You can’t raise a pennant if the flagpole snaps in half!
1907
The lead-up to the first weekend game of the new season was full of pomp and circumstance, and the White Sox celebrated their World Series win over the crosstown Cubs. But after the parade into the park, as the pennant itself was being raised, the wooden flagpole at South Side Park snapped in half.
The heavy winds that ruined the climax of the pennant ceremony portended trouble for the day’s scheduled game against the Senators, as rains washed the action out after just four Washington batter.
The ill omen did not, in fact, spell a bad season for the White Sox. While the South Siders failed to repeat their AL pennant win, they finished 87-64-6 and led the AL for the majority of the season before falling to third place. At the time of the deluge that wiped out the game after the aborted ceremony, the White Sox were 17-8 and up by three games in the pennant race.
1914
White Sox starter Jim Scott threw a no-hitter, with one problem — the game against Washington remained tied, 0-0, through nine. To start the 10th, future Black Sox ringleader Chick Gandil broke up Scott’s no-hitter with a single, and the game was lost when the next batter, Howie Shanks, tripled Gandil home.
The game marked the first of three nine-inning no-hitters Ray Schalk caught during his 17 seasons with the White Sox.
1940
For the second time, Jimmie Foxx hit a home run over the Comiskey Park roof. It was the fifth roof shot in Comiskey history, all so far coming from opponents, and Foxx became the first player to accomplish the feat twice.
Foxx had two homers in the game, the first being the roof shot, that came in the second inning. The slugger also homered in the top of the 10th inning, the eventual game-winning margin of a 7-6 Boston win. Both home runs came off of Sox starter Johnny Rigney, who went 9 1⁄3 innings and surrendered all seven Bosox runs.
Before home plate was moved up eight feet in the 1980s, only two players every put two homers over the roof: Foxx, and his teammate in this 1940 game, Ted Williams.
1963
White Sox pitcher Ray Herbert fired his fourth consecutive shutout, beating the Tigers, 3-0, at Comiskey Park. Herbert allowed six hits and struck out seven. His shutout streak began on May 1, when he blanked the Orioles. That was followed by shutouts over the Senators and the Yankees. In the shutout stretch, Herbert only allowed 15 hits in 36 innings, with 22 strikeouts.
In the previous season, Ray won 20 games and was the winning pitcher for the American League in the second 1962 All-Star Game, played at Wrigley Field.
1967
White Sox pitching great Gary Peters authored his second career one-hitter, beating the Angels, 3-1, at Comiskey Park. It was the nightcap in a doubleheader sweep. Peters allowed only a second-inning home run to former Sox first baseman Bill “Moose” Skowron (traded to California by the White Sox just eight days earlier), and struck out 10. This was also the final win of a 10-game personal winning streak for Peters.
Peters made the All-Star team for the second time in his career that season, going 16-11 with a 2.28 ERA over 260 innings pitched.
1977
The White Sox hammered Cleveland, 18-2, in a game that started at 10:30 a.m. in connection with a promotion for the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin sandwich. First baseman Jim Spencer tied the franchise mark with eight RBIs on the day, going 3-for-3 with two home runs, including a grand slam along with a two-run shot and a two-RBI single. Spencer drove in eight runs in a game again later that season, against Minnesota.
Only four other players have driven in eight runs in a game for the White Sox, and if it needs be said, Spencer was the only one to do it twice — and fewer than two months apart, at that!
1998
Greg Norton became one of only 13 players to hit two home runs in the same game off of Randy Johnson. Norton homered in the third and fifth innings of a 5-3 win at Comiskey Park, going 2-for-3 in the game, with three RBIs.
2005
White Sox speedster Scott Podsednik became just one of eight players in White Sox history to swipe four bases in a game, doing so against the Orioles at U.S. Cellular Field. Just a week earlier, he grabbed four bases versus Toronto. And on May 1, 2006, Podsednik accomplished the feat for a third time. Scotty Pods is the only player in franchise history to steal four bases in a game twice, much less three times.
2017
As part of an eight-run eighth inning against the Padres, White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier scored from third on an infield pop-up! Tyler Saladino popped up a bunt attempt, which was caught by San Diego’s Wil Myers near first base. Myers then turned his back and hesitated, and when Frazier saw that, he broke for the plate. The return throw was off-line and high, and Frazier slid in to score. It delighted the White Sox home crowd, as part of a 9-3 win. Fifteen White Sox players batted in the big inning, racking up four hits, five walks, a hit batsman and an error.