White Sox games worth reliving (besides 2005 and Mark Buehrle’s perfecto)

(U.S. Navy photo by Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Dwayne Snader)

There are a lot of problems stemming from the White Sox’s postseason drought, but I’ve long been wary of draining all the fondness from the 2005 season by over-reliving it, especially as subsequent seasons failed to be worth revisiting.

Unfortunately, nostalgia is one of the few tools in our arsenal as we combat the pandemic stoppage. Fortunately, the 2005 White Sox haven’t yet turned into the 1985 Bears, the team that loomed large an uncomfortably long time. They’re also not the Michael Jordan Bulls, whose successes still allow the franchise to paper over deficiencies because of their global reach. The 2005 White Sox were just a good team that had a great run, and people seem content to appreciate it in a time-capsule sense. I don’t think we’re going to hear Aaron Rowand on a regular Score time slot talking about how Luis Robert wouldn’t have been able to cut it a couple decades ago.

That theory will be put to the test, as NBC Sports Chicago is spending the stoppage doing a 2005 rewatch. It’s not a bad use of time, even if some screws and bolts on that season have been stripped from overuse. I’d tune in to see Aaron Rowand’s Yankee Stadium series, the whole Joe! Crede! Game, and a few others. I can’t say I have a whole lot of natural interest in seeing the postseason unfold, because I’ve already watched it plenty of times.

I’m not nostalgia-averse. It just needs to be handled with care, and with the number of dysfunctional teams outnumbering the ones that kept it together over the last 15 years, the Sox have resorted to running back to 2005 a little too often for my comfort.

* * * * * * * * *

In the P.O. Sox segment from Monday’s show, asinwreck asked us which games we’d want the White Sox to reair for us. I found it difficult to summon choices from the last decade. It’s not for a lack of games that were fun as hell — I’ve written up the list of top games here and SSS over the last eight seasons — but mostly because they’re damned difficult to remove from the context without leaving remnants of friable asbestos.

Let’s go back to 2012, the last time the White Sox posted a winning season. There’s Philip Humber’s perfect game (his career collapsed afterward). There’s Jordan Danks’ REDDICKDUDNMOOOOO homer (he’s now selling real estate). There’s Alex Rios’ game-saving takeout slide in Detroit (which could’ve defined his Sox career, but didn’t), and Adam Dunn’s two-homer game that kept the Sox in first place (he’d’ve needed more than that).

In the wake of the that team’s fizzling finish, I wrote that the professionalism and competence was underrated as it happened, even after accounting for the disappointment. Considering the seven losing seasons that followed, I feel the take holds up pretty well. It’s the only season of the decade where the White Sox were both decently talented and all pulling in the same direction.

There were plenty of memorable and enjoyable games since, but it’s not all that satisfying to watch a Chris Sale two-hitter knowing that the Sox couldn’t build a winner around him, and he played a part in it. It’s not until last season where you can watch baggage-free games, and while the White Sox are restreaming Lucas Giolito’s triumphs, you could do that at any time with an MLB.tv account.

I ended up suggesting May 25, 2008, when John Lackey lost a game to the White Sox simply because he couldn’t get Carlos Quentin, who went 3-for-3 with an HBP and two homers, including the walk-off. That checks off all the boxes of a game I’d sit down to rewatch:

  • Reasons to watch throughout nine innings, including a dominant Jose Contreras.
  • A Sunday Night Baseball broadcast with 36,000 fans in the stands.
  • A White Sox team that succeeded enough to stand on its own merits.

But concerning games that I’m already familiar with, there aren’t too many I feel a need to relive.

I’m more interested in games I couldn’t see from start to finish. Josh suggested one such game, which was the White Sox’s division-clinching victory from 1983. I’ve seen how it ended, but I’d want to know how the first eight innings unfolded in real time.

But even then, I’d still go into the game knowing why I was watching it. The whole point of watching a game is not knowing how any given nine innings are going to unfold. Sometimes Dylan Covey beats Chris Sale, and that’s why you tune in even if you feel like there’s no reward in doing so.

