Four factoids today:

May 16, 1900 – White Sox player-manager Dick Padden was clubbed over the head with a bat during a fight in the third inning at Detroit. The fracas started with the White Sox up, 4-2, after an uncalled balk by Chicago pitcher Chauncey Fisher that was then reversed under protest by the Tigers, scoring a run for Detroit. That in turn got the ire of Padden.

After the arguments and consultation of the rule book, Padden returned to his position at second base as play resumed, but was getting cussed out by Detroit outfielder James “Ducky” Holmes — who wasn’t playing in the game, and not even in uniform! Padden threw a punch at Holmes and missed, and in the ensuing melee a Detroit player crowned Padden with a blow from a bat.

Once things calmed again and play was to resume, Detroit manager George Stallings stormed onto the field with a policeman, demanding Padden be arrested; to no avail, and the White Sox prevailed in the game, 7-3.

May 16, 1953 - White Sox pitcher Tommy Byrne, who was knocked out of the game in an eventual win against the Yankees two days earlier, was sent up to pinch hit for Vern Stephens in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the Sox trailing 3-1.

Byrne then slammed a 2-2 pitch from relief pitcher/sidewinder Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell into the lower deck in right field at Yankee Stadium for the only pinch-hit grand slam by a pitcher in team history! The Sox would win the game 5-3, scoring all their runs in the ninth inning. That was the only home run Byrne hit that year for the White Sox although he’d had 14 of them in his big-league career.

May 16, 1978 - With the Sox record a dismal 9-20 and knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to re-sign him, Sox owner Bill Veeck traded slugger Bobby Bonds to the Rangers for Claudell Washington and Rosendo “Rusty” Torres. Bonds would only play in 26 games for the Sox, with two home runs and eight RBI’s.

Making matters worse was that to get Bonds the previous December, Veeck traded three players including future All-Star Brian Downing to get him.

Washington would become the target of fan displeasure because of his tendency to take it easy on the field while with the team. One fan made up a banner, hung over the right field wall, which expressed that sentiment “Washington slept here.”

Torres’s claim to fame (and this is a great trivia question) was that he was on the field for all of the forfeited games in baseball during the 1970’s.

Torres was with the Yankees when the final game in Washington was forfeited as fans rushed the field in 1971; he was in Cleveland for the dime beer night fiasco in 1974 and was with the Sox during the “Disco Demolition” forfeit in 1979.

May 16, 1984 - Carlton Fisk had one of his finest games as he became the third player in franchise history to hit for the cycle in a game. It came against the Royals at Comiskey Park. Despite Fisk’s efforts the Sox would lose it 7-6. Carlton went 4 for 5 with two runs and two RBI’s in the game. The triple, by the way, was the only one he’d hit that season.

White Sox pitcher and batting practice pitcher Kevin Hickey died on this date in 2012.

Kevin Hickey – Society for American Baseball Research