1955
White Sox co-GMs Chuck Comiskey and John Rigney made their first trade — shortstop Chico Carrasquel and center fielder Jim Busby went to Cleveland for slugging center fielder Larry Doby, the left-handed power hitter the Sox had been lacking in the previous three years. The deal also made room in the starting lineup for a rookie shortstop from Venezuela named Luis Aparicio.
Doby’s best year with the White Sox was 1956, when he drove in 102 runs, with 24 homers. He was traded to the Orioles after the 1957 season but returned to the Sox, who bought him from the Tigers, in May 1959. That year, he appeared in 21 games and hit .241.
1956
Despite two very successful seasons as manager, Marty Marion was pressured into resigning by the White Sox front office, led by Chuck Comiskey. Al Lopez was the immediate front-runner to succeed Marion, who would collect his full salary from the White Sox in 1957 in exchange for his resignation. Marion’s full coaching staff was expected to be forced out, as well.
Comiskey offered little in the way of concrete reasons for getting rid of Marion, aside from the notion that he felt the club should have finished even better than it did, and vague reference to Marion’s investment business back in St. Louis competing for his attention.
Marion took over the White Sox from Paul Richards late in 1954, and in 1955 guided the club to its best finish in the standings (five games out, third place) since 1920. His career record in Chicago ended at 179-138-1, and two third-place finishes; Marion ranks fourth all-time among White Sox managers, with a .565 winning percentage.
Ironically, Lopez ranks just behind Marion all-time, in fifth place, at .564.
Though just 39 at the time of dismissal, with successful stints as Cardinals and White Sox manager, Marion never again managed in the big leagues.
1974
The White Sox purchased pitcher Roger Nelson from Cincinnati. He was coming off of two decent seasons with the Reds, making him a decent bet to absorb innings. But the season before that, 1972, Nelson was dynamic with the Kansas City Royals: 11-6 with two saves, 10 complete games, six shutouts and 5.1 WAR; the righty also led the entire majors with an 0.871 WHIP and 3.87 K/BB.
The gamble on the 31-year-old didn’t pay off, however, as exactly five months later Nelson was released as Spring Training wound down. He would pitch in just three more MLB games before retiring.
1983
Thanks to the most wins in the major leagues and a second-half run among the best ever, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt won the AL Cy Young.
Hoyt was 9-8 at the All-Star break, then exploded to go 15-2 in the back half, ending the year with a record of 24-10 and a 3.66 ERA. In addition, Hoyt pitched almost 261 innings with only 31 walks. The righty finished his season with a brilliant, complete game, 2-1 ALCS Game 1 win over the Orioles in Baltimore.
Hoyt became the second Sox pitcher to ever win the award (following Early Wynn in 1959), and easily outdistanced Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry in the vote, 116-81. Among the six pitchers to receive votes, however, Hoyt sported the lowest WAR, at 3.7; by that measure, Quisenberry (5.5) should have taken the award, and even Hoyt’s teammate Richard Dotson (5.1) was significantly more worthy.
Hoyt won 52 games between 1981 and 1983.
1993
White Sox manager Gene Lamont, who guided the team to its first postseason appearance in 10 years, was named American League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Lamont beat out New York’s Buck Showalter for the honor, receiving 72 total points to Showalter’s 63. Lamont picked up eight first-place votes, to seven for Showalter.
2005
Game 3 of the World Series set the record for the longest game (by time) in history. The 14-inning game went 5:41 in Houston, and ended when role player Geoff Blum belted a home run to give the White Sox a 6-5 lead. It would end 7-5, with Game 2 starter Mark Buehrle picking up the save because the Sox were almost out of pitchers.
The Sox rallied from a 4-0 deficit against Roy Oswalt to come back for the win.
Other notables from the night:
- The game duration record would be broken in 2018, when Boston and the Dodgers played an 18-inning game that lasted seven hours, 20 minutes.
- The White Sox and Astros had broken an innings duration record set in 2000, when the Yankees beat the Mets in 12 innings in Game 1 of the World Series in four hours and 51 minutes.
- The 14 innings tied the longest game by innings back in 1916, when Babe Ruth pitched a complete game in Game 2 of the World Series (a contest that took just two hours, 32 minutes to play).
- This was the first World Series game ever held in the state of Texas, where the Astros had played since 1962 and the Texas Rangers since 1972.
- A combined 43 players were used in the game, setting a World Series record.
- Seventeen combined pitchers and 30 combined runners left on base also broke World Series marks.
