{"id":501265,"date":"2026-01-01T04:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/501265\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T04:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:45:23","slug":"today-in-chicago-white-sox-history-december-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/501265\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in Chicago White Sox History: December 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

1918
Just one season removed from a (still) franchise-best 100 wins and World Series<\/a> title, Charles Comiskey replaced manager Pants Rowland with Kid Gleason.<\/p>\n

Rowland was known as a gentlemanly manager, supportive of players \u2014 in stark contrast to the fiery Gleason, who was nearly Rowland\u2019s co-manager given all the advice he\u2019d shared in the 1917 season. Pants was genuinely crushed by the dismissal, especially given that the 1918 season ended early (due to World War I) and he was left to twist for nearly four months before word of his firing.<\/p>\n

Gleason, however, had already been hired and fired at least once by Comiskey. The rabblerousing coach first signed on with the White Sox<\/a> in 1912, but was fired in 1915 \u2014 then brought back for the 1917 title run. However, Gleason and Comiskey were at odds, and Gleason sat out the 1918 season, as the star-depleted (war service) White Sox fell to fifth place in defending their title.<\/p>\n

Gleason got off to a strong start as manager, winning the 1919 pennant before the Black Sox threw the 1919 World Series. Over his five seasons as skipper, Gleason scored a .519 winning percentage (12th-best in club history) and 392 wins (ninth).<\/p>\n

1925
Just three years after throwing the first perfect game in White Sox history, the club placed Charlie Robertson on waivers, where he was snatched by St. Louis. Robertson was stellar in the 1922 and 1923 seasons, with 27 wins and 7.6 WAR. He tailed off in part due to injury in 1924, and then had a very poor 1925 (-0.9 WAR, 5.26 ERA). While a 3.63 FIP in his final Chicago season might indicate how mediocre the middling White Sox\u2019s defense was, the ballclub had seen enough. He would throw three more inconsequential seasons in the majors and then two for the unaffiliated Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> before hanging his spikes up for good.<\/p>\n

1940
It was just a minor trade, but one that fell slightly in favor of the White Sox: The South Siders sent catcher Ken Silvestri to the Yankees<\/a> for second baseman Bill Knickerbocker. Silvestri played in 50 games in 1939-40 and thus didn\u2019t have much of a chance to disguish himself \u2014 although he did cut down 50% (6-of-12) steal attempts. World War II service would rob him of prime years, and he would end his eight-year MLB career having appeared in just 108 games. Knickerbocker played one season with the White Sox, and it was utility-solid: 0.7 WAR and seven homers over 89 games, as well as an 89 OPS+, the second-best of his career.<\/p>\n

2011
The White Sox closed the book on an exciting but ultimately disappointing one by dealing slugger Carlos Quentin to San Diego for pitchers Sim\u00f3n Castro and Pedro Hern\u00e1ndez. Quentin had a brilliant first season in Chicago, en route to the AL MVP in 2008 before breaking his wrist smacking his bat with a month left in the season. From there he disappointed, battling injuries with an antagonistic attitude.<\/p>\n

The 2011 season was a slight bounce-back for him (2.5 WAR, 25 HR, 77 RBI) but the White Sox opted to cut bait for two filler pitchers. Both Castro and Hern\u00e1ndez made their MLB debuts with the White Sox; Hern\u00e1ndez on disastrous start in 2012 (four innings, eight earned) and Castro four solid closing games for the White Sox in 2013. Hern\u00e1ndez was dealt in 2012 as part of the losing Eduardo Escobar-Francisco Liriano deal, while Castro left as a free agent after the 2013 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1918Just one season removed from a (still) franchise-best 100 wins and World Series title, Charles Comiskey replaced manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2379],"tags":[18625,8106,10782,10422,5,66611,15834,10910,35400,138,49,4726,31244,2561,33325,13875,66612,56115,4,41037,66613,66614,4727,396,38997,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-501265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-18625","9":"tag-8106","10":"tag-10782","11":"tag-10422","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-bill-knickerbocker","14":"tag-carlos-quentin","15":"tag-charles-comiskey","16":"tag-charlie-robertson","17":"tag-chicago","18":"tag-chicago-white-sox","19":"tag-chicago-white-sox-history","20":"tag-chicago-white-sox-roster","21":"tag-chicagowhitesox","22":"tag-eduardo-escobar","23":"tag-francisco-liriano","24":"tag-ken-silvestri","25":"tag-kid-gleason","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-pants-rowland","28":"tag-pedro-hernandez","29":"tag-simon-castro","30":"tag-today-in-white-sox-history","31":"tag-white-sox","32":"tag-white-sox-executives","33":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115818025837976953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}