This Day In Sox History...June 12

[Lip Man 1]

June 12, 1939 – He was a founding father of the White Sox and also of the American League. Charles Comiskey “The Old Roman” was inducted into the Hall of Fame on this date.

Comiskey a former successful player/manager in St. Louis, got together with Byron “Ban” Johnson and others to start the American League in January 1901. He had already moved his St. Paul, Minnesota team to the South Side before this where they have remained ever since. The White Sox became a charter member of the new league which by 1903 was playing the National League champion in the World Series.

Comiskey owned and ran the White Sox from 1900 until his death in 1931. Under his watch the Sox won the World Series in both 1906 and 1917 and lost the series in 1919 under a cloud of suspicion. 

 

June 12, 1939 – On this date White Sox second baseman Eddie Collins entered the Hall of Fame. Collins is regarded by some as the finest second baseman ever to play the game. He was sold to the White Sox in 1914 by the Philadelphia A’s for $50,000 dollars, an unheard-of sum for the time but he was worth every penny.

Collins played 12 years for the White Sox, 10 times hitting over .300. Nine times he amassed over 150 hits in a season including a staggering 224 hits in 1920 when he batted .372. Between the A’s and the White Sox he racked up a total of 3,315 hits in his career.

 

June 12, 1966 - The Sox traded relief pitcher Eddie Fisher to the Orioles for infielder Jerry Adair. Fisher was an All-Star in 1965 and the Fireman of the Year but the Sox had incredible bullpen depth thanks to the anchor, Hoyt Wilhelm, up and coming pitcher Bob Locker and youngster Dennis Higgins.

   

June 12, 1967 - The Sox played the longest game that they lost, in their history, when they dropped a 6-5 decision to the Senators in Washington. The game went 22 innings. Both teams scored a run in the 10^th then didn’t score again until the Nats Paul Casanova drove home the winner in the last of the 22^nd. Johnny Buzhardt tossed eight innings in relief before giving up the run that cost him the game. Sox outfielder Walt Williams had 10 at bats in the contest. The night game took 6:38 minutes and ended at 2:43 AM Washington time. Both teams went the entire game without an error which is the A.L. record.

The contest was played in temperatures around 90 degrees which prompted an angry Sox manager, Eddie Stanky afterwards, to demand implementation of a league curfew.

   

June 12, 1972 - Sox slugger Dick Allen appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. (Teammate Tom Egan was in the background putting on his shin guards) It was one of the most unusual and unique covers in the history of the magazine. The cover’s caption read, “Season of Surprises. Chicago’s Dick Allen Juggles His Image.”

 

June 12, 1981 - A players strike began, wiping out almost two months of the baseball season after owners insisted on wanting player compensation for any free agent signed… in essence instead of a free agent signing, a trade.

When both sides agreed to resume the year in August, the owners came up with a bizarre ‘split season’ format.

Sox manager Tony LaRussa, who passed the Florida bar exam and was an exceptional thinker, quickly found a major flaw in the plan and suggested that if it would help the Sox get the second-best record and a spot in the post season, they would throw a late season series to the A’s to guarantee that Oakland would ‘win’ both halves thus automatically getting the Sox into the post season.

Later Cardinals manager “Whitey” Herzog said he would do the same thing for his club. The owners then quickly changed the format to eliminate the potential for teams having to lose games to, in essence, win.

 

June 12, 2018 – It’s happened less than the number of fingers on one hand for the franchise. On this night the White Sox opened up their game at Guaranteed Rate Field with Yoan Moncada blasting a home run to center field. The next hitter Yolmer Sanchez then hit another home run…again to center field. It was a great way to start a game as the Sox went on to beat Cleveland 5-1.

Both home runs came off Indians starting pitcher Adam Plutko. It was the fourth time in franchise history the Sox would lead off a game with back-to-back home runs.

 

June 12, 2021 – Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, you just can’t lose.

For Sox pitcher Dylan Cease that meant facing the Detroit Tigers. Cease, backed by a 13-hit assault, handled Detroit 15-2 at Comerica Park and in doing so ran his career record against them to 8-0. In eight starts, he had 47 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.09.

He also became the first Sox pitcher ever to win his first eight starts against a single club breaking the record of Mark Buehrle who went 7-0 against the Texas Rangers in his first seven starts against them.