This Day In Sox History...August 28

[Lip Man 1]

August 28, 1909 – In the second inning of the opener of a doubleheader at South Side Park, Washington’s William “Dolly” Gray set two Major League records against the White Sox. 

He walked eight batters in the inning, seven of them consecutive. Pat “Patsy” Dougherty led off the inning with a single, and #5 hitter Frank Isbell either sacrificed Doughtery to second or made an out (a play-by-play for the game isn’t available). And then, the parade of walks — from #6 hitter Lee Tannehill all the way back through the order to Doughtery began. The White Sox scored six in the inning, all ‘driven in’ with walks.

The second time Doughtery went to bat, with six straight walks already in the books, White Sox manager Billy Sullivan suggested Doughtery leave his bat in the dugout.

The White Sox won, 6-4, with only Doughtery’s single hit. Gray’s one-hitter came with 11 total walks for the afternoon.

The White Sox also won the nightcap, 2-1, walking just twice.

 

August 28, 1938 – It was the most grueling stretch of baseball ever in Major League history.

A series of rain outs forced the White Sox to play six consecutive double headers on six consecutive days from August 23 through August 28.

They played four games against the Yankees in two days, six games against the Red Sox in three days and two games against the Athletics. All were on the road.

For the month the White Sox had to play 13 double headers! Despite the incredible stretch of games, they finished the month with a record of 16-22 which really wasn’t that bad.

 

August 28, 1960 - Of all the crazy games and things that have happened when the Sox played at Baltimore, this one topped the list. The Sox started the day two and a half games behind the Yankees and trailed the O’s 3-0 going into the eighth inning. With two out, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Roy Sievers ripped consecutive singles, scoring a run and putting the tying runs on base. Manager Al Lopez called on Ted Kluszewski to pinch hit.

“Big Klu” drilled the pitch from Milt Pappas into the right field stands for an apparent three run homer except for one small thing…

Third base umpire Ed Hurley called time! Nobody remembered seeing him do it but he refused to change his call. Fox was ejected in the confrontation afterwards and Lopez played the game under protest. Hurley called time right before the pitch to tell Sox players Floyd Robinson and Earl Torgeson that they were warming up in the wrong area.

The next day Hurley was quoted in the newspapers as saying "I wish to heck I hadn’t called it; I’d gladly take it back.” End result was the Sox lost 3-1, and were now three games behind the Yankees. Kluszewski later recalled that this game was the one that broke the team’s spirit that season.

 

August 28, 1983 - Greg Luzinski completed his ‘downtown triple crown’ by blasting a pitch from Boston’s Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd over the roof in left center field in the first inning. It was Luzinski’s third roof shot in 1983 the others came versus the Twins and Yankees.

Greg would have four roof top home runs in his White Sox career. The Sox took care of Boston on this afternoon 6-2 before over 33-thousand fans.

 

August 28, 1990 - Frank Thomas, who would become the White Sox all-time home run leader, belted his first big league round tripper. Thomas connected in the ninth inning of a game at the Metrodome off the Twins Gary Wayne. The Sox would lose that day 12-6. Thomas had 448 home runs in a Sox uniform.

 

August 28, 1998 - The Sox and Rangers combined for 14 home runs in a double header at Comiskey Park, tying the American League mark. The teams hit seven in the first game, seven in the second. Texas and the Sox split the two games on the day.