This Day In Sox History 6/30...

Four factoids today:

June 30, 1978 – Former Sox outfielder Larry Doby was named manager replacing Bob Lemon. Doby became the second minority manager in Major League history after Frank Robinson. His tenure would be short. He was fired at the end of the season, replaced with Don Kessinger. The Sox record under him was 37-50.

June 30, 1988 - After years of saying that the original Comiskey Park was outdated, Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn came very close to moving the team to the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, Florida area.

At the stroke of midnight, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill allowing the construction of a new stadium, thus saving the Sox. Technically it was past midnight but Illinois Governor Jim Thompson actually stopped the clock in the meeting room since no bills could be passed after that time period and when the final vote was taken it was past the witching hour.

But it was a close call. Minutes before House and Senate members walked into their chambers late that Thursday, leaders from both parties predicted that the 150-million-dollar Sox stadium bill would fail, leaving the Sox no choice but to leave the South Side for St. Petersburg, Florida. House Republicans left their caucuses, saying they had only five votes for the package. Their Democratic counterparts said only 50 votes could be mustered. And Senate Democrats said they had only 10 votes in favor of the deal. But a few minutes before midnight, Senate Democrats ratified the measure by gathering 30 votes. The House then passed the measure by a 60-55 vote.

Meanwhile Florida baseball fans were stunned as they realized they had been used as a pawn to get a new facility by the power brokers and politicians of Chicago.

The new stadium built with taxpayer money would open its doors on April 18, 1991.

June 30, 2008 - White Sox outfielder Nick Swisher became only the second player in franchise history to homer from both sides of the plate, twice in the same season, when he hit two in a 9-7 win over Cleveland. Swisher did it the first time a few weeks earlier in a game against the Twins. Only Jose Valentin had ever done that before and he did it three times between 2000 and 2003. One of Swisher’s home runs was a grand slam as he drove in five runs on the night.

June 30, 2015 – When Chris Sale struck out the Cardinals Jhonny Peralta in the sixth inning of a game the Sox would eventually win 2-1 in 11 innings at St. Louis; it marked the eighth consecutive start that he fanned 10 or more hitters. That tied Sale with Pedro Martinez for the longest streak in baseball history. The stretch for Sale started on May 23 against the Twins and he fanned 97 batters.

Even though Sale was overpowering, the White Sox offense was so weak that his record in those eight starts was three wins, three losses and two no-decisions.