Nancy Faust fuels the summer of South Side Hit Men
1910
Patsy Dougherty was a very good hitter (.284 career), but had one talent in particular: Breaking up no-hitters.
On this day, Dougherty led off the eighth inning with a single, the first hit Tigers hurler Ed Summers had allowed all game. It was the fourth and final time Dougherty would break up a no-no. (Dougherty retired after the 1911 season, with 17.8 career WAR, 9.8 with White Sox.)
Summers, however, ended up throwing the first one-hitter ever at Comiskey Park, in winning, 1-0.
1942
The White Sox staged the first twi-night double header in club history, as they swept the Yankees. The first win, 6-5, ended on a Sam West walk-off single with two outs in the 11th inning. The nightcap ended 7-5, powered by three hits apiece for Taffy Wright and Joe Kuhel. Comiskey Park hosted 27,555 fans for the wartime promotion, which became a regular attraction over the next several decades.
1951
In New York, the White Sox dropped a doubleheader to the Yankees, 8-3 and 2-0. The defeats dropped the upstart Sox to 54-44 and 6 1⁄2 games back of first. But what stands out decades later is that 70,972 attended the games, the fifth-biggest regular season crowd the White Sox ever played in front of on the road and the largest-ever to see them at Yankees Stadium.
1962
In a doubleheader versus the Yankees, Sox outfielder/first baseman Charlie “Paw Paw” Maxwell hit three home runs and knocked home five runs in the split. Maxwell had a curious history of doing his best hitting on a Sunday.
When acquired from the Tigers, 25 of Maxwell’s 70 career homers were hit on Sundays. Of his 10 in 1962, five came on Sunday. On July 8, Maxwell had six hits in a doubleheader against Cleveland, and on August 19, Maxwell hit a grand slam and knocked in six against Detroit.
Yes … both of those games were on Sunday.
1963
Facing the Senators in Washington, White Sox pitcher Joe Horlen took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Only leading 1-0 and under incredible pressure, Horlen not only lost the no-hitter but the game, 2-1.
With one out in the ninth, Chuck Hinton grounded a roller up the middle for a hit that Horlen wasn’t able to get a glove on. One out later, Don Lock belted a curveball for a two-run homer to win it.
Horlen looked ready to cry on the postgame show, talking with announcer Jack Brickhouse of WGN-TV.
1977
It wasn’t the first time Nancy Faust had played Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)” on the organ during a game, but her rousing renditions during Chicago’s 11-8 win over the Royals to put the White Sox up 4 ½ games in the AL West is where 45,919 fans at Comiskey Park that night remember it all beginning.
The White Sox knocked Royals starter Andy Hassler out of the box during a six-run third inning (cue Nancy) and capped the frame with a two-run clout to right field by Chet Lemon (cue Nancy). K.C. battled back to tie and go up, 8-6, in the seventh — but the White Sox answered with four runs to put the game away.
The weekend of of wins (taking three of four from K.C.) led to even more boisterousness, including Nancy-led home-run curtain calls that infuriated the Royals.
1982
A 7-3 loss to Boston dropped the White Sox to 49-49, their low mark of the season. As a result, pitching coach Ron Schueler was fired. (Don’t weep for Ron, he doesn’t drift too far away … scroll down.) The dismissal may have been cosmetic; by year’s end, the hitting WAR (19.7) was nearly equal that of the pitching (19.1), indicating one particular aspect of the game wasn’t a White Sox weakness.
The club finished six games out, in third place, at 87-75; still a disappointment given the franchise-record 8-0 start to the season.
1989
At the time it was an unpopular deal, but in the long term it worked out very well for the White Sox: GM Larry Himes sent All-Star outfielder/DH Harold Baines and infielder Fred Manrique to the Rangers for infielder Scott Fletcher, outfielder Sammy Sosa and pitching prospect Wilson Álvarez. Fans hated to lose Baines but the Sox weren’t going anywhere, and he was expendable.
Fletcher and the pre-steroid Sosa played important roles in the franchise’s revival in 1990, and Álvarez would become a very solid starter beginning in 1993. He also fired a no-hitter in August 1991 at Baltimore, winning 7-0 in only his second big-league (and first White Sox) start.
1998
It was a small move at the time that would turn out to have major implications: GM Ron Schueler shipped out inconsistent relief pitcher Matt Karchner for the Cubs 1997 First Round (No. 10 overall) draft pick, pitcher Jon Garland. It took time, but Garland realized his potential in 2005, when he helped lead the club to the World Series title with 18 wins and an All-Star appearance. In seven years with the White Sox, Garland had 18.4 WAR, won 92 games and had double-figure wins in six of those seasons.
2000
With the White Sox badly in need of pitching at the trade deadline due to injuries to starters Cal Eldred and James Baldwin, GM Ron Schueler went off in another direction, acquiring catcher Charles Johnson and DH Harold Baines. It was Baines’ third stint with the Sox, and while he and Johnson helped offensively, it did nothing to lighten the load on the pitching staff.
That staff, even in a division-winning season, suffered additional arm injuries to starters Jim Parque and Mike Sirotka and relief pitchers Bobby Howry and Kelly Wunsch. The Sox would pay for Schueler’s mistake the following season because the staff was decimated, many coming off surgeries.
It should be noted, in Schueler’s defense, that some of the pitchers the Sox were rumored to be interested in trading for, like veterans Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling, said they would not accept a trade to Chicago.