Today in White Sox History: October 31
The younger Ed Walsh is beset by tragedy
1937
Ed Arthur Walsh, son of White Sox legend Ed Walsh, died of rheumatic fever after falling into a coma at his childhood home in Meriden, Conn. He was just 32 years old.
Quite obviously, the younger Walsh would never escape the shadow of his father, a Hall-of-Famer and fifth all-time in White Sox WAR. However, Ed was a talented athlete, making the University of Notre Dame football team as a punter under coach Knute Rockne and pitching to an 18-6 record for a Fighting Irish baseball team managed by his father.
The White Sox signed the younger Walsh upon graduation in 1928 and he made his major league debut on the mound that same year, on July 4. Walsh pitched in four seasons for the White Sox, ending his career with an 11-28 record, a 5.57 ERA and 0.1 pitching WAR.
Just five years after his final game in the majors, the younger Walsh was dead. His father lived until the White Sox pennant-winning season of 1959, 22 years later.
1972
In an extremely tight race, Gaylord Perry edged Wilbur Wood for AL Cy Young, 64 votes to 58. Both hurlers had very similar, 24-win seasons:
- Wood threw 34 more innings (376 2⁄3 !), started nine more games (49), and had three more shutouts (eight).
- Perry had one fewer loss (16), nine more complete games (29), and had key edges in ERA (1.92 to 2.51), ERA+ (168 to 126), and WHIP (0.978 to 1.059).
In the final accounting, Perry had a slightest of edges in WAR (10.8 to 10.7) and finished sixth in AL MVP voting to Wood’s seventh.
But for fans of “meaningful games,” the decision was hard to swallow: Perry’s Clevelanders finished sixth in the AL East (72-84), while Wood’s White Sox were 16 games better, finishing second in the AL West (87-67).
Wood would have been just the second White Sox pitcher ever to win a Cy Young (Early Wynn, 1959) and would have joined Dick Allen (MVP) as major award winners in 1972 for the upstart South Siders.
2005
As the White Sox were winning their first World Series in 88 years, Sports Illustrated put Scott Podsednik and his winning home run from the second game on the cover. The long headline read, “World Series. In A Match Up Of Two Title Hungry Teams, The White Sox Struck First, Dramatically Downing The Astros In Games 1 And 2.”
Sports Illustrated then basically ignored the White Sox winning the series by only putting a small circle shot of the team celebrating in the corner of the following week’s cover, breaking a longstanding tradition. The cover that week was Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, as the magazine previewed a regular season NFL game — not a Super Bowl matchup, not a playoff contest — but a regular-season meeting.
2011
Three days after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to another World Series title, former White Sox skipper Tony La Russa announced his retirement.
He would not remain retired.