Today in White Sox History: June 23
Defensive records fall here
1919
White Sox center fielder Happy Felsch tied a 15-year-old record set by Harry Bay for most chances in a nine-inning game: 12. He had 11 putouts and one assist (Jack Graney, doubled off of first base) in the 3-2 loss to Cleveland at Comiskey Park.
That record still stands in the American League, since tied by has not been surpassed. The first to tie was White Sox center fielder Johnny Mostil, on May 22, 1928. In 1977 (ironically the same season another White Sox center fielder, Chet Lemon, set a mark for season chances), Lyman Bostock matched Felsch’s and Mostil’s mark.
In the NL, Earl Clark of the Boston Braves had 13 errorless chances in 1929, which remains the MLB single-game, outfielder-chances record.
1956
It was first of the two great fights between Yankees and White Sox players; almost one year later, June 13, 1957, the second one took place.
In this one Bob Grim (uncle to former White Sox director of business development and broadcasting Bob Grim) threw one high and tight to outfielder Dave Philley in the home half of the sixth inning. The ball glanced off of Philley’s shoulder and bounced into his batting helmet, knocking it off. Philley charged the mound, as the benches and bullpens emptied. Both players swung at each other, as the rest of the teams held each other back.
Order was restored after about 20 minutes. Philley was tossed from the game. Grim was allowed to stay in, but perhaps was shaken; the White Sox tagged him for two runs — RBIs from Sherm Lollar and Luis Aparicio — in Chicago’s 2-0 win.
1957
In front of the 10th-biggest road crowd and thus 10th-biggest regular season crowd ever for a White Sox game, the Pale Hose split a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, in front of 63,787 fans.
The opener was a 9-2 drubbing, as Billy Pierce wore it for the White Sox (seven earned in five innings). But the South Siders got back to just a half-game behind the first-place Yankees with a nightcap triumph, 4-3. Dick Donovan went eight strong but faltered in the ninth, knocked out of the box by a Mickey Mantle three-run blast without recording an out; Paul LePalme came in and put out the fire, weathering the tying run on third and winning on second by striking out ex-Sox Darrell Johnson to earn the save.
1958
The White Sox purchased the contract of pitcher Turk Lown from the Reds. Lown and teammate Gerry Staley, also acquired via the purchase route in 1956, gave the White Sox one of the top bullpens in baseball during the late 1950s/early 1960s. They were especially effective during the 1959 AL pennant season. That year, Lown went 9-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 15 saves. Staley also had 15 saves that year, and the pair led the league in that category.
Lown’s best pitch was a blazing fastball that was among the best in baseball. The first time he faced both Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, Lown threw nothing but fastballs and struck them both out on three pitches.
1960
With a two-out, ninth-inning home run that would ultimately prove fruitless in a 5-3 loss at Baltimore, Roy Sievers began a 21-game hit streak that would end in a tie for sixth-longest in White Sox history when it ended on July 19.
The South Siders went 14-7 during Sievers’ tear, as he scorched AL pitching at .405/.516/.772 and struck out just six times in 97 plate appearances! The slugger would finish seventh in MVP voting in 1960.
His hitting streak remains tied for 10th all-time in franchise history.
1963
White Sox catcher J.C. Martin set an American League record and tied a major league one by being involved in three double plays in a 2-0 loss at Cleveland. Martin had two strike-out/throw-out double plays, and was also in the middle of a third base-to-catcher-to-first base twin killing. Martin’s record would later be tied by another Sox catcher, Ed Herrmann.
And in both cases, the Sox would lose the game!