Lip Man 1 Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 September 22, 1959 - The White Sox clinched the American League pennant beating the Indians 4-2 in Cleveland. Al Smith and “Jungle” Jim Rivera hit back-to-back home runs in the game. Smith also threw out former Sox star “Minnie” Minoso trying to score a run. A crowd estimated by the Chicago Sun-Times at 125,000 was at Midway Airport to greet the Sox when they returned home. All this on a night when Chicago fire commissioner Robert Quinn ordered the air raid sirens turned on to celebrate the title, causing fear and panic in a number of non-baseball fans who thought the Russians were attacking. The Sox would wind up winning the 1959 pennant by five games over the Tribe with a mark of 94-60. While they were near the bottom in most offensive categories the pitching was stellar and the defense had three Gold Glove winners in Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Sherm Lollar. The Sox also won 35 games that season by one run with 15 losses. September 22, 1966 - In a game at Yankee Stadium, pitcher Joe Horlen and his teammates stopped New York to the tune of 4-1. Only 413 fans were in attendance at the gigantic stadium. It’s believed to be the smallest home crowd ever at a Yankee game. Yankee broadcaster "Red" Barber told the camera crew to pan the empty stands and was eventually fired over that decision. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WBWSF Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 The Miley Collection has the actual radio broadcast of the September 22, 1959 game from Cleveland. I bought mine a few years ago on EBAY. This is the actual WCFL broadcast featuring White Sox announcers Bob Elson and Don Wells. The Miley Collection is sold on CD. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mighty Mite Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 (edited) 9-22-59, A very special day in my youth, I almost hit the ceiling in our living room as my parents and I were watching the game on WGN when Little Looie fielded a Vic Power grounder stepped on second and threw to Big Klu for the double play and my boyhood heroes had won the 1959 American League Pennant. A few minutes later the air raid sirens went off all across the city, this 13 year old knew exactly why they were going off but thousands and thousands of Chicagoans were scared out of their minds thinking that we were going to get nuked by the Russians. I even knew that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was visiting the USA at the time and there was no way the USSR was going to nuke the country, IIRC Khrushchev had visited Disneyland in California that afternoon. 10 days later my favorite uncle was able to get tickets to game 2 of the World Series and took my mother and me to the game in which the Sox lost a 4-3 heartbreaker to the Dodgers Edited September 22, 2023 by The Mighty Mite 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lip Man 1 Posted September 22, 2023 Author Share Posted September 22, 2023 11 minutes ago, WBWSF said: The Miley Collection has the actual radio broadcast of the September 22, 1959 game from Cleveland. I bought mine a few years ago on EBAY. This is the actual WCFL broadcast featuring White Sox announcers Bob Elson and Don Wells. The Miley Collection is sold on CD. I have that along with some other games from 1959. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsox Posted September 23, 2023 Share Posted September 23, 2023 20 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said: September 22, 1959 - The White Sox clinched the American League pennant beating the Indians 4-2 in Cleveland. Al Smith and “Jungle” Jim Rivera hit back-to-back home runs in the game. Smith also threw out former Sox star “Minnie” Minoso trying to score a run. A crowd estimated by the Chicago Sun-Times at 125,000 was at Midway Airport to greet the Sox when they returned home. All this on a night when Chicago fire commissioner Robert Quinn ordered the air raid sirens turned on to celebrate the title, causing fear and panic in a number of non-baseball fans who thought the Russians were attacking. The Sox would wind up winning the 1959 pennant by five games over the Tribe with a mark of 94-60. While they were near the bottom in most offensive categories the pitching was stellar and the defense had three Gold Glove winners in Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Sherm Lollar. The Sox also won 35 games that season by one run with 15 losses. September 22, 1966 - In a game at Yankee Stadium, pitcher Joe Horlen and his teammates stopped New York to the tune of 4-1. Only 413 fans were in attendance at the gigantic stadium. It’s believed to be the smallest home crowd ever at a Yankee game. Yankee broadcaster "Red" Barber told the camera crew to pan the empty stands and was eventually fired over that decision. That win against Cleveland is firmly etched in my memory bank. Early Wynn started, Bob Shaw relieved, Jerry Staley closed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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