managers in team history, resigned. During his tenure, which spanned seven seasons, Lane made 241 trades involving 353 players. He was one of the architects of the club that would win the 1959 American League pennant. Among the players he acquired for the Sox were Minnie Miñoso, Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce and Sherm Lollar.

Sept. 21, 1970 — For the first time in 69 seasons, the Sox finally had a 30-home run man. Bill Melton got an upper-deck shot off Kansas City’s Aurelio Monteagudo to set the single-season White Sox home run record. That same day, Luis Aparicio got his final hit in a Sox uniform. Only 672 fans were on hand to see the doubleheader at Comiskey Park!

Sept. 21, 2015 — Jeff Samardzija had been acquired from the Oakland A’s in the hope that the Chicago native, who grew up a White Sox fan, could be the difference in getting the team to the postseason. Unfortunately, his 2015 campaign was something to forget as he struggled all year, particularly in the first inning and after the trade deadline. On this day, however, he pitched the finest game in his career, tossing a complete game one-hitter in shutting out the Detroit Tigers, 2-0. The only hit he allowed was a bloop single off of the bat of Victor Martinez in the fifth inning.

Today in White Sox History: September 9

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Today in White Sox History

Outfitted: Al Capone, son, and dozens of bodyguards take in a crosstown game in 1931. (The Petaluma Argus Courier)

Sept. 9, 1917 — This day marks the only time the White Sox have ever won a forfeited game. At Comiskey Park against Cleveland, the Indians were protesting a close call that went against them in the top of the 10th inning of a tie game.

When they took the field in the last of the inning, Cleveland players threw their gloves in the air, some rolled around in the dirt and catcher Steve O’Neill deliberately threw a ball into center field. Umpire Clarence “Brick” Owens had enough and declared the game won by the Sox.

Sept. 9, 1931 — At the cross-city exhibition game between the White Sox and Cubs at Comiskey Park this afternoon a famous (or “infamous”) fan and his son sat along the White Sox side of the field, in the front row.

The fan was Al Capone, the head of the largest crime syndicate in Chicago known as the “Chicago Outfit.” He took in the game with his son and a number of bodyguards who were seated directly behind them. They were part of a crowd of almost 35,000. The game was to benefit an unemployment relief fund established by Illinois governor Louis L. Emmerson as the Depression strengthened its grip on the country. Less than a month later, Capone would go to trial on income tax evasion charges, be found guilty, and sent to prison.

Sept. 9, 1983 — The Winning Ugly express roared on, crushing former Sox great Tommy John and the California Angels, 11-0. What was significant in this one was, for the first time in team history, the Sox hammered back-to-back-to-back home runs, courtesy of Carlton Fisk, Tom Paciorek, and Greg Luzinski in the first inning.

Not to be outdone, pitcher Britt Burns threw a one-hitter. Outfielder Mike Brown’s two-out single in the seventh inning was Burns’ only mistake.

Sept. 9, 2003 — With one move, White Sox manager Jerry Manuel perhaps cost his team a postseason berth and eventually led himself to be fired.

In a game the Sox were leading the Twins 8-2 in the ninth inning, Manuel brought in relief pitcher Jose Paniagua to get some work in. The Sox had a one-game lead over the Twins, and this was the second of a four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Paniagua allowed four runs, giving the Twins momentum even though they’d lose, 8-6. Minnesota promptly won the final two games, swept the Sox the following week at the Metrodome and won the second of three consecutive division titles.

Paniagua, as he was leaving the field, made an obscene gesture at the home plate umpire and was released by GM Kenny Williams later that evening. Manuel’s dismissal would come a few weeks later.

There has always been debate over the impact of this incident in the divisional race, but Twins players have been quoted as saying it was a difference-maker.

Sept. 9, 2017 – White Sox slugger José Abreu became only the sixth player in franchise history to hit for the cycle in a 13-1 rout of the San Francisco Giants. José’s cycle, in order, went home run, double, single and triple. For the night, he went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and three RBIs.