Today in White Sox History: January 11
Pudge makes the Hall, and the South Siders lose a unique manager
1881
A series of Tuesday baseball games started in Chicago.
Wait ... regular games, in Chicago ... in January? Yes, these games were played on ice, with pro and amateurs alike. They remain a regular winter staple for years.
[Author’s note: I was a part of a group that inadvertently continued this tradition nearly a century later, but it wasn’t so great for the pocketbook; Christmas Wiffle ball is found to send many frozen, plastic shards exploding into snowy space.]
1949
After 11 years and 981 games at catcher for the South Siders, Mike Tresh was sold to Cleveland. He would play just one more year in the majors.
Tresh ranks No. 6 on the all-time games caught list for the White Sox, with one remarkable twist: His 2.1 career WAR is four times less (Billy Sullivan, 8.4) than any other player on the list.
1973
Baseball owners adopted the designated hitter rule, but with the proviso that only AL teams were allowed to adopt the DH — and on a three-year experimental basis, at that. The “experiment” stretched almost 50 years before the NL adopted the rule in 2022.
Three months later, Mike Andrews stepped to the plate in the second inning on Opening Day, popping out as the first White Sox DH of all time. Andrews finished the day 1-for-3, with a double and a walk.
2000
On his second try, Carlton Fisk is elected to the Hall of Fame. He will adorn a Boston Red Sox cap on his Hall plaque despite playing 343 more games in his career with the White Sox.
Also on this day, former White Sox manager and pitching Hall-of-Fame Bob Lemon died at the age of 79 in Long Beach, Calif. Lemon managed the 1977 South Side Hit Men to unexpected, resounding success (90 wins) and later managed the Yankees to a World Series win. He ended up working in baseball as player, manager, coach and scout for 61 years.