Lip Man 1

Bill was one of the finest people I ever got to know. I visited him at his home in Lamont one year he and his wife picked me up at the train station. My uncle and mom then drove out later in the afternoon to pick me up since I didn't have a car when I returned to Chicago. Bill came out and talked with both of them for I guess 20 minutes. Miss him, Roland Hemond and Jeff Torborg very much.

Three factoids today: May 13, 1957 - Sox pitcher Billy Pierce became the first member of the team and the first Chicago athlete, to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The caption read, “Pride of Chicago, Billy Pierce.” In 1957, the year the magazine cover came out; Pierce went 20-12 with an ERA of 3.26. It was his second straight 20-win season. He led the league with 16 complete games, had four shutouts, two saves, threw 257 innings and had 192 strike outs. May 13, 1975 - Sox pitcher Jim Kaat’s 12-game winning streak ended as he was beaten 3-2 in Baltimore. Kaat had won his first five decisions in 1975 and his final seven decisions in 1974. He’d become a 20-game winner in both seasons averaging 290 innings pitched in those years. He’d also make the All-Star team in 1975. May 13, 1982 - SportsVision made its debut. The first regional pay cable service devoted exclusively to sports began operations with a game at Comiskey Park versus Milwaukee. The service was the brainchild of Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn and while brilliant, was ahead of its time. The technology wasn’t there and more importantly, the attitude on the part of the fans wasn’t ready to pay for something they had been getting for free all their lives. At best roughly 20,000 fans subscribed to it. The service also included broadcasting games of the Bulls, Blackhawks and Sting (professional soccer). The decision to go to a pay service caused popular announcer Harry Caray to leave the team after 11 seasons and go to the Cubs despite an offer by the Sox that was worth more before the 1982 season began. SportsVision, in its original version, lasted until the end of 1983, then it was sold to the Cablevision Company and turned into SportsChannel-Chicago. The Sox blew out the Brewers in the game 13-2.

Sox have won 9 of their last 13 games now.

I wouldn't say it was a ho-hum win not after giving up the lead but they came up with the big hit at the right time. Most of their batting averages are still poor but I guess it doesn't matter if you can score when you need to. Like Hawk used to say, "Don't tell me what you hit, tell me when you hit..."

I wasn't part of the one-run crowd just winning or losing games in the 7th inning or later.

True but he's been well compensated for his struggles.

I've been posting both blown leads after seven and come from behind win when trailing after seven for the last several years even during the first rebuild when they were having some success. Just trying to be fair.

Five factoids today: May 12, 1904 - Future Hall of Famer “Big” Ed Walsh made his White Sox debut pitching in relief. It happened at Philadelphia in a 9-3 loss to the A’s. He threw one inning giving up two hits and a run. May 12, 1915 - Urban “Red” Faber had one of the most efficient afternoons in baseball history in throwing a complete game win over Washington at Comiskey Park beating the Senators 4-1. In the game he threw only 67 pitches! While there was no official pitch-counting 110 years ago, a boy-clerk in Washington, Frank Saffell, tracked each pitch for an electronic scoreboard. He telegraphed the Chicago Tribune after realizing how remarkable Faber’s efficiency was. While it’s hard to recognize the pitch count-tracking of a child not even at the park for the game, Saffell’s inning-by-inning count — adding to 50 strikes, 17 balls and two three-pitch innings — has been accepted enough into baseball lore as to be acknowledged by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Saffell had been at pitch-counting for enough time to have qualified the count to the Tribune as being five pitches better than the previous record (Christy Mathewson, 72 pitches). Faber carried a one-hitter into the ninth, when with two outs a single, passed ball and double gave the Sens their tally when the game was no longer in doubt. The game lasted just one hour, 35 minutes. The most efficient officially-counted game at Baseball-Reference is 75 pitches, by Bob Tewksbury (1990) and Andy Ashby (1998). The unofficial but almost certain MLB record comes on August 10, 1944, when Charles “Red” Barrett of the Boston Braves had a 58-pitch win that was tracked by official scorer Frank Grayson. May 12, 1932 - For the ninth time of the 1932 season, White Sox infielder Carey Selph struck out. It is also the last time in 1932 that Selph whiffed, as he played another 89 games strikeout-free, setting a Major League record. When was the record broken? In 1958, when another White Sox second baseman, Nellie Fox, went 98 games between strikeouts. May 12, 1953 - With a 9-7 win in 10 innings at Boston, the White Sox got a monkey off of their backs; by rallying for the win, the club hung a defeat on Ellis Kinder, snapping his 18-game winning streak against the club. Kinder didn’t even get a chance to defend his streak, as a leadoff walk to “Minnie” Minoso, Jim Rivera beating out his sacrifice bunt and “Chico” Carrasquel moving both runners up brought former White Sox pitcher Bill Kennedy into the game to put out the fire — but instead he served up the eventual game-decider, an RBI double from Ferris Fain. Kinder himself would come to the South Side to finish out his career, in 1956-57. May 12, 2013 – Chris Sale couldn’t have picked a better time to show the baseball world what type of pitcher he was as on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball he tossed a complete game one-hitter beating the Angels 3-0 at U.S. Cellular Field. Sale was dominant, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Mike Trout broke it up with a single to center. Chris would finish the night with seven strikeouts and Trout would be the Angels only base runner that evening. The game was scoreless until the Sox half of the seventh when they scored three runs. The big blow was a two-run single from Alexei Ramirez.

