This Day In Sox History 10/10...

Three factoids today:

October 10, 1924 - The White Sox and New York Giants began their second barnstorming tour together. This world tour started in 1924 in Canada and would sail the Atlantic to promote the game in France, England, Ireland, Germany and Italy. Most of the exhibition games were hardly visited. The absolute low was a game in Ireland where only 20 persons attended the game.

Eventually, the tour would be cut short due to the lack of appreciation and understanding for the sport in England and France. Just like with the 1913/1914 world tour, King George V of England attended the games. These games were the only ones that were well attended as 24,000 people were in the stands.

October 10, 1950 - Seattle Rainers manager and former big-league catcher Paul Richards agreed to a two-year deal to as White Sox manager, replacing interim skipper John “Red” Corriden. Richards piloted the unaffiliated Triple-A Rainers to a 96-104 record (yes, they played 200 games in the Pacific Coast League back then), good for sixth place of eight teams.

Richards would take a 60-94 White Sox team and improve them by 21 wins and into a first-division (fourth place) finish in 1951. His nearly four full seasons at the helm for the club in the 1950s all were winning seasons, and jump-started a record streak of 17 straight winning years for the White Sox based on his philosophy of excellent speed, very good defense and outstanding pitching.

October 10, 2021 – Things did not look good for the Sox in game #3 of the A.L.D.S. against Houston. The Astros led 5-1 and the White Sox were on the verge of elimination. Then everything changed.

The Sox rose from the dead scoring five runs in the third inning, three more in the fourth and went on to win 12-6. Finally, after the first 20 hits by the team in the playoff series were all singles, they got a two-run home run from Yasmani Grandal and then a three-run blast from Leury Garcia to turn the game around. Starting a playoff series with 20 straight singles broke the previous Major League record of 19 set by the Angels. Four White Sox bullpen pitchers then threw five hitless innings to close the door on any Astros comeback. Sox pitchers wound up striking out 16 Astros which also set a franchise mark for a playoff game.

Grandal (left) and Garcia celebrate their home runs 10-10-21