Lip Man 1

Noah's numbers were the best thing about today over and above a well played win.

That survey also reported the fans blame the owners for the situation. You aren't going to see a salary cap, the MLBPA will die on that hill before they ever agree to it (and rightly so in my opinion...)

Like I said who? 😆

Who? (No I'm not being facetious...)

March 12, 1921 - All eight members of the White Sox who reportedly conspired to throw the 1919 World Series, but were found innocent in a court of law, were banned by then commissioner Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis from ever playing in the Major Leagues again. The eight were “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Claude “Lefty” Williams, Charles “Swede” Risberg, Fred McMullin, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, Oscar “Happy” Felsch and George “Buck” Weaver. Jackson was banned for life, despite hitting .375 in the series; Weaver was banned not for throwing the series, but simply for knowing of the plot and not reporting it. The only club capable of facing off against the emerging New York Yankee dynasty was thus destroyed. March 12, 1973 - Sox third baseman and former 1971 A.L. home run champ, Bill Melton, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The caption read, “Chicago Comes Out Swinging. Slugger Bill Melton.” Melton would have a nice comeback season after missing most of 1972 with a herniated disc. He’d hit .277 with 20 home runs and 87 RBI’s. He’d be traded to the Angels after the 1975 campaign.

March 11, 1968 - Sox rookie pitcher Cisco Carlos was part of the cover shot for Sports Illustrated. The caption read, “The Best Rookies of 1968.” Unfortunately, Carlos didn’t turn out to be one of them, either in the short term or the long one. In fact, of the five players on the cover only Johnny Bench and Mike Torrez made a name for themselves in the sport. In two and a half seasons with the club Carlos went 10-17. His best pitching performance came on September 14, 1967 at Comiskey Park, when in the middle of a pennant race, he shut out Cleveland on five hits over 10 innings winning 4-0. March 11, 2003 – 16 White Sox players refused to allow themselves to be tested for performance enhancing drugs when testers approved by both Major League Baseball and the MLBPA showed up in Tucson before a game versus the Mariners. Their reasoning was that by not taking the test the players hoped it would be counted as a positive result thus greatly increasing the chances of tougher testing in 2004. Sox player representative Kelly Wunsch and Sandy Alomar Jr. convinced the players that this was an agreed deal and they had a responsibility to follow through on the commitment. All 16 players eventually decided to take the test although some privately told media members afterwards they felt they were being pressured by the union to do so.

March 10, 1995 - After two stints at White Sox spring training and a full season in Birmingham, Michael Jordan announced he was giving up baseball. Part of the reason was because of his struggles with the game, but the other, larger part, as he explained to author Bob Greene, in the book, “Rebound, The Odyssey of Michael Jordan” was because he was being pressured by Sox G.M. Ron Schueler to cross the MLBPA picket line. With replacement games set to start, Jordan stated that he was told if he didn’t cross the line, he’d be banished from the main clubhouse. Jordan was furious saying that he was promised by owner Jerry Reinsdorf, he wouldn’t have to take that step. Jordan explained that under no circumstances would he ever cross a labor picket line regardless of sport, that the day would never come where he would be forced to be, not a minor league prospect, but a Major League strikebreaker. “I told them from the beginning that I didn’t want them to use me to make money in the spring training games. We had an understanding. It was never supposed to even come up. I was disgusted that the promise wasn’t going to be honored,” he told Greene. Jordan would return to the Bulls and win three more championships.