The closest we can get to simulating that effect is watching a game time has forgotten, especially in seasons that don’t even matter. There have to be equivalents of the Carlos Quentin Game, or the Aug. 2, 2007 game whose line score may never be duplicated.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the White Sox take it a step further, picking the brains of Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams, Hawk Harrelson, and all the former players they have hanging around the organization, selecting random games that stand out in their mind well after their teams were eliminated from contention. You can look up why these games were picked if you want to know how you’re investing your time, or you can let it unfold and see if you can tell why it stands out to you.

Ron Kittle selects … Tom Paciorek selects… Harold Baines selects … Richard Dotson selects … Ozzie Guillen selects …

I’m guessing that’s not as naturally marketable as footage of the 2005 White Sox and Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, especially since NBC Sports Chicago already has the broadcast rights to most of those. Comfort food is an easy call when everybody’s stress-eating. When it comes to flashbacks, though, White Sox fans have been served a limited menu of fond memories for the last 15 years, so maybe it’s time to expand the offerings with what else is in the pantry, even if the recipe — like this food metaphor — is better on paper than in ratings.

* * * * * * * * *

In the comments under the podcast, asinwreck had his own suggestions to answer his question, with a number of games standing out in the way I want to see:

June 4, 1972 (both games of a double-header): The Sox sweep the Yankees in front of a packed house. Dick Allen wins the second game with a pinch-hit homer.

July 31, 1977 (game one): Maybe the most fun game of the 1977 season. With 50,000 in the stands (as with the 1972 game), Chet Lemon hits a couple homers to give the first-place Sox the victory over the Royals in the tenth inning. The park is rocking! Steve Stone started the game and could give his memories for a rebroadcast. (Do not air the second game of that day’s doubleheader, or any subsequent game versus the 1977 Royals.)

August 3, 1979: This is a road game in Toronto with both teams mired in the second division. It is also Tony La Russa’s debut as a major-league manager. (Trivia: The August 1 game was Don Kessinger’s last as manager, but it is more famous as Thurman Munson’s final game. I was at that one, and it was devoid of highlights.) Steve Trout wins it, and it gives a taste of what most games were like after the 77 Hit Men dispersed.

May 8, 1984: The Sox beat the Brewers 7-6 in 25 innings. The game took eight hours to play, and this time, the slow battery of Britt Burns and Carlton Fisk was only a minor factor. Fisk played the whole game at the tender age of 36.

August 4, 1985: The Sox beat the Yankees in the Bronx behind Tom Seaver’s complete game. It is Seaver’s 300th victory.

July 1, 1990: The Sox are no-hit by Andy Hawkins and win 4-0. The single most hilarious game of my lifetime.

August 2, 1990: But my favorite game of the 1990 season was this 4-3 win over the Brewers involving the debuts of a couple of Larry Himes draft picks named Frank Thomas and Alex Fernandez. I remember watching this one from a bar in Washington DC and having so much hope for the future,

August 11, 1991: The Sox call up a young pitcher picked up a couple years earlier in the Baines trade. In his first game with the club, Wilson Alvarez no-hits the Orioles.

June 18, 2000: The White Sox beat the living tar out of Orlando Hernandez and the Yankees on national TV. As you can tell by this list, I have a lot of time for watching the Sox beat the Yankees, and wathcing this 17-4 rout was when I thought that 2000 was going to be a special season. (It was if we forget about the post-season.)

April 21, 2012: Sure, Mark Buehrle’s perfect game gets all the attention, but on this day Philip Humber becomes the third pitcher in Sox history to achieve perfection. Watch the greatest day in the career of a guy who already had dealt with disappointment and injury, and who would immediately regress to unplayable afterwards.”

So that’s his selection. I particularly like the idea of the 2000 game, because that Shermanesque march through Cleveland and New York is one of those things that make the regular season matter.

I feel like this is a list worth building, especially if the YouTubers with home archives are so inspired. What are the games you would want to see? And, if you want to summon your inner hipster, what games do you remember well after everybody else has forgotten them?

(Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Dwayne Snader)

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Ted Mulvey

The first game which springs immediately to mind is June 19, 2004. I remember watching this game on television and being endlessly amused the whole time, even though the Sox lost. Down 10 runs in the second, and clawing back to get within 1 run by the 8th at 15-14 was a ton of fun.

I’d also add the back-to-back walkoffs against the Cubs in 2003, which Antonio Alfonseca played prominent roles in blowing for the Cubs both games. I was in attendance for each of those, but would like to hear the Hawk broadcasts.

Ted Mulvey

I thought about mentioning that! I didn’t know that The Onion wrote up a story about it, though, good stuff.

roke1960

Poor Bob Wickman. That’s a tough stat to be last in.

asinwreck

Mordecai Brown did alright.

Ted Mulvey

Thinking about the White Sox-Cubs games a bit more, and I recall that the guy behind me kept calling Alfonseca, “Alfonsucka”. Not the best attempted heckling I’ve ever heard, to be sure. No, the best heckling I heard was from a guy at a miserable early-April game in 2011 against the Angels who kept shouting “Rusty Trombono” at Mark Trumbo when he was in the on-deck circle. He kept at it long enough that Trumbo actually acknowledged it with a wry, “Really?!” look. He hit a dinger later in the game and the Angels went on to sweep the series.

yinkadoubledare

This will get aired anyway because it’s part of the 2005 season, but August 21 of that season was a fun one to be at. Contreras scattered 11 hits over 8, and Big Unit went the full 8 and was himself except for one inning… where with one out the Sox went HR-HR-HR-1B-1B-HR (with the immortal Chris Widger hitting the big 3 run shot).

vanillablue

I’ll suggest June 19, 2000. The Sox returned home on a 7-game winning streak after having emphatically swept the defending champion Yankees on the road. I was at the game and remember the huge ovation the Sox got when they took the field. They went on to whomp the Indians 6-1 behind great pitching from Kip Wells and a homer by the Milkman, Herbert Perry, putting their record at 45-24.

roke1960

That 7-game streak may have been the best week in White Sox history. They went to Cleveland, who was right behind them in the Central, then to Yankee Stadium to play the 1st place Yankees and went 7-0. After that week, it was certain that the Sox would win the division. But what a collapse in the playoffs.

Jason.Wade17

Obviously the 163 black out game is on the list, which everyone and their mother was at that game in person.

However, I will always remember games 1 and 2 of the 2011 season. My college roommate was from Cleveland, so we stayed at his house and enjoyed those games live. (Game 2 was freezing, so felt like only 500 people at that game).

Those were Adam Dunn’s first Sox appearance and he crushed the ball that series. Optimism was high. High scoring games. Buehrle and Edwin Jackson starting with Sale coming out of the pen in both games.

Still upset those early 2010 White Sox couldn’t have done more. The rotation was pretty good and bullpen was solid. Just couldn’t develop a bat or make the right moves in free agency to help out Konerko, Ramirez, Pierzynski.

Eloytes

The game I always remember as the Alex Rios takeout slide game in 2012. The game was postponed from a miserably rainy Thursday night that saw the Bears take a miserable loss from the Packers. I took off work to go to the Monday makeup and wow was it worth it. Closest I’ve felt to a playoff atmosphere since…the playoffs.

Side note about Humber’s perfecto. I was up in Lincoln Square at the Huettenbar and the game was on and thing started getting interesting. There was one guy at the bar vehemently rooting against Humber and against the Sox. Cheering for the Mariners to get a hit. Turned out it was that jagbag Dane Placko from Fox 32.

ecivokrak

I would love to see any game that the 5’7″ OBP machine, “The Deacon” Warren Newsom played in. I’m thinking of the August 11, 1991 Wilson Alvarez no-hitter against the Orioles. We’d see a rookie throw a no-hitter while walking several, the young core of Thomas, Ventura, Cora, L. Johnson in the early stages of solidifying, and Warren Newson.