In his last start he gave up 10 runs and the Padres owner publicly ripped him a new one.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-stadium/2026/05/11/bears-stadium-arlington-heights-hammond-indiana-what-to-know

Three factoids today: May 11, 1949 - The Sox scored at least one run in every inning when they beat Boston 12-8. It was the first time the team had ever accomplished this unusual feat. Second baseman Cass Michaels had three RBI’s. The Sox clubbed 15 hits and the Red Sox made four errors. May 11, 1968 - The 1968 White Sox were not a good team losing 95 games on the year but pitcher Joe Horlen was an exception to that rule. Horlen who finished second in the 1967 Cy Young voting began a run of 37 consecutive shutout innings on this day when he pitched into the seventh inning at Oakland allowing three hits. Six days later in Chicago he shut out the A’s allowing four hits in 10 innings. At Baltimore he allowed two hits in seven innings then at Yankee Stadium blanked the Bombers on four hits pitching into the ninth inning. The streak finally ended on May 29 when Baltimore scored a run on him in the sixth inning at Comiskey Park. In 37 innings he allowed a total of 18 hits and picked up three wins with a complete game. For the year Joe would go 12-14 but…his ERA was 2.37! May 11, 2025 – Tim Elko certainly made his first Major League hit count during a 4-2 White Sox win over the Marlins at Rate Field. After hitting into a double play and striking out against Sandy Alcantara, giving him an 0-5 start in two games since arriving from Triple-A Charlotte, Elko connected on a 1-0 hanging curve from Alcantara for a three-run homer in the sixth that ended up being the game-winner. Matt Thaiss and Joshua Palacios, who both singled, scored ahead of Elko, who pointed to his family behind home plate after coming across. Elko followed Braden Shewmake and Carlos Lee as White Sox players with a homer for their first career hit. Shewmake connecting on March 30, 2024 off the first pitch he saw from Detroit’s Kenta Maeda and Lee homered off the A’s knuckleballer Tom Candiotti on May 7, 1999.

The Awful Announcing web site had their rankings recently of the NBA broadcasters for each team as voted on by fans. I was shocked to see that Jason is actually part of the Portland Trailblazers broadcast team. That's some crazy schedule he has.

The issue though is other teams have the depth and the ability through various means to overcome things like this. (And I'm not specifically referring to Teel but the run of serious injuries that have gutted this franchise sine 2018.) The Yankees lose half their outfield last year or two years ago and still win 90+ games, the Cubs have half their pitchers on the IL yet they have one of the best records in baseball. The Sox lose two or three of their better guys and the record the last several seasons speak for itself. This is where not having a good minor league system flat kills your chances.

Have another six there WBWSF! 😁 They won't lose 100 but they aren't going to finish with a winning record either. But you do you sir.

