March 18, 1964 - The Sox purchased the contract of veteran pitcher Don Mossi from the Tigers for $20,000 dollars. Mossi would have a spectacular season for the club that lost the pennant by one game, going 3-1 with seven saves. He had an ERA of 2.92. He’d team up with Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher to give the club the best bullpen in the league. At the end of the year though he was released.

 

March 18, 1981 - Carlton Fisk signed a free agent deal with the White Sox beginning the process of turning a laughable organization into a real, legitimate Major League franchise.

The All-Star catcher and future Hall-of-Famer got his free agency after the Red Sox did not tender him a contract by the required date. Immediately Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn and G.M. Roland Hemond jumped at the chance to get a player of Fisk’s caliber on to the team.

Fisk would play 13 years on the South Side, make four All-Star teams as a member of the White Sox, and have his number #72 retired in 1997. When he retired, he also held the team record for most home runs in a White Sox uniform as well as most home runs in MLB history hit by a catcher.

His two best seasons were in 1983 when he rebounded from a very slow start to hit .289 with 26 home runs and 89 RBI’s for the Western Division champions, finishing third in the M.V.P. voting and 1985, his career season. That year Fisk hit only .238 but blasted 37 home runs with 107 RBI’s.

Reinsdorf and Einhorn knew that they had to get some name players on the club. Fans were not coming out to see Wayne Nordhagen. Fisk was a great signing, but the Sox won only one division title with him.