Today in White Sox History: April 11

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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2011
White Sox utility player Brent Lillibridge belted the franchise’s 10,000^th 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.

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Today in White Sox History: March 4

Haters hate: Media coverage of MJ’s baseball career was almost universally unfavorable. In related developments, some sportswriters like to kick puppies and double-dip their chips. (Baseball America)

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1921
In the wake of the Black Sox scandal, owner Charles Comiskey attempted to rebuild his team. One of the first moves he made was to acquire future Hall-of-Famer Harry Hooper from the Red Sox for two players. Hooper would play five years on the South Side and hit better than .300 in three of them.

1969
Sportswriter Brett Ballantini was born in the tiny hamlet of Highwood, Ill. Ballantini would write on baseball for decades, returning a sense of sartorial splendor, articulate absurdity and flash mob enthusiasm to White Sox coverage.

1994
NBA superstar Michael Jordan, who retired from the Chicago Bulls in October 1993, made his White Sox spring training debut.

 

Today in White Sox History: December 13

Not so bad: Ritchie was a monumental failure for the White Sox, but he was hurt — and the guys swapped out didn’t really sting too badly. (Upper Deck)

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1969
The White Sox dealt their star left hander Gary Peters to the Red Sox for Syd O’Brien and Billy Farmer. Farmer retired instead of reporting, so as compensation the Sox received Jerry “Wheat Germ Kid” Janeski. Peters would win 33 games in the next three seasons. Janeski won 10 in 1970 then was shipped to Washington for outfielder Rick Reichardt.

Peters had spent seven full and four partial seasons with the team, with a 20-win season, two All- Star teams and a Rookie of the Year award.

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1982
The White Sox outbid 16 other teams to sign free agent pitcher Floyd Bannister to a five year, $4.5 million deal. Bannister had led the American League in strikeouts in 1981. In his five seasons on the South Side, Bannister won in double figures every year, with a high of 16 wins in both 1983 and 1987.

His signing angered Yankee owner George Steinbrenner ,who wasn’t used to losing out on talent that he wanted. Steinbrenner was quoted as saying that he regretted voting against Edward DeBartolo in his bid to buy the Sox franchise from Bill Veeck back in 1980 and leveled verbal blasts at owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.

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2001
In his quest to find reliable starting pitching, White Sox GM Ken Williams traded youngsters Kip Wells and Josh Fogg and veteran Sean Lowe to the Pirates for Todd Ritchie. Ritchie would suffer a shoulder injury and have a disastrous 2002 season, going 5-15 with an ERA of 6.06 (4.84 FIP)! Ritchie’s -1.7 bWAR is tied for the 15th-worst pitching season in White Sox history. What made the trade worse is that Wells put up bWARs of 2.8, 4.9 and 1.7 for Pittsburgh the first three seasons after the trade.

But in fairness to Williams, over 20 combined seasons in the majors Fogg, Lowe and Wells compiled just 6.9 bWAR, so none of the pitchers dealt led to chest-clutching regret.

A free agent, the Sox let him Ritchie go after his one terrible South Side season, and he was out of baseball two years later.

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2004
On the third anniversary of his ill-fated Ritchie deal, Williams continued his remake of the club. He sent power-hitting but defensively-challenged outfielder Carlos Lee to Milwaukee as part of a four-player deal.

The outfielder coming from the Brewers to replace him (Scott Podsednik) energized the lineup, stole more than 40 bases twice, made an All-Star team and hit a dramatic walk-off home run in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series.

 

 

Today in White Sox History: October 18

Gimme Steam: The band Nancy Faust made a permanent part of the sports lexicon.

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1969 — A little-known studio musical group came out with an oddly-named song. On this date, it broke into the Billboard Top 100 chart and would eventually move all the way to No. 1. The group was called Steam; the song, “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)”. Thanks to the efforts of White Sox organist Nancy Faust in 1977, it would become the song Sox fans used to “serenade” pitchers being removed from games.

Today, you can hear it practically at every stadium in America … but it started on the South Side!

Today in White Sox History: October 17

No. 1372 in your hearts: Happy 50th, Chris Tremie! (Fleer)

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1969 — Every so often in the offseason, there’s just not much of White Sox historical import. So on those occasions, at least on some days, we’ll pull something out of left field … or from No. 1372 in a minor league card set.

Above is Chris Tremie, who turns 50 years old today. Tremie began his career, as this 1994 baseball card image above indicates, with the White Sox, drafted in the 39th round (No. 1,100 overall) in 1992.

He is a Houston native, and made a relatively quick ascent to the majors after playing for the University of Houston Cougars, seeing his first (and only) time with the White Sox in 1995, under the guidance of beer league manager Terry Bevington. Tremie slashed .167/.200/.167 in 10 games, helping to explain why he wouldn’t resurface in the majors again until 1998.

He debuted on July 1, 1995, catching Brian Keyser and Tim Fortugno in an 11-5 win over Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium. The best game of his career (per WPA) came a week later, when he piled up a modest .011 WPA on a 1-for-2 night vs. the Baltimore Orioles; Tremie hit a duck snort to center off of future Hall-of-Famer Mike Mussina in the fifth inning. The hit, chasing a seeing-eye leadoff single from Craig Grebeck to lead off the inning, increased White Sox chances of winning 6%.

It was very likely the highlight of his major league career.

But that’s not to say Tremie hasn’t made an impact. He was part of five different organizations as a player. After being released from the Florida Marlins organization in 2000, Tremie played independent league ball before fighting his way back toward the majors, four years later, catching one inning for the Houston Astros. And while he only saw action in 22 MLB games, with a career bWAR of -0.4, Tremie played in nearly 1,000 minor league games over 14 seasons.

Now an instructor in the Cincinnati Reds organization, until recently Tremie was the long time manager for Cleveland at Triple-A.

Today in White Sox History: September 24

Magglio Ordoñez and Frank Thomas celebrate in the Metrodome after clinching the Central (Sun-Times clippings)

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Sept. 24, 1919 — A 6-5 win over the St. Louis Browns clinched the pennant for the White Sox. Eddie Cicotte got the win. Shoeless Joe Jackson’s double in the ninth drove in the game- and pennant-clinching run. The Sox would beat out Cleveland by three-and-a-half games for the title and finish with a record of 88-52

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Sept. 24, 1961 — Sox star pitcher Billy Pierce won his 186^th and final game with the team as he threw six innings of relief in an 8-7 win over Baltimore. Pierce would be traded to the Giants in the following offseason, after 13 years on the South Side.

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Sept. 24, 1969 — Sox owner Art Allyn sold the club to his brother John Allyn, thwarting moves made by Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Milwaukee’s Bud Selig to buy the team. Hunt wanted to move the White Sox to Dallas, Selig to Milwaukee.

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Sept. 24, 1977 — White Sox infielder Jack Brohamer had the game of his life, as he became the second player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. Brohamer went 5-for-5 in the Kingdome at Seattle, with two runs scored and four RBIs in the 8-3 win.

Sept. 24, 2000 — Despite losing to the Twins at the Metrodome, the White Sox clinched the Central Division, beating out Cleveland by five games with a record of 95-67. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf showed up in the locker room and said that “I’m sure all Sox fans are now happy the team made the White Flag deal.”