This Day In Sox History 10/6...

SEVEN factoids today:

October 6, 1905 - The Sox lost the pennant on the next to last day of the season when pitcher Guy "Doc" White couldn’t beat the bottom feeding St. Louis Browns. White and the Sox lost 6-2 which handed the flag to the Philadelphia Athletics. The Browns scored five runs in the third inning. The Sox would finish the season two games off the pace. That year they had six games declared ties which factored in to the final standings. 92-60-6 was the final total for the season.

October 6, 1908 - The Sox lost the pennant on the last day of the season when Ty Cobb and Detroit won the decisive game 7-0. Guy "Doc" White again was the pitcher of record, only this time he may have had an excuse. He was working on two day’s rest having beaten the Tigers 3-1 on October 4.

October 6, 1909 - Architect Zachary Taylor Davis submitted his design for a new ballpark on the South Side to owner Charles Comiskey. The concrete and steel structure was considered revolutionary for its time yet only took three and a half months to complete the following year, opening in July 1910.

October 6, 1923 – It was his first year on the team and turned out to be his last appearances of the season but future Hall of Famer Ted Lyons had himself an afternoon in Cleveland. The right hander from Texas came in to pitch in the first game of a double header, threw three innings in relief and got the win as the Sox won 6-3 by scoring four times in the ninth inning. Later in the afternoon Lyons came in to pitch again in relief in the second game, tossing a little over four innings and yes, he got the win again as the Sox took the contest 7-6. Lyons threw almost eight innings total.

When his career ended in 1946, he’d win 260 games, the most ever for a White Sox pitcher.

October 6, 1959 - At the mammoth L.A. Coliseum, which was the temporary home of the Dodgers, the White Sox played small ball in game #5 of the World Series. They beat Sandy Koufax 1-0 to stay alive, cutting L.A.’s lead to three games to two.

The only Sox run scored on a double play ground ball but it turned out to be enough. The Sox became the first team in World Series history to have three pitchers combine for the shut out (Bob Shaw, Billy Pierce and Dick Donovan).

The game also featured one of the greatest catches in World Series history as “Jungle” Jim Rivera ran a long way and made an over the shoulder catch in the seventh inning with two men on base to save the game robbing Charlie Neal of a potential game winner. Also it was a day game and Rivera somehow located the ball against a murderous background filled with white shirts and white dresses worn by the fans.

Alas the Dodgers beat the Sox in game #6 9-3, to win the series four games to two.

October 6, 2000 - Another dramatic and fantastic season was ruined as the Sox fell apart and lost the divisional series in three straight games to the Mariners. The M’s clinched the series despite a heroic effort from pitcher James Baldwin.

“JB,” pitching with a bad arm, held the Mariners to one run on three hits in six innings of game #3.

Seattle scored the series clinching run in the 2-1 win on a suicide squeeze from Carlos Guillen in the ninth inning. Replays showed him clearly out of the batter’s box on the bunt attempt, stepping over home plate, but Sox manager Jerry Manuel never protested the play.

October 6, 2011 - Former White Sox star Robin Ventura was named manager, succeeding Ozzie Guillen, who bolted for Miami after losing a power struggle with Ken Williams in the front office. Ventura was named to the post only after Paul Konerko was approached and offered a player-manager role, which he refused.

Ventura proved a fresh alternative to Guillen — at least for one successful year; the 2012 team led the A.L. Central for much of the season, they had a three-game lead with 16 left to play, before faltering and finishing 85-77. It was Ventura’s five-year tenure at the helm that ultimately plunged the White Sox into a rebuilding mode since he had little success afterwards and appeared to, at times, regret taking the job.