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Today in White Sox History: January 13

Buck is denied, and Bo is disconsolate

Bo Jackson
When Bo Jackson left the field on this day, 32 years ago, no one realized that two years later he’d stage a dramatic comeback wearing a different team’s silver-and-black uniform.

1922

Black Sox member Buck Weaver petitioned for reinstatement into baseball. The former White Sox third baseman was one of eight players banned for life due to his involvement in throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

Though Weaver was the most innocent of the Black Sox, he did attend at least two meetings in which the specifics of throwing the Series were discussed. It went uncontested that Weaver took no money from gamblers and played at his full potential for the entire Series.

However, Judge Landis did not yield, turning down Weaver’s application.


1991

It’s not often you’ll see an NFL item in our daily history, but this one has resonance.

In a playoff game for the Oakland Raiders vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, running back Bo Jackson suffered a season-ending, and career-threatening, leg injury. Initially said to be a pulled thigh muscle, Jackson’s setback is much more significant, necessitating surgery — and eventually, a hip replacement.

When Bo’s baseball club at the time (he was a two-sport player), the Kansas City Royals, learned of the severity of his injury, he was released. Two weeks later, the White Sox snatched him up, believing in Jackson’s determination to rehab his injury and stage a baseball comeback. The outfielder sat out the entire 1992 season before making his return to the field — with an artificial hip — on April 9, 1993.

His first at-bat resulted in a pinch-hit home run.