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Today in White Sox History: July 23

Two legendary southpaws have cutting performances

Detroit Tigers v Chicago White Sox
Chris Sale, wearing a throwback jersey in 2016 that he apparently approved of.

1968

White Sox relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm appeared in both ends of a doubleheader vs. the Red Sox at Comiskey Park, and in doing so set the record for most appearances by a pitcher. The future Hall-of-Famer broke Cy Young’s record of 905 games. “Old Tilt” would appear in a staggering 1,070 games before he retired.

Chicago split the two games with the Red Sox. In Wilhelm’s six years with the White Sox, he won 41 games and saved 98 others, while producing some astonishingly low ERAs considering he threw a knuckleball. His highest ERA between 1963 and 1968 was 2.64 — every other season it was below 2.00!


2009

It had only happened 17 times before, and on this date, Mark Buehrle became the 18th pitcher to throw a perfect game, when he shut down Tampa, 5-0.

Buehrle was helped in the top of the ninth inning when Dewayne Wise made the catch of his career, leaping above the wall in left-center to snare a ball hit by Gabe Kapler. On the way down he started to lose the ball, then snatched it out of the air with his other hand as he tumbled to the ground.

Buehrle completed the perfect game in two hours and three minutes — the exact same amount of time as his no-hitter in 2007. He became only the fourth pitcher to ever throw a perfect game and a no-hitter, joining Cy Young, Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson.


2016

It was certainly a strange and bizarre situation for the Sox. Chris Sale, arguably the best pitcher in the American League and one of the best in baseball, went on a pregame rampage before his scheduled start against the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field. Sale was upset that he had to wear a throwback Sox pajama style jersey as part of a promotion for the game.

Sale reportedly said it was uncomfortable. With the heat index over one hundred degrees wearing a dark blue/black jersey probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, either. Sale decided to take matters into his own hands, as during batting practice, he destroyed all of the game jerseys the team was supposed to wear by cutting them up with scissors. He also said publicly the White Sox were more concerned with public relations and uniforms than winning games. He would be suspended for five games for the incident.