This Day In Sox History...August 4

[Lip Man 1]

August 4, 1985 - On the same day Rod Carew got his 3,000^th hit in Anaheim, Sox pitcher Tom Seaver won his 300^th career game.

Seaver beat the Yankees 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. The Sox scored four times in the sixth inning to put Seaver in a position to get the milestone win. He got late inning defensive help when Harold Baines climbed the right field wall to rob Willie Randolph of an extra base hit with men on base. Seaver retired Don Baylor, on a fly to left for the final out of the game.

The ball was caught by Reid Nichols as the capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium (many of whom were Mets fans) gave Seaver a standing ovation.

 

August 4, 1992 - The White Sox set the franchise record for the most runs ever scored in the third inning of a game. Nine men crossed the plate against the Twins in Chicago.

Wilson Alvarez got the win as the Sox won the slugfest 19-11. DH George Bell had five RBI’s in the game for the Sox. 13 men batted in the big third inning and nine straight reached base.

 

August 4, 1993 - After years of getting brush back pitches thrown at Sox hitters from Nolan Ryan, Robin Ventura snapped in the third inning of a game in Texas and charged the mound. Ryan got the better of the fight but Ventura and his teammates found strength from the brawl and used it during the stretch run which would lead to a divisional title and keep the Rangers in second place by eight games.

 

August 4, 2000 - Catcher Carlton Fisk was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Even though Fisk played more games and for more years with the White Sox, he went in wearing the colors of the Red Sox.

Fisk explained to the Chicago media, that his choice in no way reflected any animosity towards White Sox fans but was based in part on his treatment by the organization and ownership over the years.

[The Kids Can Play]

Fisk going into the Hall of Fame with a Red sox cap is right up there with all of Jerry's other stupid owner relationship decisions and disasters like:

- Letting Jerry Krause fire Phil Jackson and force the greatest athlete ever out from the Bulls

- Letting Hawk fire, who at the time was a great manager in Tony LaRussa. 

- Breaking the player's union in 1994 and ending the only baseball season ever early, just to prove a point for his hatred of unions, so his own team could be robbed of a possible World Series. 

 

 

[South Side Hit Men]

We went up to Milwaukee County Stadium to watch Nolan Ryan earn his 300th win against the Brewers on July 31, 1990. Nolan threw 146 pitches over 7 2/3 innings to beat the Brewers 11-3. The game was much closer, 5-3, before Texas added six runs including a Julio Franco Grand Slam in the final frame.

Robin Ventura was lucky his teammates saved him from getting 146 punches, or he would have been dead. I lost a lot of respect for Robin after that debacle. 

Happy 30th Anniversary Nolan!

ESPN Highlights and Nolan Ryan postgame interview.

 

White Sox Broadcast - Hawk and Wimperoo 

 

 

Rangers Broadcast - Mark Holtz

 

 

Now youse can't leave - Sonny

 

[Lip Man 1]

From my interview with Jeff Torborg:

ML: That season was the start of a real dislike between the White Sox and the Texas Rangers that culminated in 1993 when Robin Ventura charged the mound at Nolan Ryan. There was something going on between the two organizations and there were a lot of strange things that contributed to the bad blood. It started when the two players you’d least expect to homer off Ryan did, Craig Grebeck and Ozzie Guillen back to back, then you had an eight hour ‘rain delay’ on a Sunday, resulting in a game having to be played in Texas at twilight, there was a bad brawl on the field during that game and then Carlton Fisk hit his record setting home run in the nightcap. Whew! 

JT: “I remember when Craig and Ozzie hit homers off Nolan and his teammates were giving it to him from the dugout when it happened. (Author’s Note: It happened in the 2^nd inning of the second game of a double header on August 10, 1990. The Sox won the game 5-1 after taking the opener 5-2.) I knew Nolan well of course, since I caught him with the Angels and I knew the type of competitor he was.”

“Then that Sunday it started to rain before the game was supposed to start, it wasn’t a downpour but a steady rain. It was the last time Texas was coming into Chicago and we asked them if we postponed it, would they fly back in on an off day to play. They said no, so we said we’ll wait as long as we have to because if we can’t get the game in we’re going to have to make it up next week when we went to Texas and I knew, just knew, that if we did, we were going to face Ryan in twilight and I wanted to avoid that. The umpires were furious with us.” (Author’s Note: The Sox set what is believed to be the longest wait in baseball history before calling a game because of rain. The game was schedule to start at 1PM Central time. Persistent rains caused a delay before the first pitch was even thrown. The wait lasted seven hours and 23 minutes, before the game was “officially” called off on August 12, 1990.)

“The next week then in Texas, sure enough, we get Ryan in the makeup game in twilight. It’s hard enough to see him during the day but under those conditions…and he was still mad from what happened the week before. He threw at Craig Grebeck during the game and I yelled out of the dugout at him. I said, “throwing at Grebeck doesn’t show me anything…” I told Greg Hibbard, “look if we get in a situation where there are two out and nobody on base, the next guy goes down.” Remember it was a one to nothing game and I couldn’t afford to do something at the wrong moment. It turned out the situation came up and it happened to one of the nicest guys around, Steve Buechele. He charged the mound and it was a really ugly fight, it wasn’t your usual baseball fight. (Author’s Note: Texas wound up winning the makeup game 1-0 in 13 innings. Ryan struck out 15, working 10 innings on August 17, 1990)

“Then in the night cap game after Carlton hit the home run, I wanted to win that game for him so badly because of the respect that I had for him as a player. He worked so much with our young players, our young pitchers and was such an influence on how they progressed in the big leagues.” (Author’s Note: The Sox took the night cap 4-2. Fisk broke Johnny Bench’s record for most career home runs by a catcher with a solo shot in the 2nd inning off Charlie Hough. It was home run #328 for Fisk as a catcher. That record was subsequently broken by Mike Piazza.)