March 9, 1927 - Popular Sox outfielder Johnny Mostil attempted suicide in a hotel room in Shreveport, Louisiana. Despite razor cuts to his wrist, neck and chest, Mostil survived and returned to the team in April although he’d only play in 13 games that season. Mostil suffered a number of injuries in his career, and had severe dental issues and neuritis in his jaw and shoulder; neuritis is an inflamed nerve condition, resulting in sharp and chronic pain. Given the severity of this suicide attempt — and the fact that Mostil plunged his hand into scalding water during his rehab, delaying his return to the White Sox — the star may have been simply trying to end significant suffering, suffering that the medicine of his time could not soothe. In 10 years with the team Mostil would hit over .300 four times with a high of .328 in 1926. Two other years he’d bat over .290. After his career he’d become a longtime White Sox scout/coach and help develop future players like All-Star and Gold Glove winning outfielder Jim Landis. March 9, 1972 – With talks at a standstill between the owners and the MLBPA over a new labor contract focusing on the pension plan, the White Sox became the first team to have their players vote to authorize a strike if things weren’t agreed upon and a new deal put in place. The vote was 31-0 in favor of it. When all was said and done the final vote of the players was 663-10 to strike if a new agreement wasn’t reached. As it turned out a new agreement wasn’t reached before the first few weeks of the season were impacted and regular season games were lost for the very first time. Those games were never made up and teams played a different number of games in the season. The White Sox that year only played 154 of them and would lose what would turn out to be a crucial three-game series against the A’s in Chicago.

March 8, 1948 – WGN, channel 9 in Chicago, announced that it would televise White Sox games for the first time during the upcoming season. Veteran radio sports broadcasters Jack Brickhouse and Harry Creighton would become the first White Sox TV announcers in history. The first game they ever showed was an exhibition game against the Cubs from Wrigley Field on April 16 in freezing cold weather! The Sox would beat the Cubs 4-1. WGN carried White Sox televised games from 1948-1967, 1981 and 1990 through 2019. March 8, 1951 – The White Sox held spring training in Pasadena, California after the war. It was near Hollywood and on this day the team had a special visitor as actress Marilyn Monroe came calling. Monroe was going to be the mascot for a charity game played at Gilmore Field, the home of the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars that Sunday. The game featured a number of All-Stars. Monroe arrived early and took a number of publicity photos with the players including Hank Majeski, Joe Dobson and Gus Zernial. All the Sox players would later receive autographed pictures from her.

Am headed to Boise Saturday morning for the Big Sky Postseason Basketball Tournaments aka "Starch Madness" and because of that I'm going to post several days of This Day In Sox History news, notes, facts and factoids ahead of time for those who are interested. March 6, 1914 - The White Sox returned home from their around-the-world series of exhibition games against the New York Giants. The Sox went 24-20-2 on it but the added 46 games took their toll when the regular season began in late April. For the year the Sox would end up in sixth place, 30 games out with a record of 70-84-3. Each of the three previous years, the White Sox were better than .500, at 77 or 78 wins — and 1914 would be just the third losing season in franchise history. Among the players who participated in the exhibition series was Jim Thorpe, regarding as the greatest athlete in the world at that time because of his Olympic success. The ship the Sox returned home on? None other than the Lusitania. March 6, 1959 - After the courts ruled in his favor and denied petitions by members of the Comiskey family, Bill Veeck and his partners, including Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, officially bought the White Sox. Veeck owned 54 per cent of the team. At the introductory press conference Veeck jokingly told the media that “You can have 54 per cent of the coffee!” It would be a remarkable first year for the new owners with the White Sox taking their first pennant in 40 years with a record of 94-60-2.

Any real improvement for this team this year will come if the starting pitching is OK and can keep them in games. Be very afraid friends and neighbors.

Also from what I was told, the driving force behind getting Nancy to return for a limited number of games the past few years both in the spring and in the regular season was actually Jeff Szynal the Sox longtime scoreboard coordinator and Hall of Fame curator and historian, not Brooks.

