Today in White Sox History: June 18

1961

Eddie Gaedel, who came to fame as a pinch-hitter for the St. Louis Browns in 1951 and a Martian leader who landed in Comiskey Park and kidnapped Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox eight years later, was found dead at his apartment on the South Side of Chicago.

The centerpiece of Bill Veeck’s follies had endured a difficult life, unemployed and alcoholic at the time of his passing. The 3´7´´owner of a 1.000 career MLB OBP was followed home from a bowling alley and beaten and/or mugged, and it was his mother who discovered him dead, in his bed, bruised. A coroner found that Gaedel had suffered a heart attack during or after the assault.

Only one representative of Major League Baseball attended Gaedel’s funeral: Bob Cain, the Tigers pitcher who walked Gaedel in 1951. (Cain had been traded to Detroit from the White Sox three months before the infamous Gaedel game.)

2006

Jon Garland became the first White Sox pitcher since 1971 to homer in a regular season game when he hit a two-run shot off of Esteban Yan in the eighth inning in Cincinnati. The Sox won easily, 8-1.

2019

It was a huge moment, and a big step forward for the rebuilding White Sox. In a 1-1 tie at Wrigley Field, former top Cubs prospect Eloy Jiménez blasted a two-run home run into the left-field bleachers, giving the Sox what turned out to be a 3-1 win. The shot came in the ninth inning, and he did it while breaking his bat! Jiménez was acquired by the Sox along with top pitching prospect Dylan Cease for pitcher José Quintana.