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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Deep Dive: Free agent right fielders

Better late than never: Nicholas Castellanos leads this list of right fielders who could still be available to the White Sox via free agency. (@NickCastellano6) 

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[Ed note: After exhaustively detailing 212 prospects, the Deep Dive series comes to an end today. Wow. Tomorrow, we begin our countdown of Top 100 White Sox prospects.]

“Deep Dive” focuses on the depth of each position in the Chicago White Sox organization. Each position is broken into a five-part series:

1. Depth in the rookie levels (Dominican through Great Falls)
2. Depth in A-ball (Kannapolis and Winston-Salem)
3. Depth in the higher levels (Birmingham and Charlotte)
4. Under the Radar-type detail on one of the White Sox players at that position
5. Free agent options at that position

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With the acquisition of Nomar Mazara, the need for someone in right field isn’t quite so glaring for the White Sox. This doesn’t mean that the White Sox will totally abandon this list. Nicholas Castellanos, for example, could be the regular DH and perhaps move over to right field when the team faces southpaws. Kole Calhoun could be a better right field solution defensively, shifting Mazara to a platoon situation at DH. A couple of other bats are intriguing as well, like Yasiel Puig and former Sox outfielder Avi García. Unfortunately, there’s no solid platoon bat to team with Mazara for right field on this free agent list. If interested in other guys who can play right field and/or DH, please review the left field, center field and first base/DH Deep Dives published earlier.     

(age as of April 1, 2020)

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Nicholas Castellanos
Chicago Cubs
B/T: R/R
2019 bWAR: 2.7
Stats: .289/.337/.525, 615 AB, 58 2B, 27 HR, 73 RBI, 2 SB, 41 BB, 143 K
Other positions played: Left field
Age: 28

Kole Calhoun
B/T: L/L
2019 bWAR: 2.3
Stats: .232/.325/.467, 552 AB, 29 2B, 33 HR, 74 RBI, 4 SB, 70 BB, 162 K
Other positions played: Center field
Age: 32 

Avisaíl García
Tampa Bay Rays
B/T: R/R
2019 bWAR: 2.0
Stats: .282/.332/.464, 489 AB, 25 2B, 20 HR, 72 RBI, 10 SB, 31 BB, 125 K
Age: 28

Cameron Maybin
New York Yankees
B/T: R/R
2019 bWAR: 1.5
Stats: .285/.364/.494, 316 AB, 17 2B, 11 HR, 32 RBI, 9 SB, 30 BB, 72 K
Other positions played: Left field, Center field
Age: 32

Yasiel Puig
Cleveland Indians
B/T: R/R
2019 bWAR: 1.3
Stats: .267/.327/.458, 555 AB, 30 2B, 24 HR, 84 RBI, 19 SB, 44 BB, 133 K
Age: 29

Matt Joyce
Atlanta Braves
B/T: L/R
2019 bWAR: 0.9
Stats: .295/.408/.450, 200 AB, 10 2B, 7 HR, 23 RBI, 0 SB, 38 BB, 45 K
Other positions played: Left field
Age: 35

Steven Souza Jr.
Arizona Diamondbacks
B/T: R/R
2019 bWAR: 0.0
Stats: Injured and didn’t play in 2019
Age: 30

Lonnie Chisenhall
Pittsburgh Pirates
B/T: L/R
2019 bWAR: 0.0
Stats: Didn’t play in 2019
Age: 31

Jon Jay
Chicago White Sox
B/T: L/L
2019 bWAR: -0.8
Stats: .267/.311/.315, 165 AB, 8 2B, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 0 SB, 8 BB, 30 K
Other positions played: Left field
Age: 35

Melky Cabrera
Pittsburgh Pirates
B/T: S/R
2019 bWAR: -1.2
Stats: .280/.313/.399, 378 AB, 22 2B, 7 HR, 47 RBI, 2 SB, 17 BB, 41 K
Other positions played: Left field
Age: 35

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Today in White Sox History: September 14

Rubber arm: “15 innings of work, skip? No problem!”

Sept. 14, 1952 — In a 17-inning game in Chicago, White Sox pitcher Saul Rogovin struck out 14 Boston Red Sox in 15 innings of work. But it was Luis Aloma who got the decision as the White Sox won, 4-3.

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Sept. 14, 1974 — White Sox first baseman Dick Allen called a team meeting and announced he was retiring from baseball. Allen, the controversial slugger, would win the American League home run title despite missing the final two weeks of the season. Allen was fighting serious injuries to his shoulder and leg from previous seasons, but the way he “walked out” on the Sox left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans. White Sox GM Roland Hemond traded Allen’s rights to the Atlanta Braves for a player to be named later (interestingly, only after Allen had been traded a second time, to Philadelphia in May 1975, did the White Sox-Braves trade get completed … with one of the players Atlanta acquired from the Phillies, catcher Jim Essian!). Allen would un-retire and see action with the Phillies and Oakland A’s before retiring for good after the 1977 season.

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Sept. 14, 1997 — Carlton Fisk had his uniform No. 72 retired in a ceremony before the White Sox took on Cleveland. The game was also remembered for manager Terry Bevington going to the mound to make a pitching change … with no one was warming up in the bullpen when he called for the change! (The White Sox had a 3-0 lead at the time, and Bevington’s blunder of pulling a pitcher with a cold bullpen led Cleveland rallying to win, 8-3.)

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Sept. 14, 2017 — It was a record-setting afternoon for a couple of White Sox players in the team’s 17-7 blowout of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Sox outfielder Avisaíl García went 5-for-5 with seven RBIs and two runs scored in the game, in addition to a walk. White Sox rookie second baseman Yoán Moncada went 4-for-5 with two walks and five runs scored, and first baseman José Abreu went 4-for-5 with three runs scored.

García became the second White Sox player with five hits and seven RBI in a game since at least 1913. The other was Carl Reynolds, at the New York Yankees on July 2, 1930. Moncada, meanwhile, tied Hall-of-Famer Tim Raines‘s franchise record with the five runs scored. Raines originally set the record against the Red Sox in Boston on April 18, 1994.

The Sox as a team pounded out 25 hits in the game.

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Today in White Sox History: September 12

Scoring frenzy: Avisaíl García collected four hits in an 11-run attack in 2016, the White Sox scoring in every inning. (Wikipedia)

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Sept. 12, 1900 — The White Sox beat the Cleveland Blues 12-4 in Chicago to clinch the franchise’s first pennant. However the American League wasn’t recognized as an “official” major league at the time. Roy Patterson got the win in the game.

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Sept. 12, 2016 — The White Sox tied an unusual franchise record, as they beat Cleveland, 11-4, at U.S. Cellular Field: The Sox scored at least one run in every inning. It was only the 20^th time in major league history that a team had accomplished this.

Chicago banged out 16 hits, Avisaíl García getting four of them. Six of the 16 hits went for extra bases. The first time the franchise accomplished this was May 11, 1949, beating the Boston Red Sox at Comiskey Park.