A visit to the Metropolitan Stadium homeplate marker at the Mall of America on Saturday inspired me to dig out some gems on the White Sox and this spot in Bloomington, Minn.
Here are some memorable White Sox moments that occurred at home at The Met:
*April 30, 1961: Luis Aparicio, Jim Landis and Roy Sievers, who homered, each dented the Met plate in the 11th inning to give the Sox a 5-3 win over the Twins in the first game between the clubs in Bloomington, Minn. … For the record, Aparico was the first Sox batter to stand at this plate while Al Smith collected the franchise’s first hit here and Sievers had the Sox first homer here.
*May 24, 1967: Tommy McCraw’s bat sent eight White Sox runners across The Met plate in a 14-1 win at Minnesota. McCraw hit three homers from the batter’s box adjacent to the plate and his eight RBI tied Carl Reynolds’ 37-year old franchise record.
*July 31, 1972: Incredibly, Dick Allen crossed The Met dish twice with on his own inside-the-park home runs in the White Sox 8-1 win at Minnesota. Allen hit a three-run shot in the first and a two-run shot in the fifth. Both homers came off fellow future Hall-of-Famer Bert Blyleven.
*June 7, 1978: Every White Sox starter except one touched the plate at The Met as the Sox posted the 6,000th win in franchise history with an 8-3 win. Thad Bosley, Ralph Garr, Jorge Orta, Jim Breazeale, Ron Blomberg, Bill Nahorodny, Alan Bannister and Eric Soderholm all scored in support of winning pitcher Ken Kravec, who struck out 12 in 8.1 innings. Henry Cruz was the only Sox player who did not score in this one.
*September 13, 1981: Leo Sutherland was the last Sox player to stomp on The Met plate in a 7-6 loss in the franchise’s final game in Bloomington. LaMarr Hoyt was the last Sox hurler to deliver a pitch to the Met plate. Unfortunately that pitch resulted in a two-run walkoff double by Kent Hrbek that scored Dave Engle and New Trier East graduate John Castino with the tying and winning runs with two outs in the ninth. By the way, the starting pitcher for Minnesota in this one was … Don Cooper, who did not get a decision. Cooper served up the Sox final homer at The Met — a second-inning solo shot by Jim Morrison.
17 days later the Twins played their final game at The Met and almost 11 years later, the Mall of America opened.
*ETC: McCraw is the Sox all-time leader with 7 homers at The Met. Carlos May touched The Met dish a Sox-best 32 times.