2019 South Side Sox White Sox Hall of Fame nominations

In anticipation of the release next week of the 2019 South Side Sox White Sox Hall of Fame ballot, I’m soliciting nominations for some new categories, and welcome feedback on the existing ones.

You’ll recall last year we voted for an inaugural Hall of Fame class consisting of Frank Thomas, Minnie Miñoso, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Luke Appling. But in addition to the standard vote, we included several special categories:

• Greatest White Sox Season
• Contributor
• Best Gimmick
• Best Promotion
• Uniforms
• Manager
• Moments

Now, we’re going to run out of gimmicks and promotions, so I’ll combine that category this year. At some point, we’ll put an end to things like the best uniform or best manager category, because we’ll run out of viable candidates.

Because 2005 was such a runaway winner in the two areas (greatest season, moment), that magical season is going to get its own wing in our White Sox Hall. So this year, there will be a category for best 2005 moment, which we’ll run until, say, we have a new World Series title to relive.

So, new categories for 2019 are listed below (with some sample —not finalized — nominees, including a couple of Easter eggs):

Best 2005 Moment

• Four straight complete games in the ALCS
• Scott Podsednik’s walk-off World Series homer
• Orlando Hernandez’s bases-loaded jam in the ALDS
• Juan Uribe’s assist on the last out of the World Series
• Paul Konerko’s World Series grand slam
• A.J. Pierzynski stealing first base
• Geoff Blum’s extra-inning World Series homer
• Mark Buehrle starting and saving consecutive World Series games
• A.J. Pierzynski’s walk-off home run to beat the Dodgers, wearing 1959 throwbacks
• Sweeping Cleveland to storm into the playoffs — and keep the Indians out
• Going 11-1 in the postseason
• Finishing the season/playoffs going 16-1

Regular season games are absolutely OK for these nominations, so feel free to dig deep.

Best Defensive Play

• Tadahito Iguchi’s upside-down assist
• Mark Buerhle’s between-the-legs assist
• DeWayne Wise preserving Buerhle’s perfect game
• Juan Uribe’s daredevil plunge into the stands in the World Series
• Ken Griffey Jr. throwing out the lead run at home in the Blackout Game

It will obviously help to have video or at least a photo to illustrate the play for voting. I can’t think of any “legendary” pre-video play (from 1917, let’s say) that will garner much support, but if there is, nominate it! Also: Should we also have a Best Defensive Player category?

Most Meteoric/Electric Player

• Bo Jackson
• Albert Belle
• Dick Allen
• Ron Hansen
• Rich Gossage
• Esteban Loaiza
• Bobby Thigpen

As intended, this can be a player who had uncanny skills (that may not have translated well to winning baseball) and/or a flash-in-the-pan impact on the White Sox. This list is mostly the latter, as even Jackson’s legendary skills were eroded by injury by the time he came to Chicago. This test list is mostly some of the top WAR seasons by short-career White Sox.

Characters

• Harry Chappas
• Yolmer Sánchez
• Steve Lyons
• Conor Gillaspie
• Tom Paciorek
• Ozzie Guillen
• Bill Veeck
• Jack McDowell
• Scott Radinsky

Here’s another category-in-progress. The intent here is to enshrine a player who was colorful, perhaps a fan favorite, but ultimately more impactful with his antics than his play, given his tenure.

Top South Side Sox member

• The Cheat
• Jim Margalus
• larry
• e-gus
• homesickalien
• mechanical turk
• floridajim

I think it’s fun, and appropriate, to honor the founders of this site (although there’s at least one active member on my initial list). These are people whose participation made this site flourish. larry would probably be our best expert on this topic. Eventually, the list of nominees would morph into a group consisting of more active writers and commenters. (If you think it’s silly to honor people no longer active on the site, that’s fair feedback, and I’ll consider it.)

Anyway, I’m busy erecting the new 2005 wing of the South Side Sox Hall of Fame, so please chime in on any of the categories or nominations above, to help me craft this year’s ballot.

I tried to take careful notes a year ago on the feedback you had in terms of new categories or nominees, But if you think at category or nominee is horrible, fine. If you have an idea on how to change a category, good. An entirely new category? That’s cool, too.

Let me know in the comments, and somehow, I’ll get a long White Sox Hall of Fame ballot out later next week.

And for those of you who haven’t voted in the regular Hall of Fame election, c’mon, man. Get on it. We need your votes!