This Day In Sox History...April 10

[Lip Man 1]

April 10, 1959 - The season opener to a memorable American League Pennant winning year started in Detroit where Billy Pierce faced Jim Bunning. The Sox blew a 7-4 lead when the Tigers got three runs in the eighth inning and matters weren’t decided until the 14^th.

That’s when Nellie Fox, who hit home runs as often as he struck out, blasted a two-run shot to give the Sox the 9-7 win. Fox would go 5 for 7 and knock in three runs that afternoon despite the freezing temperatures. Catcher Sherm Lollar had three hits for the Sox who used seven pitchers in the game.

 

April 10, 1961 –Sox outfielder “Jungle” Jim Rivera was always good for the unexpected. Right before the Sox played in Washington to open the season, President John Kennedy threw out the first ball. Rivera came up with it and was escorted to the President’s box where both he and Vice President Lyndon Johnson signed the ball.

After Rivera looked at it, he said to the President, “You’ll have to do better than that John. This is a scribble I can hardly read!” So, Kennedy in block letters spelled out his name on the baseball. Oh… the Sox went on to win the game 4-3 getting single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. It was the first game the new Washington Senators ever played as the previous version of the team was moved to Minnesota.

 

April 10, 1968 - The good days were a thing of the past.

The social unrest on the West Side of Chicago after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King held the opening day crowd at Comiskey Park to less than 8,000.

The Sox then got shut out by Wilfred ‘‘Sonny’’ Siebert and the Indians 9-0. It was the first of a franchise record 10 straight losses to open the season. They were outscored in that stretch 42-13 and were shut out three times. Coupled with the five straight losses to close out 1967, the Sox dropped 15 in a row.

 

April 10, 1981 - If you had written the script and pitched it to Hollywood, they would have refused it on the grounds of corniness but reality is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Carlton Fisk, native son of New England, returned to Boston on opening day as a member of the White Sox. Fisk was declared a free agent after the Red Sox mailed him his contract after the time allotment for doing so expired. Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn and G.M. Roland Hemond immediately got with agent Jack Sands and worked out a multi-year deal, seven years for $2.9 million dollars. 

With a new team, in a new uniform, Fisk immediately began making Boston pay as he ripped a three-run home run in the eighth inning off Bob Stanley to put the Sox ahead 3-2 in a game they’d win 5-3.

 

[The Mighty Mite]

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

April 10, 1959 - The season opener to a memorable American League Pennant winning year started in Detroit where Billy Pierce faced Jim Bunning. The Sox blew a 7-4 lead when the Tigers got three runs in the eighth inning and matters weren’t decided until the 14^th.

That’s when Nellie Fox, who hit home runs as often as he struck out, blasted a two-run shot to give the Sox the 9-7 win. Fox would go 5 for 7 and knock in three runs that afternoon despite the freezing temperatures. Catcher Sherm Lollar had three hits for the Sox who used seven pitchers in the game.

 

April 10, 1961 –Sox outfielder “Jungle” Jim Rivera was always good for the unexpected. Right before the Sox played in Washington to open the season, President John Kennedy threw out the first ball. Rivera came up with it and was escorted to the President’s box where both he and Vice President Lyndon Johnson signed the ball.

After Rivera looked at it, he said to the President, “You’ll have to do better than that John. This is a scribble I can hardly read!” So, Kennedy in block letters spelled out his name on the baseball. Oh… the Sox went on to win the game 4-3 getting single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. It was the first game the new Washington Senators ever played as the previous version of the team was moved to Minnesota.

 

April 10, 1968 - The good days were a thing of the past.

The social unrest on the West Side of Chicago after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King held the opening day crowd at Comiskey Park to less than 8,000.

The Sox then got shut out by Wilfred ‘‘Sonny’’ Siebert and the Indians 9-0. It was the first of a franchise record 10 straight losses to open the season. They were outscored in that stretch 42-13 and were shut out three times. Coupled with the five straight losses to close out 1967, the Sox dropped 15 in a row.

 

April 10, 1981 - If you had written the script and pitched it to Hollywood, they would have refused it on the grounds of corniness but reality is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Carlton Fisk, native son of New England, returned to Boston on opening day as a member of the White Sox. Fisk was declared a free agent after the Red Sox mailed him his contract after the time allotment for doing so expired. Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn and G.M. Roland Hemond immediately got with agent Jack Sands and worked out a multi-year deal, seven years for $2.9 million dollars. 

With a new team, in a new uniform, Fisk immediately began making Boston pay as he ripped a three-run home run in the eighth inning off Bob Stanley to put the Sox ahead 3-2 in a game they’d win 5-3.

 

Nelie Fox loved hitting at old Briggs or later Tiger Stadium, he might have won a batting title or 2 if he had played for the Tigers instead of the White Sox.