Today in White Sox History: May 22

1928

Center fielder Johnny Mostil tied former White Sox center fielder Happy Felsch with an AL-record 12 chances in a 4-3 win against Cleveland. Mostil took advantage of a cavernous Comiskey Park center field to grab 10 fly balls (including all three outs in the top of the third) in the game. Mostil also initiated an inning-ending double play in the top of the sixth, snagging a liner off the bat of Luke Sewell.

As if scampering deep to center and into left and right field for fly balls wasn’t enough of a testament to Mostil’s speed and quicks, he also scored the eventual winning run on a wild pitch by George Uhle — from second base!

Mostil had three hits on the day, scoring two runs.

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1938

Ted Lyons beat the Senators, 9-2, for his 200th career win. The future Hall-of-Famer would earn 60 more victories before his career was done. Despite this milestone in 1938, other counting stats failed the legend, as his 9-11 record and seemingly-high 3.70 ERA (nope, he had a 134 ERA+) for a putrid, 65-83-1 White Sox club saw Lyons get his $10,000 salary slashed by 10% in 1939!

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1977

Richie Zisk became only the second White Sox player in history to hit a home run into the center field bleachers at Comiskey Park, joining Dick Allen (1972). Zisk’s blast off Detroit’s Dave Rozema in the eighth inning didn’t help the Sox win, however — they got beat, 14-3, despite slapping out 12 hits in the game.

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1990

White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk struck a blow for traditionalists.

Fisk got into a verbal exchange with Yankees outfielder Deion Sanders after the two-sport star drew a dollar sign in the batter’s box before an at-bat at Yankee Stadium, and then failed to run out a pop-up. Fisk followed Sanders back to the Yankee dugout while shouting, “Run the ball out, you piece of shit.”

The next time Sanders came up to bat, he said something to Fisk. Carlton started to go after him when home plate umpire John Hirschbeck intervened.

Fisk was asked after the game what else he said to Sanders: “‘There is a right way and a wrong way to play this game,’” he said. “‘You’re playing it the wrong way. And the rest of us don’t like it. Someday, you’re going to get this game shoved right down your throat.’”

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2019

It was a night of firsts for the White Sox, in a 9-4 win over the Astros. Things started off in the third inning, when Houston had runners on first and second with nobody out. Jake Marisnick hit a shot down to third base. Yoán Moncada fielded it and stepped on third for the out, fired to second baseman Yolmer Sánchez for out No. 2, and Sánchez relayed the ball to first baseman José Abreu just in time to nip Marisnick for a triple play. (One day short of the fourth anniversary of the triple play, Marisnick was designated for assignment off of the White Sox roster.)

Then with the Sox up, 4-3, in the sixth inning, outfielder Charlie Tilson launched a grand slam into the right-field seats. It was Tilson’s first big-league home run, and became the first time in franchise history the Sox had both a grand slam and a triple play in the same game — and only the fourth time in 40 years that had happened in all of baseball!

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