This Day In Sox History 4/29...

Three factoids today:

April 29, 1901 - Sox shortstop Frank Shugart hit the first home run in White Sox history. It came in a 3-2 loss to Detroit. It came in the eighth inning off future Sox pitcher Frank “Yip” Owen at South Side Park.

Ironically the 1901 season was the only one Shugart would play in, he was banned from the sport after the year ended for punching an umpire in the face on August 21.

April 29, 1985 - A new yearly tradition was established in the first annual "Crosstown Classic" charity game matching the Sox and Cubs.

Down through the years both teams played each other on and off in spring training or during an open date in the regular season. From the late 40’s through the early 70’s, the “Boys Benefit Game” was played helping raise funds for youth baseball. There was also a post season “City Series” that was eventually stopped by request of Major League Baseball. They felt it was taking away interest from the World Series. This was the first time though both teams agreed to play on a yearly basis with a corporate sponsor (Busch Beer).

The game alternated between Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field and was played every year through 1995. Because of the labor impasse the teams played two games that season.

The Sox won the opener at Comiskey Park 7-4 but it was only the start of a remarkable run. The two teams played a total of 12 games and the Sox never lost one. They’d go 10-0-2 during that time period.

After 1995, the series was dropped. It was never publicly explained why, but reports persisted that the cancellation of the series was at the Cubs request. Plus, interleague play was on the horizon and it may have been felt that the game was now meaningless

April 29, 2023 – Before the start of the 2017 season the White Sox announced they were starting a rebuild that would lead to years when they had legitimate chances to compete for championships.

Most fans embraced the badly needed change and hoped it would lead to the type of success the Astros and Cubs saw after they tore down and rebuilt their teams.

On this date that dream officially died as the Sox suffered their 10^th straight loss to fall to 7-21 on the season. After leading Tampa 3-0 going into the seventh inning the Rays scored 10 runs and wound up winning 12-3.

It was the team’s first 10 game losing streak since 2013.

Two first round playoff exits were all the rebuild was able to produce as bad trades, mismanagement of a limited budget, poor minor league development, constant injuries to key core players and bad free agent signings all contributed to blowing apart the front offices best laid plans.

Fans took to wearing bags over their heads at Guaranteed Rate Field and the Chicago media for the first time began openly calling for the firing of G.M. Rick Hahn.

It was another shattering low point for a franchise owned since 1981 by the Chairman of the Board Jerry Reinsdorf.