March 5, 1967 – In what was believed to be a first, the White Sox got permission from Major League Baseball to try an experimental DH rule in spring training games. If both clubs agreed to it before the contest started, a pinch-hitter would be allowed to hit twice. It’s not known if the Sox ever followed through with this experiment in a game. March 5, 2020 - Coming off of a 25-homer season, Yoan Moncada signed a five-year, 70- million-dollar contract extension. The deal followed extensions given to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert without either young star ever having played a game in the majors. Moncada’s situation better resembled that of Cuban countryman Robert, in that both were signed to enormous bonuses to leave Cuba, in Moncada’s case 31.5 million by the Red Sox. Moncada struggled to meet his 2019 greatness in 2020, contracting COVID at the start of summer camp and battling fatigue over the 60-game season. However, he bounced back for a very solid season in 2021 holding down third base and providing good offensive numbers…14 home runs, 61 RBI’s, 33 doubles, 74 runs and 84 walks. 2022 was an injury filled year that saw him only play in 104 games and hit .212 putting his career at a crossroads. He only played in 92 games in 2023 and 12 games in 2024. After that year he was released by the franchise and he eventually signed with the Angels.

Let's just say that very, very good sources have told me the relationship between the two was strained and that was part of the reason for Nancy's request. And to answer the question, I know Nancy and have spoken with her many times on this matter. She has always been tactful when she addresses the issue but it is clear that there were differences.

Dombrowski was run off by Hawk.

March 4, 1921 - In the wake of the “Black Sox,” owner Charles Comiskey attempted to rebuild his team. One of the first moves he made was to purchase future Hall-of-Famer outfielder Harry Hooper from the Red Sox for two players, John “Shano” Collins and Harry “Nemo” Leibold. Hooper would play five years on the South Side and hit over .300 in three of them. He was also a solid fielder leading the league for example in 1922 with 19 assists and 289 putouts. March 4, 1994 - NBA superstar Michael Jordan, who retired in October 1993 from the Bulls, made his debut in a White Sox uniform in spring training. He played in his first game at the Major League level against the Rangers in Sarasota, Florida grounding out to the pitcher in his first at-bat. He’d collect his first spring training hit on March 14 against the Twins, a single off pitcher Jeff Innes.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2026/03/04/nbc-sports-former-white-sox-tv-voice-jason-benetti-sunday-night-baseball-brooks-boyer-tigers-fox

I realize it's just spring training but if the Sox are going to be better this year they must improve their record in one run games which was very poor last year. So far this spring 0-5 in one run games.

Martin and Cannon don't look very good so far.

Even though it doesn't count it's always nice to beat the Cubs.

Indiana voters are speaking: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/01/indiana-taxpayers-bears-stadium/

March 1, 2015 - Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso Arrieta aka “The Cuban Comet” aka “Mr. White Sox” best known as “Minnie”, died in Chicago, of a torn pulmonary artery. Depending on whether you believe “Minnie” or the official records, he was either 92 or 89 years old. Minoso was a six-time All-Star with the White Sox and two-time Gold Glove winner as well as a Negro League World Series winner with the 1947 New York Cubans. In the majors, he started for Cleveland but is best associated with the “Go-Go” White Sox, of which he was the heartbeat. He was a true five-tool player, and was revered by Cubans as their “Jackie Robinson” for the groundbreaking role in integrating the Major Leagues for Latin players. Players such as Roberto Clemente, Tony Perez and future Sox coach Orlando Cepeda sung his praises. In retirement, Minoso remained a beloved member of the White Sox family and worked tirelessly in White Sox public relations and with charities for the final four decades of his life. Though the honor came too late for him to appreciate it, in 2021 he was voted by Veterans’ Committee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, after nearly two dozen previous tries.

February 28, 1966 - Sox manager Eddie Stanky was part of the cover for Sports Illustrated along with Cubs manager Leo Durocher. The caption read, “The Lip and The Brat Invade Chicago.” Stanky who played for Durocher in New York both with the Dodgers and Giants, would have solid years in his two complete seasons as manager almost winning the pennant in 1967 and he was considered a tactical genius when it came to the game. But his shortcomings as far as his temperament, his ability to deal with the media and some of his players led to his undoing. He was fired 79 games into the 1968 season replaced by the man he originally replaced, Al Lopez.

Carlton Fisk, Jack McDowell and A.J. immediately come to mind.

That's two guys now that I think have had soreness in their side areas. have to be careful those don't cause long term issues.