This Day In Sox History...August 24

[Lip Man 1]

August 24, 1910 - It was a noteworthy publicity stunt. With the White Sox in Washington D.C., catcher Billy Sullivan caught a ball tossed off the top of the Washington Monument from pitcher “Big” Ed Walsh. He caught three balls in 11 attempts. The ball was traveling at well over 100 MPH. The ball fell 555 feet. Two months later, Sullivan opted out of a challenge to catch a baseball tossed from an airplane flying at a thousand feet. According to a comment from the Associated Press Sullivan said, “I might as well try to stop a bullet as be on the receiving end of one from an airplane.”   

 

August 24, 2008 – One thing White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski had going for him was his brain. A.J. was always thinking, always trying to get into the heads of the opposition and always willing to try something to gain an advantage.

On this day his quick thinking directly led to the Sox winning a game, in the middle of a pennant race, that perhaps they shouldn’t have.

The Sox were tied with Tampa Bay 5-5 in extra innings when A.J. led off with a single. He was on second when Jermaine Dye hit a ground ball to the Rays Jason Bartlett. Pierzynski broke on contact and was caught in a run down. However obstruction would wind up being called on third baseman Willy Aybar by umpire Doug Eddings when A.J. stuck his arm out and made contact with Aybar after he had already made a throw. The ruling was that even though Pierzynski initiated the contact it was the responsibility of Aybar to get out of the way.

A.J. was awarded third base and eventually scored the winning run on a single by Alexei Ramirez.