Today in White Sox History: April 14

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Today in White Sox History: November 30

The Go-Go White Sox really got up and went once Aparicio’s contract was purchased from Memphis. (Topps)

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1955 — It was the start of a new era at shortstop for the White Sox. On this date the team purchased the contract of young infielder, Luis Aparicio from Memphis. Aparicio would begin his Hall of Fame career the following season, as the Rookie of the Year in the American League.

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1961 — After 13 years on the South Side, with 186 wins and seven All-Star selections, pitcher Billy Pierce was traded to the San Francisco Giants by GM. Ed Short. Pierce and Don Larsen were sent west in exchange for knuckleballing relief pitcher Eddie Fisher, pitcher Dom Zanni, outfielder Bob Farley and a player to be named later. The trade would revitalize Pierce’s career and lead him to tossing a three-hit, complete-game win in Game 6 of the 1962 World Series against the Yankees.

Fisher would become one of the top relief pitchers in baseball and would team with Hoyt Wilhelm to give the Sox great depth in that area. He’d make the All-Star team in 1965 and win the Relief Pitcher of the Year award. In an unrelated note, Fisher did a spot-on imitation of Donald Duck!

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1970 – New White Sox player personnel director Roland Hemond continued to rebuild a battered franchise. At the Winter Meetings he shipped Gold Glove-winning outfielder Ken Berry, infielder Syd O’Brien and pitcher Billy Wynne to the Angels for pitcher Tom Bradley, catcher Tom Egan and outfielder Jay Johnstone.

The deal would be a steal just based on what Bradley did, winning 15 games with a sub 3.00 ERA in both 1971 and 1972. Egan provided great backup help to Ed Herrmann and Johnstone was a quality outfielder and clubhouse comic.

 

 

 

 

Today in White Sox History: October 25

Blum of a blast: The longest game in World Series history ended soon after a midseason pickup made his mark. (YouTube)

1955 — Sox co-GMs Chuck Comiskey and John Rigney made their first trade: Shortstop Chico Carrasquel and center fielder Jim Busby went to Cleveland for slugging centerfielder Larry Doby, the left-handed power hitter the Sox had been lacking the previous three years. The deal also made room in the starting lineup for a rookie shortstop from Venezuela named Luis Aparicio.

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1983 — Thanks to the most wins in the majors and a second-half run among the best ever, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt won the Cy Young Award. Hoyt was 9-8 at the All-Star break, then exploded to go 15-2 in the back half to end the year with a record of 24-10 and an ERA of 3.66. In addition, Hoyt pitched almost 261 innings with only 31 walks. He then threw a brilliant, complete game, 2-1 win over the Orioles in the ALCS in Baltimore.

Hoyt became the second White Sox pitcher to ever win the award, following Early Wynn. He easily outdistanced Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry, 116-81, in voting points. Hoyt won 52 games for the White Sox between 1981 and 1983.

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2005 — Game 3 of the World Series set the record for the longest by duration in history. The 14-inning game in Houston lasted five hours, 41 minutes and ended when another White Sox role player, Geoff Blum, belted a home run to give the club a 6-5 lead. It would end 7-5, with Game 2 starter Mark Buehrle picking up the save.

Today in White Sox History: September 21

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.