1921
All eight Black Sox (Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Chick Gandil, Happy Felsch and even Buck Weaver) were suspended for life by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. None will play in the Major Leagues again. Jackson is banned for life, despite hitting .375 in the sordid 1919 World Series; Weaver is banned not for throwing the Series, but simply for knowing of the plot and not reporting it.
Thus, the only club capable of fending off the emerging New York Yankee dynasty was destroyed.
1951
Commissioner Happy Chandler was fired by MLB owners in a 9-7 vote. Part of the reason stemmed from a botched trade a year previous, between the White Sox and Yankees. On April 28, the Yankees traded outfielder Dick Wakefield to Chicago for Johnny Ostrowski and cash. Wakefield, however, refused to report to the White Sox unless the club restored a $5,500 cut in pay that New York gave him for the 1950 season. White Sox GM Frank Lane called the deal off, to the objection of his Yankees counterpart, George Weiss.
The White Sox prevailed in the matter, so it’s safe to say that Yankees brass had been drumming up support for Chandler’s ouster ever since.
1973
White Sox third baseman and former 1971 AL home run champ, Bill Melton, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The headline read “Chicago Comes Out Swinging.”
Melton had a nice comeback season in 1973, hitting .277 with 20 home runs and 87 RBIs, after missing most of 1972 with a herniated disc. After two more seasons in Chicago after 1973, he was dealt to the California Angels.
1983
Speaking to reporters during spring training in Sarasota, Fla., Carlton Fisk expressed his hopes for the future.
I have at least three more years, and hopefully a couple of more after that,” he told the Sun-Times. “Right now, I could easily play that long. Well, I guess I don’t mean easily, but I could.”
Fisk was in the third year of his five-year contract signed when he originally flipped Sox from Red to White. The future Hall-of-Famer would end up playing another 11 years and 1,190 games — amazingly, at a time when “age was catching up,” 1983 turned out to be virtually the midpoint of Fisk’s career. In the intervening 11 seasons with the White Sox before his release during the 1993 season, Fisk had 1,043 more hits and tallies that added 185 doubles, 193 homers, 652 RBIs, and 47 steals to his career ledger. (The 193 home runs after 1982 were in fact more than Fisk had clubbed in the seasons leading up to 1983!)
In retrospect, the craziest quote from the story comes from Fisk’s heir apparent, Joel Skinner:
“I don’t know what [Fisk] has planned, but it’s obvious he’s at the tail end of his career. I can’t see too many more years, but I have to be patient.”
Surely you know where this is going … not only did Fisk have the superior 1980s career, but he actually played longer than Skinner (who retired in 1991), who felt it was “obvious” Fisk was at the “tail end” of his career.
2006
In a WBC game featuring numerous White Sox connections, Puerto Rico started Round 2 in its home ballpark (Hiram Bithorn Stadium) and knocked off the Dominican Republic, 7-1. Javier Vázquez got the start and led four total Puerto Rican pitchers in a six-hitter; for the D.R., Bartolo Colón got the start and kept Puerto Rico down by giving up just one run on four hits over five innings, but reliever Dámaso Marte took over the 1-1 game in the sixth and gave up three, which would be all the Puerto Ricans would need. It was the first loss of the tournament for the Dominican Republic, while Puerto Rico remained unbeaten.
Vázquez had just been acquired by the White Sox in December 2005, and would play on the South Side for three seasons. Colón was three years removed from his sole season on the South Side, but would rejoin the White Sox for another single season, in 2009. Marte had just been traded from the White Sox (a week before the Vásquez acquisition), ending his four-year career on the South Side.
2015
Will Ferrell became the first White Sox player to be traded in-game, during an exhibition against the San Francisco Giants.
Ferrell’s attempt at the majors was in support of the “Cancer for College” charity that sends survivors to college. The White Sox snapped him up after the Cincinnati Reds placed him on waivers, and Ferrell was so dedicated to his new team that he arrived via a helicopter that landed in center field during the bottom of the ninth inning. Ferrell was immediately inserted into the DH spot for the White Sox — pinch-hitting for Tim Anderson.
After he struck out — fouling off one pitch, making it the more impressive at-bat of his two that day — Ferrell was immediately dealt to the Giants, for whom he was inserted at catcher to finish out the game. Ferrell ended up playing all 10 positions on the field during his 10-team whirlwind through the Cactus League.
His day was filmed for an HBO special, Ferrell Takes the Field.
Jim Margalus provided pre- and postgame coverage for South Side Sox.
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