Four factoids today:

July 23, 1986 – It was one of, if not the worst, deal made by G.M. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson as he sent Bobby Bonilla to the Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon.

Bonilla, selected by the Sox in the Major League draft in December 1985, showed flashes of brilliance in his half season on the South Side. He’d eventually turn into a complete, dominating, five tool type player with the Pirates during their divisional title runs in the early 90’s, although he was a handful because of his attitude.  

July 23, 2007 – All-time great White Sox pitcher Billy Pierce was honored with a statue at Sox Park, becoming the sixth White Sox legend so honored. Beyond being a wonderful person and lifetime ambassador (both unofficially, and officially) for the team, he was an amazing pitcher, as good as anyone in baseball in the 1950s. In fact Billy was one of the leaders by WAR in the Major Leagues during that decade.

Pierce ranks first all-time in White Sox strikeouts (1,796), third in shutouts (35), fourth in wins (186) and innings (2,931), third in starts (391) and fifth in games pitched (456), tied for fifth in complete games (183), sixth in pitching WAR (49.2) second among southpaws, 10th in adjusted ERA+ (123), 20th in hits per nine innings (8.116), tied for 25th in FIP (3.42) and 27th in ERA (3.19).

He represented the White Sox in seven All-Star games, starting for the American League in three of them, the only Sox pitcher to ever do so and he threw four one-hitters losing a perfect game with two out in the ninth inning against the Senators on June 27, 1958 at Comiskey Park.   

July 23, 2009 - It had only happened 17 times before. On this date the Sox Mark Buehrle became the 18^th pitcher to ever throw a perfect game when he shut down Tampa 5-0. Buehrle was helped in the top of the ninth inning when Dewayne Wise, an otherwise mediocre player, made the catch of his career, leaping above the wall in left center to snare a ball hit by Gabe Kapler with one out. On the way down he started to lose the ball then snatched it out of the air with his other hand.

Buehrle completed the task in 2:03, the exact same amount of time as his no-hitter in 2007. He became only the fourth pitcher to ever throw a perfect game and a no-hitter joining Cy Young, Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson. 

July 23, 2016 - It was certainly a strange and bizarre situation for the Sox. Chris Sale, arguably the best pitcher in the American League and one of the best in baseball went on a pregame rampage before his scheduled start against the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field.

Sale was upset that he had to wear a throwback Sox pajama style jersey as part of a promotion for the game. Sale reportedly said it was uncomfortable. With the heat index over one hundred degrees wearing a dark blue/black jersey probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do either.

Sale decided to take matters into his own hands, as during batting practice, he destroyed all of the game jerseys the team was supposed to wear by cutting them up with scissors. He also said publicly the White Sox were more concerned with public relations and uniforms than winning games.

He would be suspended for five games for the incident.