Bruce Tanner gets off to a perfect start for the South Siders
1939
As part of the very first ceremony at the newly-finished shrine in Cooperstown, Charles Comiskey was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Membership grew by 10 in 1939, as BBWAA player selections Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler were voted in. (Lou Gehrig was later added by Special Election in December, once it became clear his playing career was over due to ALS.) The Veterans Committee elected Cap Anson, Buck Ewing, Candy Cummings, Charles Radbourn as player selections, along with manager/executives Comiskey and Al Spalding.
1967
The White Sox played the longest-ever losing game when they dropped a 6-5 decision to the Senators in Washington, in 21 1⁄3 innings. Both teams scored a run in the 10th, then didn’t score again until Washington’s Paul Casanova drove home the winner in the last of the 22nd. The 21 1⁄3 innings remains the second-longest White Sox game ever and at the time was the longest night game in AL history.
Johnny Buzhardt tossed eight innings in relief before giving up the run that cost him the game. Sox outfielder Walt Williams had 10 at-bats in the contest.
The night game took 6:38, and ended at 2:44 a.m. Both teams went the entire game without an error, an AL record. The contest was played in temperatures around 90°, which prompted angry Sox manager Eddie Stanky afterwards to demand implementation of a league curfew.
1972
White Sox slugger Dick Allen appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. (Teammate Tom Egan is in the background, putting on his shin guards.) It was one of the most unusual and unique covers in the history of the magazine. The cover read, “Season of Surprises. Chicago’s Dick Allen Juggles His Image.”
1981
A players strike began, which would eventually wipe out almost two months of the baseball season, after owners insisted on wanting player compensation for any free agent signed — in essence turning free agent signings into trades.
When both sides agreed to resume play, the owners came up with a bizarre “split season” format. White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who passed the Florida bar exam and was an exceptional thinker, quickly found a major flaw in the plan and suggested that if it would help the Sox get the second-best record and a spot in the postseason, they would throw a late-season series to the A’s to guarantee that Oakland would “win” both halves.
Later, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said he would do the same thing for his club. The owners then quickly changed the format to eliminate the potential for teams having to lose games to, in essence, win.
From today’s perspective, an ironic twist to the situation was that new White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was one of a group of moderate owners who wanted the impasse settled and baseball played. He’d completely change his stance towards the union and the players when the labor impasse of 1994 took place.
1985
In his first major league start, Bruce Tanner (son of former White Sox skipper Chuck) retired his first nine batters, the longest streak since at least 1960 and a White Sox record. Tanner ended up earning his first and only major league win, going 6 ⅔ innings with seven hits, two earned runs, two walks and three Ks. The 6-3 win over the Mariners at the Kingdome raised the White Sox record to 30-24 and kept the team a half-game up in the AL West. Rudy Law’s two-run double in the fifth held up as the game-winner.
Tanner would start three more games for the White Sox and pitch in 10 total, earning 0.0 WAR in his only MLB season.
On April 15, 2024, Nick Nastrini broke Tanner’s team mark with 11 straight batters retired to begin his first career start … with the streak broken with a solo home run in the top of the fourth in a game Nastrini would lose, 2-0, as the White Sox dropped to 2-14.
2018
It’s happened less than the number of fingers on one hand for the franchise. On this night, the White Sox opened up their game at Guaranteed Rate Field with Yoán Moncada blasting a home run to center field. The next hitter, Yolmer Sánchez, then hit another home run …again to center field.
It was a great way to start a game, as the Sox went on to beat Cleveland, 5-1. Both home runs came off of starting pitcher Adam Plutko. It was the fourth time in franchise history the Sox led off a game with back-to-back home runs, with the latest having come less than a year ago (Sept. 2, 2017).
2021
Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, you just can’t lose.
For White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease, that meant facing the Detroit Tigers. Cease, backed by a 13-hit assault, handled Detroit, 15-2, at Comerica Park, and in doing so ran his career record against the Tigers to 8-0. In eight starts, he had 47 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.09.
He also became the first Sox pitcher ever to win his first eight starts against a single club, breaking the record of Mark Buehrle — who went 7-0 against the Texas Rangers in his first seven starts against them.