Sox Century: June 29, 1917

The White Sox kicked off a two-city road trip against Cleveland, and two of their Hall of Famers helped them get off to a winning start.

Red Faber went the distance for the victory, although the Indians made him sweat in the ninth. With a 3-1 lead, two outs and a full count, Faber thought he struck out Bill Wambsganss, and the Chicago Tribune said both he and Ray Schalk protested when home plate umpire Brick Owens instead awarded a walk. Joe Evans singled and Lou Giusto took a pitch to the ribs to load the bases, bringing pinch-hitter Milo Allison to the plate. Although Pants Rowland had two relievers warming in a hurry, he didn’t need them. Faber struck out Allison to end the game.

He closed out a victory over fellow Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski, who was almost as tough during his complete game. He gave up three runs on seven hits, and while they were all earned, it sounds like all of them weren’t exactly deserved.

While we don’t have the batter-versus-pitcher matchup, both the Tribune and Chicago Examiner said Eddie Collins was his “jinx.” Sure enough, Collins went 2-for-4, scoring one run and driving in another, which ended up being all the runs Faber needed. The Tribune made the RBI sound magical, in the JFK investigation sense:

In the first inning, after one was out, [Buck] Weaver got a scratch hit and played hit and run with Collins. [Shortstop Ray] Chapman ran to cover second and Eddie sloughed the ball right through that vacant place. That wouldn’t have hurt so badly, but the ball wnet bouncing out to left center and [Jack] Graney raced over to head it off. [Tris] Speaker was backing up Graney. The ball took a funny hop clear over Graney’s noodle, then immediately took another funny hop over Speaker’s shoulder, and before it was run down E. Collins was on third and Weaver was home. If that wasn’t a jinx play, what is a jinx?

Collins then started the decisive rally in the fourth with a single, and exacerbated matters by stealing second on a pitchout (O’Neil dropped the ball). After a Joe Jackson walk and a Happy Felsch bunt, Chick Gandil hit a sac fly to score Collins, and Swede Risberg dropped a single to left to score Jackson.

That gave Faber a 3-0 lead, and he only needed half of the cushion, as Speaker singled and later scored in the sixth. So many Hall of Famers in this one.

Record: 43-22 | Box score