A long, long, long GM tenure ends
1945
Harry Grabiner, the longest-tenured executive in White Sox history and certainly one of the longest-running employees overall, resigned as GM of the club. While not really formally holding a GM title, Grabiner had run the White Sox in tandem with three generations of Comiskey ownership, dating back to 1915. He first caught on with the team in 1905, selling scorecards; the 15-year-old got the job after noticing owner Charles Comiskey working the Comiskey Park infield after a rainstorm and asking if he could help out. By 1916, Grabiner was the team secretary (the de facto GM), at just 26. In 1939 upon the death of Comiskey’s son, Louis, the will stipulated that Grabiner was guaranteed another 10 years of employment in running the White Sox. However, Grabiner’s health was in decline, forcing his leave six years later.
Grabiner would soon return to baseball, as part of Bill Veeck’s ownership group in Cleveland. Meanwhile in Chicago, sabermetrics pioneer Les O’Connor took over the club for the next three seasons.
1951
In an outrageous turn, White Sox outfielder Minnie Miñoso lost the American League Rookie of the Year award to Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees, 13 votes to 11.
There are two objectionable areas in particular, when reviewing this hack voting. First is the fact that Miñoso finished much better than McDougald in MVP voting, which drew from a bigger and better spread of voters, 120-63. Miñoso finished fourth in the AL and actually received one first-place vote of the 22 ballots cast. McDougald finished ninth, with just 63 votes. Among all hitters who were “serious” candidates (i.e. Top 10 on the ballot), Miñoso’s WAR was highest, at 5.4 (McDougald sat at 4.5).
Second was the pure stats breakdown. Beyond the WAR advantage, Miñoso had the best OPS (.922) among Top 10 finishers, and also led the league in steals, with 31. Miñoso also led McDougald in basically every offensive category besides home runs (10, to McDougald’s 14).
1972
After accomplishing one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history and barely missing the Triple Crown, White Sox first baseman Dick Allen was named the MVP of the American League by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Allen led the league with 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, a .603 slugging percentage and 99 walks. He led the Sox with a .308 batting average, drove in 19 game-winning runs, stole 19 bases, scored 90 runs and was only .0005 points shy of leading all AL first basemen in fielding. He was the overall MLB leading vote-getter for the All-Star team.
In the MVP race, Allen garnered 21 of 24 first place votes, for 321 points. Joe Rudi of the A’s was second, with 164 points.