The A’s parade around the bases in the first inning
White Sox pitcher Jim Scott fired a 5-0 shutout over the Philadelphia A’s ... and he did it in only 68 minutes! It’s the fastest game ever played in team annals. He allowed three hits and struck out six. Scott won 24 games that year.
What a way to start a doubleheader: The Athletics put up 12 runs in the first inning, an American League record. Monty Stratton (six ER, four hits, two walks) was knocked from the box having retired just one batter, leaving Johnny Rigney to mop up (and absorb 10 earned runs of his own in completing the game. Philadelphia won, 16-0. The rout was a definite upset, as the 67-52 White Sox came into action 27 games ahead of Philly in the standings.
However, proving the adage that it’s just one game, the White Sox came out for the nightcap and won, 5-3, with a 12-hit attack.
In a doubleheader at Comiskey Park, White Sox shortstop Ron Hansen set a major-league record when he handled 29 chances. Boston provided the opposition. Chicago won both games, 3-2, with the opener going 14 innings. Bob Locker finished both games — earning the win in the opener, and his first save of the season in the nightcap.
Hansen had 19 chances in the opener — also a major-league record for an extra-inning game — and 10 in the nightcap.
Outfielder Ken Henderson became the first White Sox player to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in the same game. Ross Grimsley and Wayne Garland were his victims at Baltimore, where the Sox won, 4-2. Both of the home runs were solo shots, in the first and eighth innings.
On Cleveland’s second at-bat in a 9-2 win over the White Sox, Duane Kuiper hit his first career home run.
It would also be his last, as the light-hitting infielder ranks as just one of two hitters in MLB history — joining Davy Force, who did not play after 1895 — to appear in at least 1,000 games with as few as one career homer. White Sox starter Steve Stone — who has pointed out on White Sox broadcasts that he came inches from giving up Kuiper’s second career home run, as well — was the victim.
At 43 years, eight months and three days old, White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk became the oldest player in the 20th Century to hit two home runs in one game. Fisk’s blasts helped fuel Jack McDowell’s complete game win over Cleveland, 7-2. Fisk will break his own record by clubbing two homers at the end of the season, on October 3, against Minnesota.
“The Big Hurt,” Frank Thomas, had his No. 35 retired in a ceremony at U.S. Cellular Field.
Thomas played 16 years with the White Sox and remains the franchise leader in most hitting categories. The five-time All-Star and Hall-of-Famer won a batting title with the Sox along with four Silver Slugger awards, and is the only player in history to hit at least .300 with at least 20 home runs, 100 RBIs, 100 walks and 100 runs in his first seven seasons. He’d have a statue of him unveiled at the stadium in 2011.