True, his home run will be noticed but I don't expect much more from him. My response was to the poster who was angry that Getz got another retread and my point was there is no one else available now anyway but retreads, injury prone guys and has-been's. But let's also not overreact with him hitting a single solitary home run either.

I agree with this but regarding next year, again, JR isn't going to permit Getz to do a lot or spend real money given the lockout and not knowing what the next CBA is going to look like. Hell they may not even play most of the season next year.

5th time this season the Sox trailed in the 7th inning or later and came back to win the game. Nice that Martin didn't get tagged with a loss after having pitched very well.

Two factoids today: May 10, 1910 – Sox third baseman Bill Purtell became the first big league player to strike out twice in the same inning. Walter Johnson got him both times in the sixth inning in a game at Washington. Between Purtell’s outs, the Sox batted around and wound up winning the game 10-3. May 10, 2002 - It was one of the worst defeats in the history of the franchise. On this night in Anaheim the Sox got obliterated 19-0 against the Angels. Danny Wright, Matt Ginter and Mike Porzio were the pitchers the Angels clubbed apart. Wright gave up eight earned runs, Ginter two and Porzio six.

Given the labor situation I'd be very surprised if JR allowed Getz to do much of anything regardless of how this season turns out. And once the lockout starts on December 1 teams will be unable to do anything anyway.

But the fact is at least with the Sox, I don't know about other teams, rarely very rarely has a medical professional ever cleared up medical confusion. All asking a manager to talk about medical issues is muddy the waters and cause more complaining from the fan base when what they are saying doesn't come to pass or is flat out wrong. Or the organization can come out Getz for example, and say we 'will not comment on player injuries at all moving forward because of HIPPA laws.'

Trainers get asked questions all the time, I've done it myself.

Two factoids today: May 9, 1976 - Sox pitcher Wilbur Wood’s career was basically ended when his left kneecap was shattered by a line drive off the bat of future Sox player Ron LeFlore in Detroit in the sixth inning. Wood had gotten off to a fine 3-3 start, with five complete games and an ERA of 2.49 when the accident took place. He got credit for the eventual 4-2 win but missed the rest of the season and though he came back the following year was never quite the same admitting he became concerned throwing inside in case the ball was hit back up the middle. May 9, 1984 - Harold Baines ended the longest game, innings-wise, in American League history when he blasted a home run off of Milwaukee’s Chuck Porter with one out in the 25th inning to give the Sox a 7-6 win over Milwaukee. The game ended one inning shy of the Major League record. The 8:06 length of the game also set a Major League record. Tom Seaver got the win in one inning of relief in the marathon contest, which had started on May 8 and was suspended after 17 innings. The Brewers thought they had a good chance to put the game away after scoring three runs in the 21st inning, but the White Sox came back with three of their own to extend the game further (pitcher Richard Dotson, pinch-running for the Marc Hill, scored the tying run in the 21st). It was the second time the White Sox had tied it up with their backs against the wall, as in the bottom of the ninth a Tom Paciorek two-base error, Julio Cruz double and Rudy Law single forced extras. Through the many maneuvers of the game, the White Sox lost their DH after the 21st, with pitchers Ron Reed and Floyd Bannister forced to hit for themselves, ending the 22nd and 24th innings on ground outs. The White Sox also missed out on a chance to win in the 23rd inning, as Dave Stegman (whose move from DH to LF in fact was how the White Sox lost the DH in the game) was ruled to have been touched by third base coach Jim Leyland while advancing from first to third on a Paciorek single; Vance Law next singled, which would have driven in the game-winner. Paciorek set a Major League record in the game, subbing into left field for Ron Kittle in the fourth inning and proceeding to get nine at-bats as a sub. Amazingly, after Seaver’s relief win, he came back out for the regularly-scheduled game later that same evening, winning, 5-4. For the night, Seaver threw a little more than nine innings, allowing only four hits.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-gm-chris-getz-speaks-on-team-long-term-competition-plan

From Sox Machine's game recap: *Trevor Richards made his White Sox debut and wasted no time feeling like a White Sox by giving up a three-run homer to Naylor with two outs in the eighth. That one truly sealed the deal.

All you can say is this was an ugly game.