The 1977 double header that asinwreck mentions lived on in family lore for a long time, so I’d love to see some images from the first game of the double header.

Eloytes
Eloytes

Reply fail. Sorry.

roke1960

I, too, would love to see that first game of the KC doubleheader in ’77. 50,000 fans, Nancy Faust playing Na Na Hey Hey after the home runs, and a walk-off win against the hated Royals. It doesn’t get better than that.

asinwreck

Absolutely here for Warren Newson highlights, especially if the game also has some offensive fireworks from Craig Grebeck as well. Looping Tim Raines in, and those early 90s teams had some potent hitters with small strike zones.

ecivokrak

I’m sure that I watched this game as a 13 year old, but I have no memory of it. On the pitching side, the box score reveals that McDowell gave up no hits and just one walk after a lead-off home run to Paul Molitor!

And speaking of Grebeck, I’d love to see that game where he and Guillen went back-to-back. Off Nolan Ryan. (Apparently, this embarrassment is what led Ryan to headlock and noogie Ventura with such determination and vigor.)

Right Size Wrong Shape

I was going to suggest this game, but didn’t feel like looking it up! I remember vividly listening to this one too, but had no memory of the Newson contribution.

roke1960

There was a Saturday night game in late August 1977 that I remember only because I left a wedding reception early to go home to see the end of the game (the South Side Hit Men were so much fun to watch that year). I knew that Chet Lemon hit a homer in the 8th to give the Sox the win, so I looked up the details. The Sox beat the Brewers 7-6 on Saturday, Aug 27. Lemon hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th to give the Sox the win. The attendance was 38,000+. The place was just rockin’. That ’77 team was great to watch. They couldn’t play defense, they couldn’t pitch, but they could really hit.

My favorite is July 31, 1991. Robin Ventura completed a torrid month with a perfect finish. I was 11 years old, and was actually listening to the game on the roof of my grandpa’s barn while replacing shingles.

asinwreck

Lovely discussion, and I have another candidate: April 18, 1982. This season got delayed by snow, but when it finally started, the Sox reeled off eight wins in a row. This is the eighth, a win over the Orioles. Rookie Salome Barojas earned his fifth save of the season as 34,000 cheered an April Comiskey game.

roke1960

I was at the double header the day before! The actual home opener was Friday night, but was rained out. They won the DH on Saturday to go 7-0, then won the Sunday game you mentioned to make it 8-0.

asinwreck

Let’s get all three games on TV!

Anohito

I would say let’s have games that practically defined the stars that we’re so excited to see now or in the eventual future (hopefully sooner than later). Stuff like Jose Abreu’s walkoff slam vs TB, his RotY sealing franchise record breaking 36th home run game vs Royals, the Yoan moncada game (tie it up and walk it off), the Eloy double homer vs Yankees game, eloy’s homer vs the cubs game reylo’s CG or 16 Ks, McCann slam while Jason jokes with Bill Walton, Timmy’s walkoff, etc. Maybe even some Charlotte games showing off the best of Madrigal, Kopech, Cease, and of course Robert. Keep the hype and excitement up by reminding us of our current players and what they did while we await to see what they will do.

baltben

Jim, I might be partial to this one since you and I got to see it live, but I’d submit June 18, 2010. Gavin Floyd out-duels a rookie Stephen Strasburg in DC, Obama shows up to watch, and we win in the 11th. It’s not the most exciting game in the world in terms of runs scored, but the atmosphere was awesome and the Nationals fans around us were incredulous at Floyd that night.

MarketMaker

Me and a buddy flew to DC for that game. Definitely a memorable one to see live. I wrote about it at SouthSideSox.

Joliet Orange Sox

I was at the bat day double-header as a much younger person and after the Dick Allen home run was probably the happiest I ever saw my father (who was not a demonstrative man).

