Today in White Sox History: January 13
Houston gets “punished” for the trash-can scandal; did the South Siders have a role in the sordid tale?
1922
Black Sox member Buck Weaver petitioned for reinstatement into baseball. The former White Sox third baseman was one of eight players banned for life due to his involvement in throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
Though Weaver was the most innocent of the Black Sox, he did attend at least two meetings in which the specifics of throwing the Series were discussed. It went uncontested that Weaver took no money from gamblers and played at his full potential for the entire Series.
However, Judge Landis did not yield, turning down Weaver’s application.
1927
To make room for the up-and-coming Tony Lazzeri, the Yankees sent second baseman Aaron Ward to Chicago for catcher Johnny Grabowski and second baseman Ray Moreheart.
While Ward played just one year for the White Sox — at 30, his final full year in the bigs — the South Siders got the better end of this deal. Ward put up a .270/.360/.391 as a regular, good for a 96 OPS+ and 2.1 WAR. Moreheart played in 73 games with a .681 OPS and 0.7 WAR, while Grabowski would have a -1.1 WAR in 167 games over the next three years in the Bronx.
On the other hand, Grabowski and Moreheart both got to play on one of the best teams in MLB history, the Murderer’s Row Yankees who went 110-44-1 and swept the Pirates in the 1927 World Series.
1991
It’s not often you’ll see an NFL item in our daily history, but this one has resonance.
In a playoff game for the Oakland Raiders vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, running back Bo Jackson suffered a season-ending, and career-threatening, leg injury. Initially said to be a pulled thigh muscle, Jackson’s setback is much more significant, necessitating surgery — and eventually, a hip replacement.
When Bo’s baseball club at the time (he was a two-sport player), the Kansas City Royals, learned of the severity of his injury, he was released. Two weeks later, the White Sox snatched him up, believing in Jackson’s determination to rehab his injury and stage a baseball comeback. The outfielder sat out the entire 1992 season before making his return to the field — with an artificial hip — on April 9, 1993.
His first at-bat resulted in a pinch-hit home run.
2020
Punishments were handed down to the Astros as a result of their trash can scandal, which allowed Houston to cheat its way to a World Series title in 2017. While NO players were punished, GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for a season (and subsequently fired by the Astros). Houston also had to pay a $5 million fine and lose its twp two picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.
Why is this a White Sox item? Because Chicago reliever Danny Farquhar, during a September 2017 game in Houston, heard the trash can and unearthed the scandal, calling catcher Kevan Smith out to change the signs and foil the plot. The story didn’t break because no one picked up on what happened; Farquhar admitted later that he was sitting at his locker postgame just waiting to tell his story ... but no one asked.