Four factoids today:

April 24, 1901 - The White Sox played their first regular season game as part of the officially recognized American League. In fact, it was the first game ever played in the league overall because of rain outs in other cities.

They beat the Cleveland Blues 8-2. Outfielder William “Dummy” Hoy got the first White Sox at bat. Fred Hartman’s hit scored the first two runs for the Sox in American League history.

Hoy was a deaf-mute and in order for him to understand what the umpires were calling; the arbitrators came up with a series of hand signals indicating safe/out/ball/strike.

The ceremonial first ball by the way, was supposed to be thrown out by Robert Burke, special counsel to the mayor. He declined however, stating that he was afraid the ball might get hit back to him. (True story!)

Hoyt by the way, actually preferred being called “Dummy” instead of his first name.

April 24, 1955 - In a game at Kansas City, Sox starter Dick Donovan was hit early and often and when manager Marty Marion came out to take the ball from him, Donovan, showing his competitive spirit and concerned about a possible return trip to the minors, refused to give it to him!

Marion had to reassure Dick that he’d stay a part of the rotation before Donovan would turn the ball over and leave the field. That season he’d win 13 of 17 decisions with an ERA of 2.70 before an emergency appendectomy felled him in late July. That injury may have cost the Sox the pennant as Donovan wasn’t the same after the surgery. The Sox finished in third place, five games behind the Yankees at 91-63-1.

April 24, 1994 - Back-to-back home runs don’t happen often…but how about back-to-back home runs twice in the same game…and both times hit by the same two players? In a home game against the Tigers the rare occurrence took place.

The White Sox No. 4 and 5 hitters, Julio Franco and Robin Ventura, were the men responsible.

In the bottom of the sixth, tied 3-3, Franco led off with a homer to deep right field, and Ventura repeated the act. In the eighth, down 6-4, Franco again led off with a solo shot, and Ventura tied the game with a homer.

April 24, 2010 - With a 7-11 record, it was still far from a magical season. But the White Sox accomplished something that had never happened before in their history: walk-off home runs on back-to-back days. In this game, Alex Ríos clocked a two-out walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Mariners and former Sox pitcher David Aardsma, 5-4. The Seattle reliever completely melted down in the ninth, entering up 4-2 and giving up a one-out home run to Paul Konerko to move the White Sox closer. An A.J. Pierzynski fly out and Carlos Quentin walk later; the stage was set for Ríos’ record-setter.

On April 23, it was Andruw Jones who achieved the feat, clocking a full-count, two-out pitch out for a 7-6 White Sox win in front of 24,653 happy fans.

Now, this was NOT the first time the White Sox had won consecutive games on walk-off homers, but the previous time, the wins came on the same day. J.C. Martin and Ken Berry upended Cleveland with game-ending homers on July 25, 1967.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Lip Man 1

Seeing as the White Sox won the first game and they finished the first season in first place, it's fair to say that as far as the American League is concerned, the White Sox invented winning.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by WestEddy

9 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Seeing as the White Sox won the first game and they finished the first season in first place, it's fair to say that as far as the American League is concerned, the White Sox invented winning.

And the Yankees then perfected it.

Baseball bro here! The back-to-back home runs by Ventura were nothing compared to the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back hits Ryan got off him! Ain’t I clever??? Tee hee giggle giggle!

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by NO!!MARY!!!

6 minutes ago, NO!!MARY!!! said:

Baseball bro here! The back-to-back home runs by Ventura were nothing compared to the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back hits Ryan got off him! Ain’t I clever??? Tee hee giggle giggle!

Not taking anything away from Nolan one tough SOB but it didn't hurt that Rodriguez had Robin's arms pinned.

23 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Not taking anything away from Nolan one tough SOB but it didn't hurt that Rodriguez had Robin's arms pinned.

He also punched Ventura on the hardest part of his head with his pitching hand, then Ventura finally picked him and body slammed him.

4 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

He also punched Ventura on the hardest part of his head with his pitching hand, then Ventura finally picked him and body slammed him.

Not sure I remember any body slam. Fast forward the video below to the 5:10 minute mark. Seems like the gang pile just collapsed on them both. Ventura literally ran right into a wrestling headlock. He got his ass handed to him by old man Ryan thoroughly and completely.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by WhiteSox2023

10 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Not sure I remember any body slam. Fast forward the video below to the 5:10 minute mark. Seems like the gang pile just collapsed on them both. Ventura literally ran right into a wrestling headlock. He got his ass handed to him by old man Ryan thoroughly and completely.

He tapped him on the head, Ventura got out of it and tackled him. I’m sorry I brought it up.

58 minutes ago, NO!!MARY!!! said:

He tapped him on the head, Ventura got out of it and tackled him. I’m sorry I brought it up.

Before the swarm of players came and it was one on one for a very short time, Ventura literally ran into a headlock and got popped a few times. But Rodriguez did hold Ventura’s arms back quickly after. Ventura eventually took Ryan down with the help of a swarm of players pushing them both over. There’s a reason most fans (not just Sox fans) remember this scene because it was an old man beating a young guy’s ass.