This Day In Sox History 1/2...

[Lip Man 1]

We haven't done this for a few years and some posters wrote that they enjoyed reading these so I'm bringing it back for the year 2026. Have added a number of new entries particularly from the first four decades or so of the franchises history. I hope you will enjoy them. Feel free with comments, memories that you have for any of the factoids. Maybe you were at the game mentioned, or watched on TV...things like that.

January 2, 1986 – Former two-time owner of the White Sox, Bill Veeck died at the age of 71. Veeck owned the club from March 1959 through June 1961 and then again from December 1975 to January 1981 when he sold it to the group headed up by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.

Veeck buying the team the second time, with considerable help from then Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, a big Sox fan, saved the franchise from being moved to Seattle with the Oakland A’s relocating to the South Side. Major League Baseball was trying to settle the lawsuits filed by Washington state, the city of Seattle and King County over the Pilots being relocated to Milwaukee in 1970. Moving the financially strapped White Sox to the Pacific Northwest would have ended the legal issues.

Veeck saved the team but never really had the financial resources to make them competitive especially with the advent of free agency in his second time owning them. Part of his syndicate included some of the richest people in America but he had made a promise to never go to them for additional funds and to always turn them a profit. He was however known for his promotions, stunts and off-the-wall ideas which ranged from installing a shower in the center field bleachers at Comiskey Park, to broadcaster Harry Caray leading the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the seventh inning to the infamous “Disco Demolition” night.  Veeck was voted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

 

January 2, 2020 – The White Sox signed Luis Robert to a multiyear contract without him having played a single Major League game. The future Gold Glove winner agreed to $50 million for six years, with team options worth $38 million more over two final seasons.

Robert showcased five-tool talent finally staying healthy in 2023 with 38 homers, 36 doubles, 80 RBI’s and 20 stolen bases in an All-Star season, but injuries always seemed to dampen his great potential and limit him.