{"id":531874,"date":"2026-01-22T01:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/531874\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T01:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:32:15","slug":"today-in-chicago-white-sox-history-january-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/531874\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in Chicago White Sox History: January 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

1910
The first 10-year White Sox<\/a> player, Frank Isbell, retired to manage the Wichita Jobbers of the Western Association, a position he long coveted. In fact, Isbell had been petitioning Charles Comiskey since late in the 1907 season to retire, after teammate Patsy Dougherty accidentally spiked Isbell in the hand and severely injured him. Comiskey, with no ready infielder to replace Isbell, convinced his long-time player to stick around for two more years. The injury was serious enough to push Isbell from second base to first, however.<\/p>\n

Over nine seasons and 1,074 games with the White Sox, Isbell put up 15.7 WAR and was the first player in franchise history to play more than 1,000 games on the South Side. Isbell was also the first great Crosstown trade steal (of sorts), as the Chicago Cubs<\/a> (n\u00e9e Orphans) swapped Isbell to the St. Paul Saints; one season later, the Saints moved to Chicago to become the White Sox, and Isbell flourished there beginning in 1901.<\/p>\n

1953
The White Sox acquired third baseman Fred Marsh from the St. Louis Browns in exchange for minor league first baseman Dixie Upright and $25,000. Upright would see the only MLB action of his career in 1953, pinch-hitting in nine games (that\u2019s right, in a bit of a Moonlight Graham situation, Upright never played a single moment in the field in the majors).<\/p>\n

Marsh served the White Sox fairly well in two years on the South Side. His 1953 season was poor (0.0 WAR in part-time play), but 1954 represented a terrific turnaround: His was his usual glove magician, but the subpar hitter busted out to hit .306\/.365\/.398 for a 1.2 WAR in just 62 games. The campaign ended up as, by far, the best of his seven-year MLB career. That December, Marsh was sent to Baltimore in a seven-player swap with the Orioles.<\/p>\n

At the time, this could easily have been reported as a horrible, giveaway deal by the White Sox. Upright was mashing hell out of the ball on the cusp of the majors, spending both 1951 and 1952 at Double-A Memphis, slugging better than .500 in both seasons with a batting average also north of .300. The slugger actually moved back to the White Sox org and Memphis in 1955, but would slip out of baseball three years later.<\/p>\n

1965
Another big deal was pulled off by White Sox<\/a> GM Ed Short to continue the franchise\u2019s streak of winning seasons. Chicago was part of a three-team trade with Cleveland and the Athletics. When all was said and done, the White Sox sent catcher Cam Carreon to Cleveland and outfielders Jim Landis and Mike Hershberger, and a player to be named later (pitcher Fred Talbot) to K.C.<\/p>\n

In return, Cleveland sent the White Sox power-hitting catcher Johnny \u201cHoney\u201d Romano, pitcher Tommy John and outfielder Tommie Agee. The White Sox flipped Rocky Colavito from the Athletics to Cleveland, where the fan base had been up in arms since the popular outfielder had been dealt away five years earlier.<\/p>\n

Agee was named Rookie of the Year in 1966, when he became the first Sox player ever with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season.<\/p>\n

John would join Chicago\u2019s brilliant starting rotation, making the All-Star team for the first time in 1968. He won 82 games in seven years on the South Side, three times posting an ERA of less than 3.00. And his trade to the Dodgers<\/a> at the Winter Meetings in 1971 netted Dick Allen.<\/p>\n

Romano wasn\u2019t a slouch, either; in his second stint with the club, he banged out 33 home runs in two seasons before being traded. Romano originally came up in the White Sox system, and played in 53 games for the 1959 pennant-winners.<\/p>\n

Colavito would eventually see some time on the South Side, acquired by the White Sox in 1967.<\/p>\n

Also on this day, turn of the century White Sox pitcher Nick Altrock passed away in Washington, D.C. at the age of 88. Altrock, broadly, was a poor pitcher before and after his time in Chicago, but was a 10.3 WAR hurler over his seven years on the South Side. Altrock\u2019s pinnacle season came in 1905, going 23-12 with a 1.88 ERA over 315 2\u20443 innings, and he went 20-13 with a 2.06 ERA for Chicago\u2019s first World Series<\/a> titlists in 1906.<\/p>\n

1984
Once again White Sox GM Roland Hemond used the free agent compensation rule to his advantage, plucking future Hall-of-Famer Tom Seaver from the Mets<\/a>. (The White Sox had earned a compensation pick after losing Dennis Lamp to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> in free agency.) The Mets were short-sighted and left their franchise player exposed, thinking no team would want a 39-year-old Seaver coming off of a 9-14, 3.55 ERA season.<\/p>\n

In his two full years in Chicago Seaver won 31 games, including his 300th overall on Aug. 4, 1985 against the Yankees<\/a>. Earlier in 1985 Seaver started his 14th Opening Day on the mound, a big-league record. In both 1985 and 1986 he\u2019d also throw more than 236 innings, averaging 132 strikeouts and having an ERA of less than four. In 1985, in fact, Seaver\u2019s ERA was 3.17.<\/p>\n

Tom had to be persuaded to join the White Sox. It took co-owners Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf going to his hotel room at the Winter Meetings after they selected him to talk with him face-to-face before he agreed. But before Seaver let the pair in, he asked to see their ID\u2019s \u2014 he had never met either owner before!<\/p>\n

1996
The White Sox signed mercurial superutilityman Tony Phillips to a two-year, $4.3 million deal. The 37-year-old, signed to play left field after the White Sox had traded Tim Raines to the Yankees in December, had a tempestuous time on the South Side. He put up 3.3 WAR in 1996 before faltering and being traded to the Angels during the 1997 season.<\/p>\n

2009
To commemorate the inauguration of an actual White Sox fan President, Barack Obama, the White Sox unfurled a banner outside of Gate 6 of Sox Park. The sign was visible to drivers on the Dan Ryan and Red Line users.<\/p>\n

Almost six months to the day later, on July 23, Obama made a call to Sox Park congratulating Mark Buehrle on his perfect game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1910The first 10-year White Sox player, Frank Isbell, retired to manage the Wichita Jobbers of the Western Association,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[12234,12232,12233,11417,14343,5,70472,10910,138,49,4726,31244,2561,39971,21946,10413,4734,70473,70474,6251,21947,50097,16209,27179,4,51996,36824,23828,23827,4727,8095,35865,5971,12225,396,38997,2562],"class_list":["post-531874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-12234","tag-12232","tag-12233","tag-11417","tag-14343","tag-baseball","tag-cam-carreon","tag-charles-comiskey","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicago-white-sox-history","tag-chicago-white-sox-roster","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-dennis-lamp","tag-ed-short","tag-eddie-einhorn","tag-frank-isbell","tag-fred-marsh","tag-fred-talbot","tag-jerry-reinsdorf","tag-jim-landis","tag-johnny-romano","tag-mark-buehrle","tag-mike-hershberger","tag-mlb","tag-nick-altrock","tag-patsy-dougherty","tag-rocky-colavito","tag-roland-hemond","tag-today-in-white-sox-history","tag-tom-seaver","tag-tommie-agee","tag-tommy-john","tag-tony-phillips","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-executives","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531874","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=531874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}