1939
Charles Comiskey was inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the first ceremony held at the newly completed shrine in Cooperstown.
In 1939, BBWAA player selectors Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler were elected, increasing membership by ten (Lou Gehrig was added in a special election in December after it became clear that ALS had ended his playing career.) The Veterans Committee elected Cap Anson, Buck Ewing, Candy Cummings and Charles Radbourn as player selectors, as well as managers/officials Comiskey and Al Spalding.
1967
The White Sox lost 6–5 to the Senators in Washington, their longest losing game in history. The game went 21 1⁄3 innings with each team scoring one run in the 10th inning, but no runs were scored after that until Washington’s Paul Casanova scored the winning run in the bottom of the 22nd inning. The 21 1⁄3 innings was the second-longest White Sox game ever played and, at the time, the longest night game in American League history.
Johnny Buzzard pitched eight relief innings but gave up a run and took the loss. Red Sox outfielder Walt Williams had 10 at-bats in the game.
The night game lasted 6 minutes, 38 seconds, and ended at 2:44 a.m. Neither team completed the game with an error, an American League record. The game was played in temperatures approaching 90 degrees, which left Red Sox manager Eddie Stanky angry and demanding the enforcement of the league’s curfew after the game.
1972
White Sox slugger Dick Allen appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated (with teammate Tom Egan wearing shin guards behind him). It was one of the most unusual and unique covers in the magazine’s history. The cover read, “A Season of Surprises: Chicago’s Dick Allen Steals Images.”
1981
The players’ strike began after owners insisted that players needed to be compensated for free agent signings, essentially turning the free agent deals into trades, wiping out nearly two months of the baseball season.
Once the two sides agreed to resume play, the owners came up with a bizarre “split season” formula. White Sox manager Tony La Russa, a Florida bar-passer and a prodigy, quickly saw a major flaw in the plan and suggested that Oakland should pitch a late-season series against the Athletics to guarantee they “won” both halves if it would help the White Sox finish second-best and reach the postseason.
Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog then said he would do the same with his team, after which the owners quickly changed the format, effectively eliminating the possibility that a team could win without losing a game.
From today’s perspective, the ironic twist in this situation is that the new White Sox owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, was part of a group of moderate owners who wanted the impasse resolved and baseball played. Once the labor issue reached a deadlock in 1994, he completely changed his stance toward the union and the players.
2018
For a franchise that has fewer milestones than you can count on one hand, the White Sox opened the game at Guaranteed Rate Field with a home run by Yoan Moncada to center field. The next batter, Yolmer Sanchez, followed with another home run to center field.
The Red Sox beat Cleveland 5-1 to start the game with a bang, including two home runs from starting pitcher Adam Platko. It was only the fourth time in franchise history that the Red Sox started games with consecutive home runs.
2021
Sometimes, no matter what you do, you just can’t lose.
For White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease, that meant facing the Detroit Tigers. Cease was buoyed by a 13-hit blitz to beat Detroit, 15-2, at Comerica Park and improve to 8-0 all-time against the Tigers. In eight starts, he struck out 47 batters and posted a 2.09 ERA.
He also became the first Red Sox pitcher to win his first eight games against a single team, breaking Mark Buehrle’s record of 7-0 in his first seven games against the Texas Rangers.
