This Day In Sox History 6/28...

Four notations today:

June 28, 1941 - White Sox infielder Don Kolloway became the only White Sox player to steal second, third and home in the same inning. Kolloway pulled this off in Cleveland as part of a 6-4 Sox win. His base-stealing feat took place in the ninth inning.

He also homered twice — his first two career Major League home runs — and is the only Major Leaguer in history to have two homers and four steals in a game. He also scored four times in the afternoon contest.

June 28, 1973 - The ill fortunes of the team really came into focus, as by the time the summer ended, a team that was in first place for two months, wound up placing 38 names on the injured list. Among the key injuries were Ken Henderson tearing up his knee sliding into home plate, Bill Melton suffering a groin injury, Carlos May had a bad hamstring, Brian Downing wrenched his knee on his first Major League play and was lost until August diving to catch a foul pop up and Pat Kelly having a bad back.

But the most damming injury occurred in Anaheim on the day listed above with the Sox a game out of first place. Dick Allen suffered a broken leg when Mike Epstein crashed into him on a play at first. Allen was stretching to grab a wild throw from third baseman Bill Melton in the sixth inning of a game the Sox would win 2-0.   

Here’s where it really got strange.....the injury took place just a little over 10 years after Sox first baseman Joe Cunningham suffered a broken collarbone against the same team on the same type of play (a wild throw) with the Sox in first place!

June 28, 1993 - In the first of what would become a series of major public relations disasters, the White Sox released Carlton Fisk on the road in Cleveland. Fisk accompanied the team to Ohio only to be told of his release before the game.

No question, Fisk was finished as a player, but the fans and media were outraged at the way the Sox handled the situation. In fact, the Sox sent faxes to the media announcing the move, not even having the courtesy to hold a press conference.

Fisk, the future Hall of Famer, had to say his goodbyes to his former teammates from the stands at Municipal Stadium during that evening’s game before returning to Chicago.

June 28, 2003 - In front of the biggest regular season crowd (46,027) ever to see a game at new Comiskey Park (and thus the biggest regular season crowd in Chicago in the 21st Century), the White Sox exacted some revenge. The South Siders had dropped two of three games a couple of weeks earlier at Wrigley Field, and turned it around for a 12-9 win to open the second Crosstown Classic series at U.S. Cellular Field. The game was marked by the fifth-biggest comeback in White Sox history, having fallen behind, 8-0, before mounting a comeback.

The Cubs mauled starter Dan Wright for eight runs (seven earned), bouncing the righthander from the game with two outs in the third. From there, however, the White Sox bullpen locked the Cubs down while the offense went to work on Cubs hurler Kerry Wood. A two-run homer by Paul Konerko with two outs in the fifth had halved the lead to 8-4 — and it got even worse for the Cubs in the sixth. With Wood bumped from the game, Ray Durham had a run-scoring single and Frank Thomas a sac fly, with Magglio Ordonez tying the game at 8-8 with a two-run single. The capper? Konerko drove home Ordonez with a second two-run homer, putting the White Sox up for good, 10-8.

Konerko’s performance was an all-time best in Crosstown play, getting on base five times (two homers, double, single, hit-by-pitch) and never being retired.