This Day In Sox History...May 19

[Lip Man 1]

May 19, 1908 – White Sox pitcher Guy “Doc” White tossed his fifth one-hitter and beat Washington 2-0. The only hit he allowed came off the bat of outfielder Bob Ganley. White helped his own cause with an RBI single scoring catcher Billy Sullivan. White faced only 28 hitters on the day, one over the minimum. 

 

May 19, 1914 – White Sox pitcher Ed Cicotte fired his first one-hitter beating the Athletics 3-0 at Shibe Park. Cicotte took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before the A’s John “Stuffy” McInnis singled to left field with one out. He was the A’s only base runner on the afternoon. 

 

May 19, 1959 – White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson called Memorial Stadium in Baltimore the ‘chamber of horrors’ because of the strange, weird and bizarre events that always seemed to take place when the White Sox were in town.

On this night another one of those incidents took place as the O’s beat the Sox and Billy Pierce 2-1.

In the second inning of a scoreless game and with Billy Gardner on first, Baltimore pitcher Billy O’Dell sliced a drive down the right field line. The ball hit the foul line-the only one in the Major Leagues made out of wood and bounced over the head of charging right fielder Al Smith. The ball rolled along the cinder warning track towards the right field corner. By the time it was retrieved Gardner scored easily and O’Dell had himself possibly the most unusual inside the park home run ever.

 

May 19, 1963 - Sox starter Ray Herbert’s consecutive scoreless inning streak ended controversially in (where else?) Baltimore. Herbert, a 20-game winner in 1962, had thrown 38 straight scoreless innings when he faced the Orioles Johnny Orsino in the third inning. Orsino then hit what appeared to be a home run to left field...or did he?

Both manager Al Lopez and outfielder Dave Nicholson argued that the ball Orsino hit passed between the top of the wall and an iron railing mounted on top of it with support posts to help keep fans from falling over on to the field of play. By going through the gap, it should have been ruled a ground rule double. They lost the argument; Herbert lost his scoreless streak but the Sox won the game 4-3 in 10 innings to get a double header split.

 

May 19, 1996 - In a 14-3 clubbing of the Tigers in Detroit, Sox players Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura hit grand slams. The home runs came in the third and ninth innings. Both had four RBI’s in the game.

 

May 19, 2004 - The 2004 season which had started off well for the White Sox, took a dramatic turn as on a short pop up to right field in Cleveland, infielder Willie Harris slammed his shoulder into outfielder Magglio Ordonez’s knee. Ordonez would go on the injured list, come back and play a few games, then miss the rest of the season. Eventually he’d go to Europe for an operation and leave the Sox as a free agent signing with Detroit. The Sox won the game 15-3 but losing Ordonez was huge.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Lip Man 1