Today in White Sox History: April 14

An all-time great signs with the South Siders

1900

Deaf and mute player Billy Hoy signed with the White Sox after a 12-year career starring in the American Association, National League and Players’ League. He played just two years with the White Sox, including their pennant-winning debut in the American League in 1901, when at age 39 he put up a 4.2 WAR season (third on the team and tops among position players). He also hit the first grand slam in AL history.

Hoy would play one more year after his time with the White Sox, then retired — but remained active in competitive softball until his 80s. He lived to 99 and at the time of his death in December 1961 was the Oldest Living Ballplayer (and at the time set the record as the oldest of all the prior Oldest Living Ballplayers) and last survivor of the PL and AA. Just a few months earlier, he’d thrown out the first pitch at Game 3 of the 1961 World Series.

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1910

White Sox pitcher Frank Smith fired the franchise’s only Opening Day one-hitter. Smith beat the Browns in Chicago, 3-0, in front of 23,660 at the last Home Opener at South Side Park. The only hit for St. Louis came off the bat of outfielder Ray Demmitt, who’d later play for the White Sox in 1914 and 1915.

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1917

Eddie Cicotte no-hit the St. Louis Browns, easily winning, 11-0. The game was at St. Louis, and is the earliest no-hitter ever thrown by a White Sox pitcher in a season. Only one member of the Browns came close to a hit: Jim Austin’s ground ball in the eighth inning was ruled an error, bouncing right past first baseman Chick Gandil despite him being in position to make the play.

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1942

Because of the intervention of President Franklin Roosevelt, Major League Baseball continued during World War II. The White Sox lost to St. Louis, 3-0, in front of 9,379 fans at Comiskey Park this Opening Day. According to the reports of the time, it was a very quiet, somber crowd. Marines and sailors marched into the park, carrying the American flag from center field. Pearl Harbor was still etched in everyone’s memories.

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1953

Cleveland’s Bob Lemon, who’d go on to manage the White Sox in 1977 and some of 1978, almost duplicated Bob Feller’s Opening Day no-hitter, holding Chicago to one hit in a 6-0 win. (Feller’s gem against the White Sox in 1940 remains the only Opening Day no-hitter in MLB history.) Minnie Miñoso got the only White Sox hit and that came in the first inning, a single to left field.

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1955

The White Sox and Sandy Consuegra defeated the Kansas City Athletics, 7-1, in the Comiskey Park home opener. The game was the first-ever between the Sox and the Athletics after the A’s move from Philadelphia to Kansas City. Sandy went the distance, allowing only three hits. Right fielder Bob Nieman drove in three runs on the day, a pair coming on his sixth-inning home run.

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1964

The bittersweet 1964 season began with the White Sox dropping a 5-3 decision to the Orioles in Chicago. Hoyt Wilhelm gave up two runs and three hits to lose the game. The 1964 Sox ended up winning 98 games ... only to finish one game behind the Yankees for the pennant.

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1981

In the home opener for the season and for new owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, 51,560 fans poured into Comiskey Park to see the new faces and attitude. The White Sox put on a show, crushing Milwaukee, 9-3. The big blow was Carlton Fisk’s grand slam to left-center in the fourth inning, off of former Sox hurler Pete Vuckovich. Another Sox newcomer, Greg Luzinski, had two hits and drove in two runs as well.

The crowd was the 13th-largest in Chicago history for an Opening Day game, and for any single day game.

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2017

The White Sox started an all-García outfield at Minnesota, marking the first time in major league history a team’s three starting outfielders all had the same last name. All three Garcías collected hits, including Willy García, who doubled in his first big league at-bat, in the second inning. He played left field, with Leury García in center and Avisaíl García in right. Leury had a hit, and Avisaíl a pair, in the game.

The Alou brothers all played in the outfield for San Francisco in 1963 a few times, but the three never actually started a game at the same time.

The Sox would won the contest, 2-1, as Dylan Covey emerged victorious in his major league debut, allowing one run over 5 1⁄3 innings.

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2021

He always had the talent, he just could never stay healthy. But on this night, Carlos Rodón put it all together and threw the 20th no-hitter in White Sox history, as he beat Cleveland, 8-0, at Guaranteed Rate Field. He got all the support he needed early, as the Sox put six runs on the board in the first inning.

Rodón almost went one step further and achieved the pitcher’s ultimate game, as he retired the first 25 hitters in a row and was working on a perfect game before an 1-2 slider got away from him and he hit Roberto Pérez on the left foot. Rodón then retired the final two hitters to finish off the no-hitter. Carlos threw 114 pitches, striking out seven in the win.

This no-hitter came 104 years to the day after Eddie Cicotte threw one at the beginning of the storied 1917 season.

Rodón became a free agent and signed with the Giants after the season before becoming a free agent again and signing a monster contract to pitch for the Yankees.

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