1937
Ed Arthur Walsh, son of White Sox legend Ed Walsh, died of rheumatic fever after falling into a coma at his childhood home in Meriden, Conn. He was just 32 years old.
Quite obviously, the younger Walsh would never escape the shadow of his father, a Hall-of-Famer and fifth all-time in White Sox WAR. However, Ed was a talented athlete, making the University of Notre Dame football team as a punter under coach Knute Rockne and pitching to an 18-6 record for a Fighting Irish baseball team managed
by his father.
The White Sox signed the younger Walsh upon graduation in 1928 and he made his major league debut on the mound that same year, on July 4. Walsh pitched in four seasons for the White Sox, ending his career with an 11-28 record, a 5.57 ERA and 0.1 pitching WAR.
Just five years after his final game in the majors, the younger Walsh was dead. His father lived until the White Sox pennant-winning season of 1959, 22 years later.
1972
In an extremely tight race, Gaylord Perry edged Wilbur Wood for AL Cy Young, 64 votes to 58. Both hurlers had very similar, 24-win seasons:
- Wood threw 34 more innings (376 2⁄3 !), started nine more games (49), and had three more shutouts (eight).
- Perry had one fewer loss (16), nine more complete games (29), and had key edges in ERA (1.92 to 2.51), ERA+ (168 to 126), and WHIP (0.978 to 1.059).
In the final accounting, Perry had a slightest of edges in WAR (10.8 to 10.7) and finished sixth in AL MVP voting to Wood’s seventh.
But for fans of “meaningful games,” the decision was hard to swallow: Perry’s Clevelanders finished sixth in the AL East (72-84), while Wood’s White Sox were 16 games better, finishing second in the AL West (87-67).
Wood would have been just the second White Sox pitcher ever to win a Cy Young (Early Wynn, 1959) and would have joined Dick Allen (MVP) as major award winners in 1972 for the upstart South Siders.
2005
As the White Sox were winning their first World Series in 88 years, Sports Illustrated put Scott Podsednik and his winning home run from the second game on the cover. The long headline read, “World Series. In A Match Up Of Two Title Hungry Teams, The White Sox Struck First, Dramatically Downing The Astros In Games 1 And 2.”
Sports Illustrated then basically ignored the White Sox winning the series by only putting a small circle shot of the team celebrating in the corner of the following week’s cover, breaking a longstanding tradition. The cover that week was Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, as the magazine previewed a regular season NFL game — not a Super Bowl matchup, not a playoff contest — but a regular-season meeting.
2011
Three days after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to another World Series title, former White Sox skipper Tony La Russa announced his retirement.
He would not remain retired.
2024
The White Sox officially announced the hiring of Will Venable as the 44th manager in franchise history.
Venable came from the Rangers organization, where he was the associate manager under Bruce Bochy and helped Texas win a World Series in 2023. He also coached in the Red Sox and Cubs organizations after an almost 10-year playing career as an outfielder.
Venable was considered an up-and-comer in the baseball world and initial reaction to his hiring was very positive. He stepped into what many were also considering the most difficult job in the majors, taking over a team that lost a record 121 games in the 2024 season, and improved the club by 19 wins in 2025 and another 24 in 2026.
Also on this day, the White Sox bought out third baseman Yoán Moncada’s contract for $5 million rather than pay him $25 million for the 2025 season. Moncada is commonly regarded as a “bust” for the White Sox, and while his enormous promise as an overall No. 1 prospect in baseball promised more, the infielder was not. From a strict value standpoint, he was paid $71.1 million over the course of his White Sox career and produced 14.5 WAR; at $4.9 million paid per WAR, the White Sox actually got a slight bargain in the deal.
