Today in White Sox History: March 8

1942

Future White Sox MVP Dick Allen is born in Wampum, Pa.

Allen set a franchise mark with 37 home runs in his 1972 MVP year, along with 113 RBIs. His 8.6 WAR in 1972 ranks second all-time among White Sox hitters (Eddie Collins, 9.4, 1915) and 14th all-time among all White Sox players.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Allen was credited by numerous sources as saving the White Sox in Chicago, his play driving attendance when a move to Milwaukee or other cities loomed as a consistent threat.

Allen died in 2020, still short of Hall of Fame election. In the most recent Veterans Committee vote in 2021, Allen was just one vote shy of immortality.

1948

WGN announces that it would televise Chicago White Sox games for the first time during the upcoming season.

Veteran radio broadcasters Jack Brickhouse and Harry Creighton would become the first White Sox TV announcers in history. The first game WGN aired was an exhibition game against the Cubs from Wrigley Field on April 16, 1948, in the freezing cold!. The White Sox won, 4-1.

WGN televised White Sox games from 1948-67, 1981, and 1990-2019.

2011

Former White Sox front office analyst Kim Ng moves from assistant GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers — the highest-ranking woman in baseball — to MLB senior vice president of baseball operations.

Ng got her start with the White Sox, hired for an internship in 1991 in what she thought would be public relations. Instead, assistant GM Dan Evans saw promise in her analytical thinking and background in the game (Ng was a University of Chicago softball player) and took her under his wing. When Evans lost out on the White Sox GM job that went to Ken Williams, Evans knew his future was outside of Chicago, and when he left for the Dodgers, took Ng with him.

Nine years after taking this executive position with MLB and after at least four failed attempts at landing a GM position, Ng was hired as the general manager of the Miami Marlins, a position she holds today.