Lip Man 1

You can make that claim going back to immediately after the 1983, 2001 and 2005 seasons as well.

November 10, 1948 - New Sox G.M. Frank “Trader” Lane made his first deal and it was a beauty. Lane traded backup catcher Aaron Robinson to the Tigers for a young left-handed pitcher named Billy Pierce and $10,000. Pierce would become arguably the finest left hander in White Sox history. He won 186 games in a Sox uniform with two 20-win seasons, seven All-Star selections, starting three games and four one-hitters. He led the A.L. at various times in wins, complete games, ERA and strikeouts. He was the first Chicago athlete to be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated which happened in May 1957. He also was on the cover of Sport Magazine later that same year. By WAR Billy was considered the best pitcher in baseball for the decade of the 1950’s. November 10, 1966 – The White Sox officially announced they had signed a deal to leave WGN-TV to start showing their games on WFLD-TV, channel 32, starting in 1968. The deal’s base payout was $1,000,000 annually to the Sox for five years for a minimum of 123 games televised including games from the West Coast which had never been shown on WGN. Much like the SportsVision decision made by the club in 1982, in theory it was a sound business idea but in reality the technical limitations and the fact that most of Chicago couldn’t even receive the UHF signal turned the move into a disaster as the Cubs, still on WGN, expanded the number of games they were showing and with the financial backing to go along with a talented team in the time period from the late 60’s through the early 70’s made the White Sox almost invisible in the market. November 10, 1993 - Frank Thomas won his first M.V.P. award on the strength of a .317 batting average with 41 home runs and 128 RBI’s. The “Big Hurt” was a large reason the Sox would win the Western Division championship. Even rarer, his winning the award was by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Thomas grabbed 392 points in the voting. Paul Molitor of the Blue Jays was a distant second with 209 points. The awarded netted Thomas a $100,000 bonus. Thomas would repeat winning the award in 1994. November 10, 2014 – White Sox slugger Jose Abreu was named the unanimous winner by the Baseball Writers Association of America as the A.L. Rookie of the Year for 2014. He got all 30 votes on the basis of a spectacular first season in the Major Leagues…a .317 average with 36 home runs and 107 RBI’s. He led the Major Leagues in slugging percentage as well. Pitcher Matt Shoemaker of the Angels was second. November 10, 2021 – Liam Hendriks was named the winner of the American League Reliever of the Year Award. The 31-year-old Hendriks signed with the White Sox as a free agent after the pandemic shortened 2020 season coming from the Oakland A’s and more than lived up to his contract in 2021. He had a 2.54 ERA and an incredible 113 strikeouts against only seven walks in 71 innings. He led the league with 38 saves in 44 attempts. Hendriks was the first Sox pitcher to win this award which began in 2014 but former players like Eddie Fisher, Terry Forster, Rich “Goose” Gossage and Bobby Thigpen were also relief pitcher award winners while they were playing.

“They wanted me. And I wanted them just as much. I knew I was surrounded by people who want to be so extraordinarily great.”--Jason Benetti.

AJ is an analyst he's not a play by play person.

https://soxmachine.com/2023/11/white-sox-let-jason-benetti-jump-to-detroit/

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/press-release/press-release-luis-robert-jr-wins-silver-slugger-award?partnerId=zh-20231109-1084770-CWS-1-A&qid=16&utm_id=zh-20231109-1084770-CWS-1-A&utm_source=cws_club_news&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=JuL4IKi44Qp6%2FWuL3sHgOGtroUgXKUWPFx0PUIg8hSERR1yFBJptzcr88RgJ8Q1Q&bt_ts=1699573113547

Just so you know Sully is a long time Sox fan. I've spoken to him about this many times. He and his family were going to Sox games as far back as the 1970's.

