Billy Pierce finally gives up a run
Yes, it’s a pre-major league White Sox item, featuring a non-White Sox player. But this one is too funny.
The White Sox lost a doubleheader to the Milwaukee Brewers, with Rube Waddell tossing two complete games, 2-1 and 1-0.
While that is a rare feat, pitching every inning of a doubleheader was not unheard of in the dead-ball era. However, Waddell’s complete game win in the opener ran 17 innings! And to persuade Waddell to take the mound for the second game of the doubleheader, Brewers manager Connie Mack had to promise the lefty a few days off for a fishing trip.
Waddell threw a one-hitter in the five-inning nightcap win.
When the Chicago Cubs bought the Single-A Southern Association’s Atlanta Crackers, they lost out on the best player on the team.
In an astoundingly-good, oft-overlooked, sort-of Crosstown trade, the White Sox sent $20,000 along with outfielder Doug Taitt to the Cubs in return for minor league shortstop Luke Appling. The deal was engineered by the front office’s Milt Stock, who was future Sox manager Eddie Stanky’s father-in-law.
Appling would go on to have a Hall of Fame career with the White Sox, with batting titles in 1936 and 1943. That 1936 season saw Appling drive in 128 runs. Over his 20-year career — all with the White Sox — Appling collected 2,749 hits, and by WAR he is the best hitter in team history.
White Sox star lefthander Billy Pierce’s run of 39 2⁄3 consecutive shutout innings ended at home against the Browns when former Sox outfielder and Pierce teammate Don Lenhardt hit an RBI double in the sixth inning of a game the Sox eventually lost, 4-3, in 10 innings.
Pierce’s streak started with a complete game shutout in Washington on August 3. He threw three complete game shutouts in the streak, along with two relief appearances covering almost eight innings, adding up to four wins and a save. Even including the four runs (two earned) surrendered in this Browns loss, during the streak Pierce gave up just 27 hits, and had 35 strikeouts to 10 walks, for a 0.40 ERA.
That year, Billy went 18-12 with a 2.72 ERA.
The White Sox set the franchise record for most runs ever scored in the ninth inning of a game, when they got 11 runs in Boston. Earlier in the year, the White Sox scored 22 runs at Fenway Park, and on this day the 11 runs on 10 hits turned a sure loss into a 13-5 win for pitcher Wilbur Wood, on in relief of Tommy John.
The 11 runs were scored without the benefit of a single home run, as 16 men batted in the inning. Wood helped himself during the barrage, pushing a single to right field off of Sparky Lyle and driving in two, extending the lead to 8-5 at the time. It was Wood’s second and final hit of 1970; his .111 season average was a career-high at the time.
Bill Melton and Luis Aparicio both had two hits in the inning. In Aparicio’s case, he had a two-RBI double to start the assault and provide the eventual winning runs, and a single to provide a third RBI and final run of the game for the White Sox. Aparicio’s double also was the only extra-base hit of the chain, to go along with nine singles.
