This Day In Sox History...December 13

[Lip Man 1]

December 13, 1969 - The Sox dealt their star left hander Gary Peters to the Red Sox for Syd O’Brien and Billy Farmer.

Farmer retired instead of reporting, so as compensation the Sox received Jerry “Wheat Germ Kid” Janeski in early March.  

Peters would win 33 games in the next three seasons. Janeski won 10 games in 1970 then was shipped to Washington for outfielder Rick Reichardt. His best outing for the Sox came on April 15 when he threw a three-hit, complete game shutout of the A’s in Oakland.

Peters had spent seven full and four partial seasons with the team, winning 20 games, making two All- Star teams, leading the league in ERA and winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1963.

 

December 13, 1982 - The White Sox outbid 16 other Major League teams and signed free agent pitcher Floyd Bannister to a five year, $4.5-million-dollar deal.

Bannister led the American League in strikeouts in 1981 with Seattle. In his five seasons with the Sox, Bannister won in double figures every year with a high of 16 wins in both 1983 and 1987. The 83’ season saw him get off to a 3-9 start before completely turning it around to go 13-1 after July 12.

His signing angered Yankee owner George Steinbrenner who wasn’t used to losing out on talent that he wanted. Steinbrenner was quoted as saying that he regretted voting against Edward DeBartolo in his bid to buy the Sox franchise from Bill Veeck back in 1980 and leveled verbal blasts at owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.

 

December 13, 2001 - In his quest to find reliable starting pitching, Sox G.M. Ken Williams traded youngsters Robert “Kip” Wells and Josh Fogg and veteran Sean Lowe to the Pirates for Todd Ritchie.

Ritchie would suffer a shoulder injury and have a disastrous 2002 Sox season going 5-15 with an ERA of over six! A free agent, the Sox let him go soon afterwards. He only appeared in nine more games with Milwaukee and Tampa Bay before retiring.

In fairness to Williams, none of the pitchers he gave up really asserted themselves over the ensuing seasons, Fogg perhaps coming the closest to making an impact going 62-69 with an ERA of over five in nine big league years.

   

December 13, 2004 - On the third anniversary of his ill-fated Todd Ritchie deal, Sox G.M. Kenny Williams continued his remake of the club.

He sent power hitting but defensively challenged outfielder Carlos Lee to Milwaukee as part of a four-player deal after manager Ozzie Guillen lost patience with Lee and wanted to get away from the ‘home run or nothing’ philosophy the team had.

The person coming back to replace him, Scott Podsednik energized the lineup, stole over 40 bases twice, made the All-Star team in 2005 and hit a dramatic walk off home run in game #2 of the 2005 World Series to win it for the Sox 7-6.

The Sox would reacquire Podsednik in April 2009 and he had another productive season hitting .304 with 30 stolen bases in 132 games.