Today in White Sox History: June 24
A White Sox rookie makes his all-time mark
1914
In a telegram discovered in 2012, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey told scout George Mills that the asking price for pitcher Babe Ruth was too high at $16,000.
At the time, Ruth was playing for the Baltimore Orioles. Comiskey had sent Mills to scout the best Orioles players on June 9. Mills gave Comiskey a list of six players he thought were the best, with Ruth among them. He later revealed that Jack Dunn, the Orioles owner, said Ruth could be had himself for $16,000 cash. In the telegram, Comiskey replied, “Do not need pitchers bad enough to go that high price.”
The White Sox thus joined the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia A’s in turning down chances to get Ruth, who was eventually was sold to the Red Sox. Comiskey later would try to get Ruth before the start of the 1920 season, offering Joe Jackson and cash to Boston —to no avail, as the Red Sox sold Ruth to the Yankees.
1915
The White Sox outlasted Cleveland, 5-4, in 19 innings. Red Faber pitched 11 innings of three-hit, shutout ball — IN RELIEF — to earn the win. The White Sox took the lead with two outs in the top of the 19th, as Buck Weaver singled and Eddie Collins doubled him home.
After going down, 2-0, in the first and trailing all game, the White Sox had struck for three in the eighth and then invited this extra-innings odyssey when Guy Morton walked Happy Felsch with two outs in the ninth, forcing the tying run home.
This game tied with 19-inning affairs in 1951 and 2006 for fifth-longest in White Sox history. The White Sox have won all three 19-inning games they’ve played, and this was the only such game that didn’t come against the Boston Red Sox.
1956
It was probably the biggest White Sox weekend of the 1950s.
Two days earlier the White Sox had started what was an unheard-of four-game sweep of the Yankees, winning on Friday, 5-4, in 12 innings. On Saturday, the Sox shut out the Bombers, 2-0. Then on Sunday, before almost 48,000 fans, the Sox took a pair, closing to within one game of first place.
Larry Doby would hit a pair of three-run shots in the twin bill, helping to account for the 14-2 and 6-3 wins. He went 5-for-7 with six runs and six RBIs.
Fans by the hundreds poured on to the field during the second game, simply to get the chance to shake players’ hands and run around the outfield. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley came out and said that the Sox would be in the World Series that fall. Of course, they weren’t ... but the White Sox did finish the season at 85-69, good for third place.
1963
Going 2-for-2, including a solo home run that tied a game the White Sox would end up winning, 5-2, rookie Pete Ward extended his hitting streak to 18 games. It would end up being the longest hitting streak in the American League that season.
Ward kept his string going in front of a packed crowd of 42,748 at Comiskey Park watching the second-place Sox try to catch the AL-leading Yankees. With another win the next game, on June 25, the White Sox did just that in spite of Ward going 0-for-3.
During the streak, Ward raised his batting average from .277 to .303, as the White Sox won 11 of 18. At the time, the rookie’s hitting streak was tied for the 22nd-longest in team history, and today it still ranks in a tied for 36th.
1969
In the second game of a doubleheader in Seattle, White Sox third baseman Bill Melton slugged three consecutive home runs (in the second, fourth and sixth innings) in a 7-6 win. All were solo blasts. Ed Herrmann’s home run in the top of the ninth was the deciding factor. As a club, the White Sox hit five homers in the game.
The Sox took the first game as well, winning 6-4, with relief pitcher Wilbur Wood picking up wins in both games. Wood allowed only two hits in 5 2⁄3 innings of work between the two games.
Amazingly, this marked the second game (in less than three months) in which the White Sox hit five homers at Seattle’s Sick Stadium, in the only year it was used as a major-league ballpark.
1972
Behind the inspired play of Dick Allen, Wilbur Wood, Stan Bahnsen, Rich Gossage, Terry Forster and Carlos May, the Sox were in the middle of a pennant chase when the bizarre injury curse struck again.
Third baseman Bill Melton fell off of a ladder, damaging his back during the previous offseason, and had been playing in pain ever since. The defending American League home run champion was put on the injured list and lost for the rest of the year when it was discovered he had a herniated disk. For the season, he only played in 57 games with seven home runs and 30 RBIs.
The reason he was on the ladder? Somehow his young son got up on the garage roof!
The Sox would finish 5 1⁄2 games behind the Oakland A’s, with a record of 87-67.
1973
It almost tied a club record. In the second game of a doubleheader at Comiskey Park, White Sox catcher Ed Herrmann drove in seven runs in a 11-1 win over the A’s. Herrmann went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run, two-run double and two-run single.
1977
It was an embarrassing moment for White Sox outfielder Ralph Garr and, as it turned out, a costly one for the team. In the third inning of a game in Minnesota, Garr hit what appeared to be a three-run home run. However, as he was running the bases, he passed catcher Jim Essian, who waited at first base to make sure the ball was in fact a home run. Garr was watching the ball, and got called out for passing the runner and awarded a two-run single.
The Sox wound up losing the game, 7-6.
2017
It was Mark Buehrle Day at Guaranteed Rate Field, as the White Sox honored the lefthander by retiring his No. 56.
Buehrle played 12 seasons with the Sox, winning 161 games including a perfect game against Tampa and a no-hitter against Texas. He also won two postseason games and saved another. He was a three-time All-Star, who won the 2005 contest.
Buehrle also was a model of consistency, with 11 straight years with the White Sox winning in double figures, starting 30 or more games and throwing at least 200 innings.