{"id":526673,"date":"2026-01-18T18:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/526673\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:40:14","slug":"today-in-chicago-white-sox-history-january-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/526673\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in Chicago White Sox History: January 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

1952
Chuck Comiskey, namesake and grandson of White Sox<\/a> founder Charles Comiskey, resigned from the club after his mother, White Sox owner (and Charles\u2019 daughter-in-law) Grace Comiskey, denied his request for a raise.<\/p>\n

Thus began an almost decade-long family drama, played out mostly in public. Some bullet-point highlights:<\/p>\n

Chuck returned to the club relatively soon after resigning, eventually in 1956 becoming co-general manager of the White Sox with John RigneyRigney was married to Chuck\u2019s sister, Dorothy Comiskey, and if co-general managing a major league team doesn\u2019t sound difficult enough, imagine how hard it is when …… Chuck\u2019s mother Grace passed away in December 1956 and left controlling interest in the White Sox (which Chuck long considered his birthright) to his sister (54%), leaving him with 46%Beginning in 1957, Chuck took his sister to court, presumably to at least have his mother\u2019s shares evenly shared between he and Dorothy \u2014 court proceedings that played out in nasty fashion and led to Chuck being derided as the entitled \u201cCrown Prince\u201d of the White Sox.Despite all of the rancor, Dorothy still preferred to sell her shares to Chuck \u2014 but Chuck (believing Dorothy would never sell outside of the Comiskey family) gave Dorothy a lowball offer for her sharesEnter Bill Veeck (who Chuck had a friendly rivalry with, as Veeck\u2019s Cleveland club and the White Sox were fierce competitors in the 1950s), who submitted a bid for the team that Dorothy reluctantly consideredChuck\u2019s later offer for the White Sox, backed by a group including eventual A\u2019s owner Charlie Finley, was higher than Veeck\u2019s \u2014 but Veeck had spent $100 for a 60-day window to raise additional funds to match the offerWith Veeck taking over the team in early 1959, Chuck retained his 46% ownership in the club (still the biggest individual stockholder) but lost his GM jobWhen a downturn in Veeck\u2019s health forced him to sell the White Sox in 1961, Chuck sold his shares to an investment group including William Bartholomay and entertainer Danny Thomas, with an eye toward being reinstalled as the de facto owner of the White Sox upon the sale, but Veeck \u2014 not particularly fond of the Crown Prince or seduced by the Comiskey name \u2014 sold instead to Art Allyn, putting the Comiskeys out of White Sox business for the first time in 62 years<\/p>\n

2008
After seven seasons in Cuba and a brief audition (five games) after fleeing his native land for the Dominican Republic, Alexei Ram\u00edrez signed with the White Sox. In signing a four-year pact, Ram\u00edrez became the first young position player to jump from Cuba to Chicago (recall that Hall-of-Famer Minnie Mi\u00f1oso was signed by and started his career with Cleveland).<\/p>\n

Because shortstop Orlando Cabrera had already been acquired that winter, Ram\u00edrez was forced into the lineup by moving to center field to begin the season; over 11 games there, he made just one error. By mid-May, the White Sox shifted Ram\u00edrez to second base to finish out the season, where he made just 12 errors all year. By season\u2019s end, awards voters named Ram\u00edrez as the runner-up to Evan Longoria for AL Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

As if to make up for forcing Ram\u00edrez into playing five different defensive positions in his rookie season, he never again appeared on the field at a spot other than shortstop for his seven White Sox seasons hence. And that provided incredible stability at shortstop for the Sox, as despite Ram\u00edrez\u2019s tendency toward injury dramatics (hitting the dirt on a HBP or foul tip and rolling around, near-death) he averaged 153 games per season \u2014 and at shortstop from 2009-15, 156 per season!<\/p>\n

Known as a glove-first player, in the Derek Jeter era Ram\u00edrez laughably never took home a Gold Glove, but ironically won Silver Sluggers in 2010 and 2014. His 23.5 WAR with the White Sox places him 23rd among hitters all-time and fourth among shortstops.<\/p>\n

2011
For the second time over the offseason, Philip Humber was placed on waivers. Unlike the A\u2019s picking Humber up from Kansas City the previous December, the White Sox snagging him from Oakland was a massive win for the South Siders.<\/p>\n

Humber, a No. 3 overall choice in the 2004 draft by the Mets<\/a>, had failed to gain any traction in the majors since, with scattered MLB appearances from 2006-on.<\/p>\n

Under the tutelage of pitching coach Don Cooper and given actual opportunity (in part due to the Jake Peavy injury), Humber was brilliant in 2011: 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA and 3.58 FIP, 3.4 WAR in just 28 games (26 starts). That\u2019s near All-Star level performance.<\/p>\n

The 2012 season got off to a similar start, with a strong first start and the 21st perfect game in MLB history in his second. However, it was a different story from there, as Humber finished with a 6.44 ERA.<\/p>\n

Humber was placed on waivers again after the season, and went 0-8 for Houston in his final year in the majors, 2013.<\/p>\n

2017
Former White Sox outfielder Tim Raines finally was elected to the Hall of Fame, earning 86% of the vote to make it in on his 10th and final ballot. And while arguably Raines could have made the Hall on the strength only of his 13 years playing for the Montreal Expos to begin his career, it was five mostly brilliant ones in Chicago that brought the argument home for \u201cThe Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raines had 16.6 WAR over his White Sox career, pushing him from high-40s past 60 career WAR, which more or less makes a lock case for the Hall. And given his final two seasons in Chicago, playing in his mid-30s, were worse than average, those first three were extraordinary \u2014 including 6.3 WAR in 1992 at age 32 that ended up ranking as the fourth-best season of Raines\u2019 career.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bagwell and first-year candidate Ivan Rodriguez joined Raines as HOF winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1952Chuck Comiskey, namesake and grandson of White Sox founder Charles Comiskey, resigned from the club after his mother,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2379],"tags":[15844,10422,10784,15835,5132,5,12224,138,49,4726,31244,2561,17995,51995,40626,64565,17347,56551,4,45021,13652,4727,396,38997,2562,5133],"class_list":{"0":"post-526673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-15844","9":"tag-10422","10":"tag-10784","11":"tag-alexei-ramirez","12":"tag-art-allyn","13":"tag-baseball","14":"tag-bill-veeck","15":"tag-chicago","16":"tag-chicago-white-sox","17":"tag-chicago-white-sox-history","18":"tag-chicago-white-sox-roster","19":"tag-chicagowhitesox","20":"tag-chuck-comiskey","21":"tag-don-cooper","22":"tag-dorothy-comiskey","23":"tag-grace-comiskey","24":"tag-jake-peavy","25":"tag-john-rigney","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-philip-humber","28":"tag-tim-raines","29":"tag-today-in-white-sox-history","30":"tag-white-sox","31":"tag-white-sox-executives","32":"tag-whitesox","33":"tag-william-bartholomay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115917568460056168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526673","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=526673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}