THIS DATE IN WHITE SOX HISTORY: FEB. 16

[StatManDu]

THIS DATE IN WHITE SOX HISTORY: FEB. 16

 

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DEADBALL ERA SLUGGER COMES AND QUICKLY GOES

1909: The White Sox purchased outfielder Gavvy Cravath from the Boston Red Sox. Cravath did not last long with the White Sox. According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, a slow start with the Sox got Cravath traded to Washington with Nick Altrock and Jiggs Donahue for Sleepy Bill Burns in May of 1909. Cravath hit .180 with one home run and eight RBIs for the 1909 Sox before being traded. The one home run tied three others for the team lead that season. It’s a shame the Sox didn’t keep Cravath because he turned out to be the premiere slugger of the “dead ball” era. After leaving Washington for Philadelphia, Cravath led the A.L. in home runs from 1913 to 1915 and from 1917 to 1919. Cravath hit at least 19 home runs in each season between 1913 and 1915. By comparison, the White Sox didn’t have a player reach double digits in home runs in until Hap Felsch rounded the bases 14 times in 1920. In addition, it wasn’t until 1934 (Zeke Bonura 27) that the Sox had a player eclipse the career-high 24 homers that Cravath hit in 1915.

 

CONGRATULATIONS, RED HEAD

1967: Pitcher Red Ruffing, who spent the last year of his career with the White Sox, was finally elected to the Hall of Fame. Ruffing, who won 270 games with the Yankees and three with the White Sox, actually made the Hall in a special “run off” election (which are no longer held) after no candidate received the necessary 75 percent for induction in the first ballot executed by the Baseball Writers Association of America. In the first election, Ruffing and Joe “Ducky” Medwick topped the balloting but fell seven votes shy of getting in. In the “run off,” Ruffing, a three-time All-Star who went 7-2 with a 2.63 ERA in 10 World Series appearances for the Yankees, earned election by being named on 86.93 percent of the ballots. He was the only candidates that received enough votes for induction and the first player with any White Sox affiliation to make the Hall since Luke Appling was voted in three years earlier. Ruffing went 3-5 with a 6.11 ERA in nine games (all starts) for the 1947 Sox. His victory in the nightcap of the White Sox sweep of an Aug. 31, 1947 doubleheader at Cleveland was the 273rd and final triumph of his career.