This Day In Sox History 1/14...

[Lip Man 1]

January 14, 1963 - It was the move that re-energized the franchise and led directly to back-to-back-to-back 90 or more-win seasons in 1963, 1964 and 1965. Sox G. M. Ed Short traded shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Al Smith to the Orioles for third baseman Pete Ward, outfielder Dave Nicholson, shortstop Ron Hansen and relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm.

Trading Aparicio was a shock but contractual differences between him and the team and the bad feelings it produced made a deal necessary.

Ward would be named Co-Rookie of the Year (with teammate Gary Peters) and would supply power for the next few seasons. In 1963 and 1964 Ward averaged 22 home runs, 89 RBI’s and hit .290 before an accident where he was a passenger in a car leaving Chicago Stadium after a hockey game severely impacted his career. He suffered whiplash and never felt comfortable at the plate ever again.

Nicholson, who struck out far too much, still had 22 home runs and 70 RBI’s in 1963.

Hansen would be one of the best defensive shortstops in the league and hit as many as 20 home runs in a season, at a time when shortstops simply didn’t do that.

Wilhelm became the top relief pitcher of the 1960's. In his six years with the Sox, he’d win 41 games and save 99 others while producing some astonishingly low ERA’s considering he threw the knuckleball. His highest ERA between 1963 and 1968 was 2.64, every other season it was below two. He’d be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

 

January 14, 2001 - The Sox acquired pitcher David Wells from Toronto basically for pitcher Mike Sirotka.

Over the coming weeks and months, Sirotka and the Blue Jays claimed the Sox knew that Sirotka had a bad arm and couldn’t pitch. Sox G.M. Ken Williams defended himself by saying that he told the Jays he thought Sirotka might be hurt and offered pitcher Jim Parque instead. Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig ruled in late March that the trade would stand. The whole episode became known as “Shouldergate.”

Wells meanwhile had few good moments with the Sox. He’d beat the Indians opening day in Cleveland after he said fans got him angry by talking about his mother and how he was raised, but after that, because of a bad back he barely pitched, winning only five games in total with only 16 starts on the year.

He then caused a major controversy when he went on the radio and said that he didn’t think first baseman Frank Thomas was as badly hurt as he claimed. Thomas would only wind up playing 20 games that year after he tore a triceps muscle diving for a ground ball along the first base line.

Sirotka meanwhile, who won 15 games and pitched almost 200 innings, in the 2000 season, never played in a Major League game again because of a partially torn rotator cuff and a torn labrum.  

Edited 3 hours ago by Lip Man 1