1928
The future third baseman for the 1959 pennant-winning White Sox, Bubba Phillips, was born, in West Point, Miss. Phillips originally came to the White Sox from Detroit, in a 1955 swap for Virgil Trucks. He played for four seasons on the South Side, covering his most productive seasons in the majors; all told, it was just 5.4 WAR, but his stints for the Tigers and Cleveland in his career both finished as negative-WAR efforts.
Phillips put up an impressive 2.7 WAR in 1957, but lost his starting
job to Billy Goodman in 1958. Regaining the role in 1959, Phillips had a modest season but hit .300 for the White Sox in the 1959 World Series.
1948
White Sox GM Les O’Connor sent pitcher Eddie Lopat to the Yankees for three players.
Lopat was a soft-tossing, off-speed pitcher who won 50 games in four years with the Sox, twice having an ERA off less than 3.00. He would quickly develop into one of the aces on the Yankees dynasty of the 1950s, winning 113 games in seven-and-a-half years. He also went 4-1 in World Series play.
Of the players the Sox got in return, only pitcher Bill Wight had any success on the South Side, winning 34 games in three seasons.
It wasn’t really a lost deal, though. Another one of the players acquired, catcher Aaron Robinson, would be sent in November 1948 to the Tigers for a youngster named … Billy Pierce. Pierce would win 186 games in a White Sox uniform from 1950-61, fourth-most in franchise history.
1966
Future White Sox (oh, OK, Mets) pitcher Tom Seaver, who had been taken in the first round (but just No. 20 overall) by Atlanta in the January draft, signed for $40,000. However, because Seaver’s USC season had already begun, the righthander was not allowed to turn pro (MLB and the NCAA understood such poaching would play havoc with college rosters). Because USC then made Seaver ineligible to play (having signed with the pros), baseball commissioner William Eckert set up a special drawing to place Seaver with a team; any team willing to match at least the original $40,000 bonus could throw their names into a hat, and Cleveland, Philadelphia and the Mets did so. Floundering New York won the drawing — yes, literally having their name picked from a hat — and the ascendance of the New York Mets began.
Eighteen years later, the White Sox defied custom and selected the future Hall-of-Famer as free agent compensation, resulting in almost two full, successful, swan-song seasons for Seaver on his way to Cooperstown.
1978
Perfect game defensive hero Dewayne Wise was born in Columbia, S.C.
Forever a part-time player, Wise was called up to the White Sox in 2008 and was a standout in the ALDS loss to Tampa Bay, slashing .286/.375/.857 over three games. He achieved his White Sox immortality, however, by securing an impossible catch in his first play as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of Mark Buehrle’s 2009 perfect game.
2019
A backstop who had a relatively rare two stints with the White Sox, John Romano, died in Naples, Fla.
Signed by the White Sox at age 19, Romano moved up from D-ball to the majors over four seasons, making his debut on Sept. 12, 1958 vs. the Yankees. “Honey” was a part-timer behind incumbent starter Sherm Lollar, and without apparent playing time ahead the Sox sent Romano to Cleveland as part of the ill-fated Norm Cash deal to re-acquire Minnie Miñoso after the 1959 pennant.
After five seasons in Cleveland, Romano came back to the White Sox as part of a three-team deal that also netted Tommy John and Tommie Agee. The catcher had two solid seasons as a White Sox starter in 1965 and 1966 before getting traded to St. Louis, where 24 games for the Cardinals in 1967 would end his MLB career.
