1934
All-time White Sox playing and managing great Fielder Jones died, at age 62, in Portland. His 32.0 WAR for the club ranks 10th all-time among hitters and places him as the best center fielder in White Sox history. Jones was staggeringly good with the White Sox, never dipping below a 3.1 WAR season and leaving the game after a 1908 season that saw him tally 4.7 WAR, at age 36.
Jones was a player-manager for his final five White Sox seasons (1904-08), never suffering anything close to a losing
season and by far the winningest (%) manager in club history. He piloted the White Sox to their first World Series win, over the Cubs in 1906.
1952
One day before celebrating his 31st birthday, southpaw hurler Bill Kennedy was sold to the White Sox by the St. Louis Browns. Kennedy would end up having the best season of his career on the South Side, leading the AL in appearances (47) and putting together a marvelous 2-2, five-save, 2.80 ERA/131 ERA+, 1.4 WAR season.
Eleven months after this purchase, Kennedy was shipped to Boston in a package that yielded the Pale Hose Vern Stephens.
1954
Think today’s streaming madness has made baseball too hard to watch, or the MLB’s blackout rules are an anachronism?
On this day, ABC made an ill-fated effort to televise a Spring Training game featuring the White Sox at the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla. ABC intended the game as a national Game of the Week presentation, while GM Frank Lane of the White Sox felt it would not be shown in MLB cities and the Phillies believed the game was only going to be broadcast back to Chicago.
ABC proceeded with its broadcast prep, which would feature just a single camera, in the stands behind home plate. A hole was cut in the protective screen and the sole cameraman, from a local affiliate in Ft. Lauderdale, donned full catcher’s protective gear in case of foul balls getting through the opening.
The resulting chaos — during the game broadcast, mind you — forced ABC to cut its broadcast off after the third inning, without any explanation for viewers.
The White Sox won the game, 6-3.
1960
During spring training and near this date, the White Sox became the first team in MLB history to wear player names on the the back of their jerseys. The announcement had been made back on January 22. It was another Bill Veeck innovation, only done on road jerseys, met with some resistance from players, but soon adopted across baseball.
Brett Ballantini wrote a detailed “Flashback” article about the jersey-naming innovation on South Side Sox in 2018.
2000
White Sox slugger Frank Thomas was again featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. A lengthy story talked about his career, the controversies and his desire to return to the top of the game. The headline stated, “Don’t Question My Desire. Frank Thomas Comes Out Swinging.”
Thomas would have a spectacular 2000, missing a chance to win his third AL MVP after losing in a narrow vote to the A’s Jason Giambi, who’d later admit to using steroids in grand jury testimony. Frank’s numbers in 2000 included a .328 batting average, 43 home runs, 143 RBIs, 112 walks and a slugging percentage of .625 for the team that led the American League in wins with 95. Despite those gaudy figures, Thomas didn’t lead the league in any single category that year.
2024
In the first major trade of GM Chris Getz’s tenure, the White Sox shipped superstar starter Dylan Cease to San Diego. The Padres shipped back four players: starting pitching prospects Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte, outfield prospect Samuel Zavala and veteran reliever Steven Wilson.
Cease originally arrived on the South Side with Eloy Jiménez in exchange for José Quintana in 2017. The righty had a brilliant year out west, putting up 4.2 WAR and going 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA/3.10 FIP and 1.067 WHIP, and continued his streak of essentially never missing a start to five seasons. Brilliant beginnings in Double-A by Thorpe (7-1, eight earned runs in his first 10 starts) and Iriarte (one earned run in his first four starts) seemed to grade this speculative deal out evenly from the get-go. But after making their major league debuts later on in the summer, both Thorpe (injured elbow) and Iriarte (wildness) ended the year on softer notes and Zavala had a very down season in High-A ball.
