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: September 23

One-Dogged: Johnson went three-bag crazy at — what new — the Metrodome.

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Sept. 23, 1995 — Lance Johnson got six hits in six at-bats in a game at the Minnesota Twins. Three of Johnson’s hits were triples, and he drove in four runs in the 14-4 win. One Dog was the fourth player in team history to go 6-for-6, and first to ever get three triples in a game.

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Sept. 23, 2017 – White Sox slugger José Abreu became the third player in major league history to start his career with four straight seasons of at least 25 home runs and at least 100 RBIs, by virtue of his run-scoring ground out off of the Kansas City’s Scott Alexander at Guaranteed Rate Field. José joined Albert Pujois and Joe DiMaggio in accomplishing this rare feat. Pujols, DiMaggio, Abreu, Al Simmons and Ted Williams are the only players to start their careers with four straight seasons of 100 RBIs.

Today in White Sox History: September 9

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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