This Day In Sox History 6/20...

SIX factoids today:

June 20, 1926 - In a game with the Yankees that the Sox won 4-3; they set the record for the largest crowd to see a game at Comiskey Park before the upper deck was added. 43-thousand were on hand for the contest; so many fans were in the park they were allowed to ring the outfield wall standing on the playing field.

That may have contributed to the Sox final run in the eighth inning as Willie Kamm’s drive went into the fans on the field, it was scored as a double and drove home Earl Sheely with what proved to be the winning run.

June 20, 1945 - In the eighth inning of a game in St. Louis a brawl broke out between the White Sox and Browns players. As Browns pitcher George Caster was leaving the mound he fired the ball toward the Chicago dugout, but missed, hitting the adjacent wall.

White Sox players charged onto the field and several of the Browns charged the Chicago dugout where they attacked White Sox batting practice pitcher and ex-Marine Karl Scheel whom they beat for several minutes, claiming he had been riding them in a personal way all game. When that confrontation was broken up, the game resumed with no one being ejected; many fans came on the field and the game was delayed for several minutes.

Scheel was carried to the clubhouse for first aid. Several Browns were fined by the league. The Sox would win the game 4-1.

June 20, 1973 - Sox relief pitcher Cy Acosta became the first pitcher to actually hit for the team, in the designated hitter era, when he struck out in the eighth inning of an 8-3 win over Nolan Ryan and the Angels at Comiskey Park. Rich Hand was the Angels pitcher who struck him out.

Acosta came to bat because manager Chuck Tanner pulled Dick Allen after a six run, seventh inning and moved Tony Muser from DH to first base. That meant the Sox gave-up the DH and Acosta took the spot in the batting order.

June 20, 1980 - Tigers outfielder Al Cowens attacked Sox relief pitcher Ed Farmer.

In the 11^th inning of a game at Comiskey Park, Cowens ran towards Farmer after hitting a ground ball instead of running towards first base. The two had a melee on the mound.

One-year earlier Farmer broke his jaw when he was pitching for Texas on an errant pitch. Chicago police went looking for Cowens after the game to press assault charges.

Farmer, who had polycystic kidney disease, ended up on the bottom of the pile, where his cysts burst and his kidneys weakened. He would be an All-Star the next month, amid his greatest season, but Farmer said from the moment after the brawl he felt weaker, and was never the same pitcher.

June 20, 1986 - In what he admitted was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf approved the firing of manager Tony LaRussa. LaRussa and his staff simply didn’t get along with new G.M. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and his unusual ideas, and with the team struggling on the field, the decision to let him go was made.

LaRussa, who won over 500 games for the White Sox and the 1983 Western Division championship, was hired by the A’s three weeks later. He eventually took both Oakland and St. Louis to the World Series winning three titles and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014 before coming back to manage the White Sox starting in the 2021 campaign.

Harrelson resigned his position after one season in charge of the White Sox. That year the club went 72-90 ending up in fifth place in the Western Division. Reinsdorf later explained the situation surrounding Harrelson’s hiring as G.M. to the Chicago Tribune. “Eddie (Einhorn) and I would talk to “Hawk” and (Don) Drysdale at length, and “Hawk” more so, to identify problems in the organization, we were still neophytes in this business and we were impressed with the way “Hawk” pointed out our problems. [GM] wasn't something he really wanted him to do, but we urged him to help us out. The mistake was that when you go to a doctor who diagnoses open-heart surgery, you don't have him do the surgery because he diagnosed the problem, you get a heart surgeon. Just because “Hawk” was able to diagnose our problems did not mean he could solve them. It was a terrible position to put him in, and a year later, he said he wanted out."

June 20, 2006 - In a home game the White Sox would set the team mark for the most runs ever scored in the third inning of a game when 11 men crossed the plate against the Cardinals. Chicago area native Mark Mulder was the victim of the onslaught which saw the Sox win 20-6. The Sox sent 16 men to the plate and had 11 hits in the inning.