{"id":594059,"date":"2026-02-26T13:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:40:42","slug":"today-in-chicago-white-sox-history-february-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594059\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in Chicago White Sox History: February 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

1903
Though under contract to the White Sox<\/a>, shortstop George Davis made it known he intended to go to court in order to break it and return to the New York Giants<\/a> (\u201cMay ask courts for release; Davis has novel idea for jumping contract with White Stockings despite peace\u201d read one headline, with the \u201cpeace\u201d referring to the battle for players between the new American and established National League.)<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 decision kicks off a tug-of-war over the superstar that lasted more than eight months. He would in fact report to New York, who paid him but flouted his White Sox contract in only four instances (games on June 26-27, June 30, and July 1 before a court injunction took him off of the field for the Giants).<\/p>\n

Only when New York formally waived any rights to Davis, in November, did the shortstop re-join the White Sox to resume his Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n

1917
In an ill-fated move that would stain two pennants and one title over the next three seasons, the White Sox purchased Chick Gandil from Cleveland for $3,500 (close to $100,000 in today\u2019s dollars). Gandil was the ringleader of two scandals involving baseball bribery: the Black Sox in 1919, as well as the lesser-known (and unpunished) payoff of the Detroit Tigers late in 1917 to help ensure the pennant.<\/p>\n

Ironic in the Gandil saga (he, of course, was banished form the game along with seven teammates for throwing the 1919 World Series) is that he was a terrible player by the time he came back to the White Sox for a second tour. (Gandil made his MLB debut with the White Sox in 1910.) After strong seasons from 1913-15 with Washington (13.5 WAR, 116 OPS+), his 1916 in Cleveland was poor for a full-time player (1.2 WAR in 602 PAs). With the White Sox, he was even worse, with just 3.6 WAR over 1,562 PAs \u2014 not much better than a replacement player.<\/p>\n

1946
The White Sox<\/a> create what is regarded as the first media guide, handed out to beat writers.<\/p>\n

Now, clearly there were programs and even media guides published before 1946, even by the White Sox themselves. However, those were often (always?) Spring Training and\/or player rosters-only. The guide, written by Marsh Samuel and running 17 pages, actually just triggers a deeper, more interesting story … that the White Sox were once forerunners of the metrics revolution!<\/p>\n

According to researcher Alan Kornspan at Cleveland State, beginning in 1946 and following in the footsteps of some other innovative figures (Branch Rickey, for one), Samuel began tracking advanced statistics, likely of his own creation but resembling some of what we see in the metrics world today. Cleveland owner Bill Veeck got wind of what Samuel was doing \u2014 and hired him away! At that point, Sox successor Ward Stevens took the reins and continued the work, which was still merely siloed in the PR department \u2014 not player evaluation.<\/p>\n

However, once Frank Lane was hired as GM \u2014 at this time, no one wanted the White Sox GM job, as the team was in hock and possessed a woeful roster \u2014 he added Earl Flora as both publicity director but also statistician.<\/p>\n

Lane\u2019s pet stat, tracked as a child rooting for the Cincinnati Reds<\/a>, was RBI with RISP. Under Lane\u2019s direction, Flora started tracking reach percentage (i.e. on-base percentage), base runs (both bases advanced by runners, as well as bases a batter\u2019s hit moved runners) and GWRBI. In fact, Lane felt so strongly that RBIs were an overblown stat that he created his own offshoot: OBR (Opportunities to Bat in Runs), the percentage of time batters drove in RISP.<\/p>\n

Without extending this too long, Flora returned to sports editing, to be replaced by future White Sox GM Ed Short, a tireless worker who drove statistical analysis on the South Side to new heights.<\/p>\n

But that is a story best continued on another Day in White Sox History.<\/p>\n

1997
After a one-season spurt with the White Sox, 34-year-old free agent outfielder Danny Tartabull signed with the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> for $2 million. Tartabull had been acquired before the 1996 season to add some punch to an already-formidable White Sox lineup, and punch he did: 27 homers, 101 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .487. However, Tartabull\u2019s defense was so poor in right field as to earn him just 0.6 WAR on the season, so with Albert Belle signed for left field and Dave Martinez coming off of a 4.8 WAR season as a supersub ready to step into right, Tartabull was not re-signed.<\/p>\n

And that turned out to be a solid move, because a broken foot limited Tartabull to just three games in 1997, and he never saw the majors after that. Thus the final home run of Tartabull\u2019s 262-dinger career came in a White Sox uniform, at the Metrodome, on Sept. 27, 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1903Though under contract to the White Sox, shortstop George Davis made it known he intended to go to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[23151,16541,23146,5,12224,138,49,4726,31244,2561,57397,5857,77560,21946,15031,53854,77339,4,4727,77561,396,38997,2562],"class_list":["post-594059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-23151","tag-16541","tag-albert-belle","tag-baseball","tag-bill-veeck","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicago-white-sox-history","tag-chicago-white-sox-roster","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-danny-tartabull","tag-dave-martinez","tag-earl-flora","tag-ed-short","tag-frank-lane","tag-george-davis","tag-marsh-samuel","tag-mlb","tag-today-in-white-sox-history","tag-ward-stevens","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-executives","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116137219426287082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594059","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=594059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}