This Day In Sox History...May 20

[Lip Man 1]

May 20, 1920 – At Griffith Stadium in Washington on this afternoon the White Sox would set the team record for the most runs ever scored in an extra inning. In the 16^th inning they were able to score eight times to beat the Senators 13-5. The Senators made nine errors on the day leading to nine unearned runs. Sox Hall of Fame pitcher Urban “Red” Faber worked all 16 innings allowing 18 hits, three earned runs and faced 64 batters! 

 

May 20, 1973 - A Sunday afternoon bat day double header with the Twins brought the largest crowd out to ever see a game in the original Comiskey Park. 55,555 packed into the stadium filling every single inch of it, including standing on the catwalks that connected the left and right field bleachers with the center field scoreboard area.

To his dying day, two-time White Sox owner Bill Veeck refused to believe that figure was accurate, he thought it was too low. The Sox split the pair of games that afternoon.

 

May 20, 2006 – The Cubs/Sox rivalry never got hotter than on this day at U.S. Cellular Field when Cubs catcher Michael Barrett sucker punched the Sox A.J. Pierzynski which started a brawl around home plate. The game was the national telecast on the Fox Network.

In the second inning Brian Anderson hit a fly to left field. A.J. tagged up, ran over Barrett who was blocking the plate, then went back and slapped his hand on home plate. Barrett took exception and punched Pierzynski on the side of his jaw. The punch didn’t faze A.J. but both benches cleared. 

As a result, Barrett, A.J., Anderson and John Mabry were ejected.

The Sox, behind Freddy Garcia, won the game 7-0. Tadahito Iguchi belted two home runs, one a grand slam and drove in six RBI’s on the day.

[South Side Hit Men]

Meanwhile, Brian Anderson smacked Barrett and broke John Mabry's ribs.

Wasn't the only time Barrett was made a b**** in a highly publicized incident.

 

 

[The Grinder]

IIRC this is the event that was responsible for the "Punch AJ" promotion that eventually got AJ into that yrs All Star game

[Highland]

3 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

May 20, 1920 – At Griffith Stadium in Washington on this afternoon the White Sox would set the team record for the most runs ever scored in an extra inning. In the 16^th inning they were able to score eight times to beat the Senators 13-5. The Senators made nine errors on the day leading to nine unearned runs. Sox Hall of Fame pitcher Urban “Red” Faber worked all 16 innings allowing 18 hits, three earned runs and faced 64 batters! 

 

May 20, 1973 - A Sunday afternoon bat day double header with the Twins brought the largest crowd out to ever see a game in the original Comiskey Park. 55,555 packed into the stadium filling every single inch of it, including standing on the catwalks that connected the left and right field bleachers with the center field scoreboard area.

To his dying day, two-time White Sox owner Bill Veeck refused to believe that figure was accurate, he thought it was too low. The Sox split the pair of games that afternoon.

 

May 20, 2006 – The Cubs/Sox rivalry never got hotter than on this day at U.S. Cellular Field when Cubs catcher Michael Barrett sucker punched the Sox A.J. Pierzynski which started a brawl around home plate. The game was the national telecast on the Fox Network.

In the second inning Brian Anderson hit a fly to left field. A.J. tagged up, ran over Barrett who was blocking the plate, then went back and slapped his hand on home plate. Barrett took exception and punched Pierzynski on the side of his jaw. The punch didn’t faze A.J. but both benches cleared. 

As a result, Barrett, A.J., Anderson and John Mabry were ejected.

The Sox, behind Freddy Garcia, won the game 7-0. Tadahito Iguchi belted two home runs, one a grand slam and drove in six RBI’s on the day.

I was at that bat day. Fans were sitting in the aisles. They still sold general admission tickets, and I had to settle for the top row of the right field upper deck. Over 2,000 fans got refunds because there was no room. That meant close to 60,000 showed up.  It was quite noisy when Bill Melton homered in the first. 

There was a great picture in the Sun-Times the next day. A little girl sat in the concourse under the stands and a mountain of card board boxes that held the bats loomed behind her. It looked like the Sox were going to contend but injuries ruined the season, and they didn't even finish at .500. 

 

[Lip Man 1]

32 minutes ago, Highland said:

I was at that bat day. Fans were sitting in the aisles. They still sold general admission tickets, and I had to settle for the top row of the right field upper deck. Over 2,000 fans got refunds because there was no room. That meant close to 60,000 showed up.  It was quite noisy when Bill Melton homered in the first. 

There was a great picture in the Sun-Times the next day. A little girl sat in the concourse under the stands and a mountain of card board boxes that held the bats loomed behind her. It looked like the Sox were going to contend but injuries ruined the season, and they didn't even finish at .500. 

 

I was at that game too. 

[The Mighty Mite]

I have never believed and never will believe that 55,000 figure, over inflated. 
I was at the 1964 Sox-Cubs annual Boys Benefit game  and that’s the game they had fans standing on the warning track from dead center field to the right field foul pole and the announced attendance was just over 52,000. We sat in an aisle in the upper deck down the right field line and there was nowhere to move, I have no Idea how Comiskey could have accommodated 3,000 more fans. Why would Bill Veeck care about that crowd that day as I think he was living back in Maryland at the time as he sold the Sox a few years before in 1961 because of poor health.

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by The Mighty Mite

[Highland]

1 hour ago, The Mighty Mite said:

I have never believed and never will believe that 55,000 figure, over inflated. 
I was at the 1964 Sox-Cubs annual Boys Benefit game  and that’s the game they had fans standing on the warning track from dead center field to the right field foul pole and the announced attendance was just over 52,000. We sat in an aisle in the upper deck down the right field line and there was nowhere to move, I have no Idea how Comiskey could have accommodated 3,000 more fans. Why would Bill Veeck care about that crowd that day as I think he was living back in Maryland at the time as he sold the Sox a few years before in 1961 because of poor health.

 

 

 

Many don't believe the 55,000 figure, but I never saw old Comiskey like that. Regardless, that was a historic day. That one day represented 10% of the attendance for the entire 1970 season. Things were truly looking up for the entire franchise. Then, a little more than two years later, it looked like the Sox were headed for Seattle.

[The Mighty Mite]

17 minutes ago, Highland said:

Many don't believe the 55,000 figure, but I never saw old Comiskey like that. Regardless, that was a historic day. That one day represented 10% of the attendance for the entire 1970 season. Things were truly looking up for the entire franchise. Then, a little more than two years later, it looked like the Sox were headed for Seattle.

I attended a lot of sold out games in old Comiskey including the second game of the 1959 World Series, 1981 opening day and like I said that 1964 Sox-Cub game but the one that was unbelievable was the July 31, 1977 DH against the Royals with 50,000 on hand. The Sox pulled off a walk win in game 1 that IIRC put them up 6.5 games in the standings, never has anyone I truly believe experienced the noise and jubilation that afternoon, old Comiskey was actually shaking to the rafters as the noise was deafening, I’m pretty sure Lip was there also. Unfortunately we lost game 2 and failed to sweep the 4 game series, we cooled off in August and the Royals got hot as a pistol and won the division, still a summer not to forget as the Southside Hitmen gave us great memories and tons of excitement.

Edited May 21, 2023 by The Mighty Mite