This Day In Sox History...November 10

[Lip Man 1]

November 10, 1948 - New Sox G.M. Frank “Trader” Lane made his first deal and it was a beauty.

Lane traded backup catcher Aaron Robinson to the Tigers for a young left-handed pitcher named Billy Pierce and $10,000. Pierce would become arguably the finest left hander in White Sox history. He won 186 games in a Sox uniform with two 20-win seasons, seven All-Star selections, starting three games and four one-hitters. He led the A.L. at various times in wins, complete games, ERA and strikeouts. He was the first Chicago athlete to be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated which happened in May 1957. He also was on the cover of Sport Magazine later that same year.

By WAR Billy was considered the best pitcher in baseball for the decade of the 1950’s.

 

November 10, 1966 – The White Sox officially announced they had signed a deal to leave WGN-TV to start showing their games on WFLD-TV, channel 32, starting in 1968.

The deal’s base payout was $1,000,000 annually to the Sox for five years for a minimum of 123 games televised including games from the West Coast which had never been shown on WGN.

Much like the SportsVision decision made by the club in 1982, in theory it was a sound business idea but in reality the technical limitations and the fact that most of Chicago couldn’t even receive the UHF signal turned the move into a disaster as the Cubs, still on WGN, expanded the number of games they were showing and with the financial backing to go along with a talented team in the time period from the late 60’s through the early 70’s made the White Sox almost invisible in the market.     

 

November 10, 1993 - Frank Thomas won his first M.V.P. award on the strength of a .317 batting average with 41 home runs and 128 RBI’s.

The “Big Hurt” was a large reason the Sox would win the Western Division championship. Even rarer, his winning the award was by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Thomas grabbed 392 points in the voting. Paul Molitor of the Blue Jays was a distant second with 209 points.

The awarded netted Thomas a $100,000 bonus. Thomas would repeat winning the award in 1994.

 

November 10, 2014 – White Sox slugger Jose Abreu was named the unanimous winner by the Baseball Writers Association of America as the A.L. Rookie of the Year for 2014. He got all 30 votes on the basis of a spectacular first season in the Major Leagues…a .317 average with 36 home runs and 107 RBI’s. He led the Major Leagues in slugging percentage as well. Pitcher Matt Shoemaker of the Angels was second.

 

November 10, 2021 – Liam Hendriks was named the winner of the American League Reliever of the Year Award.

The 31-year-old Hendriks signed with the White Sox as a free agent after the pandemic shortened 2020 season coming from the Oakland A’s and more than lived up to his contract in 2021. He had a 2.54 ERA and an incredible 113 strikeouts against only seven walks in 71 innings. He led the league with 38 saves in 44 attempts. Hendriks was the first Sox pitcher to win this award which began in 2014 but former players like Eddie Fisher, Terry Forster, Rich “Goose” Gossage and Bobby Thigpen were also relief pitcher award winners while they were playing.