This Day In Sox History...August 12

[Lip Man 1]

August 12, 1984 – In his sixth year on the ballot, long time White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Aparicio was one of the most athletic shortstops to ever play and he brought the lost art of the stolen base back to baseball leading the A.L. in that category nine straight seasons. The former 1956 Rookie of the Year by both the Baseball Writers Association of America and The Sporting News played 10 years with the White Sox.

He was runner-up to teammate Nellie Fox in the 1959 M.V.P. voting, won seven Gold Gloves while playing for the White Sox and represented the White Sox in six All-Star Games.    

 

August 12, 1986 - Future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, picked up on waivers by the Sox, made his American League debut. “Lefty” only went three innings giving up six runs in a 7-3 loss to the Tigers in Detroit. In 10 games, Carlton would rebound and have four wins, a 3.69 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 63 innings before being released at season’s end.

 

August 12, 1990 - The Sox set what was believed to be the longest wait in baseball history before calling a game because of rain.

The Sox were slated to play the Rangers at Comiskey Park in an afternoon contest starting at 1PM Central time. Persistent rains caused a delay before the first pitch was even thrown. The Sox asked Texas if they would fly back to Chicago on an off day to make the game up if they called it and the Rangers said no.

So the Sox waited until the evening before ‘officially’ calling the game. The wait lasted seven hours and 23 minutes!!!

As it turned out the Sox had to play the makeup game in Arlington as part of a double header the following week.

 

August 12, 2007 - Sox closer Bobby Jenks tied the Major League record at the time, when he retired his 41^st consecutive hitter in a game against the Mariners. Jenks’ streak started back on June 17 at Cleveland.

The record was originally set by the Giants Jim Barr in the early 1970’s. That record was later broken in 2009 by the Sox Mark Buehrle who retired 45 consecutive batters.

 

August 12, 2017 - When Sox first baseman Jose Abreu went deep with one out in the fourth inning against the Royals, he became the first player in team history with four consecutive seasons of at least 20 home runs to start his career.

Jermaine Dye and Jose Valentin opened the White Sox portion of their careers with five consecutive seasons of at least 20 homers, and Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin started their White Sox careers with four consecutive seasons of at least 20 homers.

Abreu homered again in the sixth; marking his ninth career multi-homer game, both came off of Ian Kennedy. He also became the first Sox player with 25 home runs in four straight seasons starting a career.

 

August 12, 2020 – For the fifth time in franchise history the White Sox led off a game with back-to-back home runs.

It was shortstop Tim Anderson and outfielder Eloy Jimenez who turned the trick in Detroit staking the Sox to a 2-0 lead over Matthew Boyd and the Tigers.

The Sox would go on to win the game 7-5.

 

August 12, 2021 – It was a remarkable night in a remarkable location.

It was the first “Field of Dreams” game played at the location of the movie of the same name in Dyersville, Iowa.

The White Sox hosted the Yankees with both teams wearing throwback uniforms. An eight thousand seat stadium was built next to the field where the movie was shot and the game was nationally televised by Fox Sports. Some of the original cast members, including baseball fan Kevin Costner, came out to take in the celebration. The classic baseball movie was released in 1989.

Jose Abreu hit the first ever home run for a big-league game in the state of Iowa when he connected in the first inning.

The Sox would win 9-8 after blowing a three run ninth inning lead on Tim Anderson’s walk-off two run home run that set off fireworks in center field to recreate Comiskey Park.  

[Texsox]

Damnit. You have to post a warning that it could make a Sox fan smile.