June 20, 1980 - Tigers outfielder Al Cowens attacked Sox relief pitcher Ed Farmer. In the 11th inning of a game at Comiskey Park, Cowens ran towards Farmer after hitting a ground ball instead of running towards first base. The two had a melee on the mound. One-year earlier Farmer broke his jaw when he was pitching for Texas on an errant pitch. Chicago police went looking for Cowens after the game to press assault charges. Farmer, who had polycystic kidney disease, ended up on the bottom of the pile, where his cysts burst and his kidneys weakened. He would be an All-Star the next month, amid his greatest season, but Farmer said from the moment after the brawl he felt weaker, and was never the same pitcher.

Update to earlier story with quotes from Jason and a name to watch moving forward: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/11/9/23953866/jason-benetti-leaves-white-sox-tv-booth-for-tigers-with-one-year-left-on-contract?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110923 Afternoon Edition&utm_content=110923 Afternoon Edition CID_9da9ecd5921bcfd59ccb854d64522f6b&utm_source=cst_campaign_monitor&utm_term=Jason Benetti leaves Sox booth&tpcc=110923 Afternoon Edition

Just heard from a source who said Benetti spoke with them yesterday to let them know he was leaving. Source said he left because of Brooks Boyer.

Updated info. Story said the relationship had soured: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/11/9/23953866/jason-benetti-leaves-white-sox-tv-booth-for-tigers-with-one-year-left-on-contract

November 9, 2005 – After a season that saw the White Sox win their first World Series title since 1917, the Baseball Writers Association of America awarded the Manager of the Year award to Ozzie Guillen. Guillen, the former Sox All-Star shortstop, guided the team to a wire-to-wire Central Division title with 99 wins; they then went 11-1 in the postseason capping it off with a four-game sweep of Houston for the championship. Ozzie picked up 17 first place votes and 105 total points to beat out Cleveland’s Eric Wedge. Wedge got six first place votes and 71 points while the Yankees Joe Torre was third with 43 points.

Sun-Times no longer has any type of pay wall, all stories are free since new policy went into effect last year.

Here's why: “Jason Benetti’s deal with the Sox is up, the Sox hold the option for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He went to Fox to negotiate that deal with them after he was told to do it and then come back to the Sox and they’d work something out. Jason wanted to get the deal done with the Sox first and then go to Fox or ESPN or whoever. Turns out when he came back to the Sox and said that he needs 40 days off so he can do the Fox work he was told, ‘no, that’s not happening.’ So I don’t know what’s going to happen to him or Steve Stone.” This was what a source told me last November as part of a story I did on the state of the Sox. Incompetent, dysfunction and inept describe the organization from top to bottom.

Calls out the hypocrisy. Ozzie's family gets into it to:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/11/8/23952946/by-any-name-white-sox-new-gm-getz-has-lots-of-fixing-up-to-do

Which means what exactly to the point about Robert? ? Trading Robert (and again I'm saying it must be done) doesn't impact a club that lost 101 games, has holes all over the roster and isn't going to contend for the next few years AT LEAST (or until new ownership arrives.) It COULD, repeat could, help fill multiple holes with players who could help turn the fortunes around with competent (a key) decision-makers.

Yes...and if you can get two or three "athletes" who can actually play on paper you've improved no? I'm not saying you have to trade him, I'm saying if you get a terrific offer, when you've lost 101 games, when the organization is at a fork in the road, you have to at least consider it. Frank "Trader" Lane said the same thing when he took over, "There are no sacred cows..."

Well to be honest how much worse can they get?

November 8, 2000 - On the basis of an unexpected Central Division championship, and 95-win season, Sox skipper Jerry Manuel was named the Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He ran away with the award beating out Art Howe of Oakland, 134 points to 74. He got 25 first place votes out of a possible 28. He wasn’t able to work any magic in the playoffs though as the Sox pitching staff was in shambles due to injury and they were swept out three straight by the Mariners.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/11/7/23951656/no-untouchables-on-white-sox-roster-first-year-general-manager-chris-getz-says

I think his role is just to help the big league club in any and all areas.

When the Sox get off to a disaster start he'll be fired by Memorial Day.

Bevington lasted two years as manager.

That's the White Sox way. Waste millions of dollars of retreads, injury-prone stiffs and has-been's but when it comes to nabbing a game changer, a superstar (Hello: Bryce Harper...) no...can't do that! ?