Today in White Sox History: May 19

1908

Doc White threw his fifth career one-hitter, in a 2-0 win at Washington. It was the 11th one-hitter in White Sox history. The only hit of the game came from Senator Bob Ganley, who did not advance past first base.

Chicago itself had only five hits, including White’s RBI single to score Billy Sullivan in the top of the fifth that held up as the GWRBI. White faced just 28 batters, one more than the minimum, and recorded an 86 game score.

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1914

Eddie Cicotte threw his first career one-hitter, in a 3-0 win at Philadelphia. It was the 19th one-hitter in White Sox history. While Chicago scored just three runs, it pounded out 12 hits, including one from Cicotte; only center fielder Ping Bodie failed to achieve at least one safety on the day.

Cicotte’s one-hitter was a bit heartbreaking, as Stuffy McInnis singled for Philly’s only hit with one out in the eighth inning. Still, with just that one hit and five strikeouts, Cicotte racked up a 90 game score, which ties for 76th-best all-time in White Sox history and had been bested by only 16 games in franchise annals at the time.

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1959

White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson called Memorial Stadium in Baltimore the “chamber of horrors” because of the strange, weird and bizarre events that always seemed to take place when the White Sox were in town. This time, Orioles pitcher Billy O’Dell defeated Chicago with one of the weakest home runs ever.

In the second inning of a scoreless game and with Billy Gardner on first, O’Dell sent a ball down right-field line, where it hit the foul line — the only one in the major leagues made of wood — and bounded high over right fielder Al Smith’s head and rolled along the cinder warning track towards the right-field corner. By the time the ball was retrieved, Gardner had scored easily and O’Dell had himself possibly the most unusual inside-the-park home run ever.

The two-run “shot” beat the Go-Go Sox, 2-1. Three guesses who lost this hard-luck game? Yep, Billy Pierce.

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1963

White Sox starter Ray Herbert’s consecutive scoreless innings streak ended controversially in (where else?) Baltimore. Herbert, a 20-game winner in 1962, had thrown 38 straight scoreless innings when he faced Baltimore’s Johnny Orsino in the third inning. Orsino then hit what appeared to be a home run to left field ... or did he?

Both manager Al Lopez and outfielder Dave Nicholson argued that the ball Orsino hit passed between the top of the wall and an iron railing mounted on top of it with support posts that kept fans from falling over onto the field of play. By going through the gap instead of over the wall, the hit should have been ruled a ground-rule double. The White Sox lost the argument and Herbert lost his scoreless streak, but the Sox won the game, 4-3 in 10 innings, to earn a doubleheader split.

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1996

In a 14-3 clubbing of the Tigers in Detroit, Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura hit grand slams. The slams came in the third and ninth innings. Both had just those four RBIs in the game.

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2004

The 2004 season, which had started off well for the White Sox, took a dramatic turn.

On a short pop-up to right field in Cleveland, infielder Willie Harris slammed his shoulder into outfielder Magglio Ordoñez’s knee. Ordoñez went on the injured list, came back to play a few games, then missed the rest of the season. Eventually, he’d go to Europe for an experimental operation, leaving the Sox that winter to sign with Detroit.

The Sox won the game, 15-3, but losing Ordoñez proved a fatal blow.

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