My suggestion is May 13, 1981: This was a cold rainy very long game against the Indians where Francisco Barrios started, Ed Farmer pitched 3.1 innings and Dennis Lamp pitched from the 11th through the 16th and it ended after Jorge Orta (as an Indian) hit a home run off Lamp in the top of the 16th. Joe Charboneau had a bunch of hits for the Indians. It was one of those games where the 300 people still there at the end all were right behind the Sox dugout. I think it is a game that captures an odd era in Sox history. Reinsdorf had just bought the team and signed Fisk and Luzinski. Larussa was still not proven in eyes of many fans and took a lot of abuse from fans.

Joliet Orange Sox

The 1972 game against the Twins when Dick Allen hit two inside-the-park home runs is a game I’ll always remember. People sometimes forget that being fast was part of Dick Allen’s supernatural talent.

roke1960

That’s a great video. I didn’t realize Bobby Darwin butchered both of those plays. Neither should have been close to an inside-the-park homer.

roke1960

I looked at the box score from that June 22, 2006 game. Some real gems from that:
-Sox went to 47-25 with that win.
-Thome’s homer was his 24th in the 72nd game, putting him on a pace for 54.
-Jenks picked up his 21st save, and Freddy got his 9th win.
-And in what is probably very, very rare in a major league game, Juan Uribe played all 9 innings yet had only 2 plate appearances. Sox had only 2 baserunners all game and didn’t bat in the bottom of the 9th. That couldn’t have happened more than a handful of times in major league history.

roke1960

Also, the Sox scored 33 runs in the first two games of that series!

Ted Mulvey

@roke1960 : assuming I ran the query correctly, it’s happened 31 times in MLB history: https://www.baseball-reference.com/tiny/sLEBK

roke1960

I’m surprised it’s that many. The home team would have to have one or two total baserunners and still win the game in 9 innings. That’s some really good investigation, Ted!

Ted Mulvey

I know, I was really surprised to see that high of a total, as well.

roke1960

Amazingly, it happened to Buehrle in 2007. He gave up 2 hits, both homers to the Blue Jays. One was by Aaron Hill and the other was a guy named Frank Thomas!

Ted Mulvey

That looks like a classic game between two fast-working pitchers, too. Halladay and Buehrle, 1:50 game time. Get ’em over, get ’em in, get ’em done.

roke1960

Yep. Neither starter walked a batter, no errors. You don’t see sub 2-hour games anymore.

MrStealYoBase

I’m about 95% sure I went to the May 25, 2008 game and have the scorecard to prove it somewhere in a box at my parents house. We sat 500-level on the first base side.

HouseOfTheRisingSox

Great comments by all. Mine would have to be July 1st, 2006. AJ hits 3-run homer with 2 outs in top of ninth to shock the cubs a few weeks after the Barrett sucker-punch. I especially loved it sitting with all my cub-fan friends in wrigley taking trash. Crowd littered the field so it was a nice extended celebration of Sox taking the lead while ground crew picked up field.

MarketMaker

I was at that one. It was crazy. Cubs fans were at a low point. Sox fans were walking around Wrigleyville like they owned the place. Cubs fans chirping about attendance and household income wasn’t having much of an impact since we were defending champs.

The place was rocking from the start. You could feel the tension in the air. It all boiled over when Pierzynski (of all people) hit that HR in the 9th. Sox fans were celebrating in the stands. Cubs fans utterly trashed the field. The game had to have been delayed 15 minutes to get it cleaned up. It was a scene. Shameful, honestly. Classless.

southsidehitman

Obviously the tiebreaker in 2008 is a good one, but I think the previous game against Detroit is worth watching too. It was supposed to be a 1:05pm start but the game didn’t kick off until 4:09pm. I went, and I was NOT going to leave this game, regardless of the length of the rain delay. It was tight, but you could tell after Alexei’s home run that the Tigers were packing it in and the party was starting (at least a little bit) for the White Sox fans. I think the other memorable moment was the people running out as soon as the last out was made and getting tickets for the tiebreaker. I planned on buying two, and I didn’t care where they were – I would have taken upper corner of the 500 level, for all I cared – but they ended up being 4th row in one of the right field sections and that was a great place to watch another memorable game.

welcome-to-the-machine

Hope everyone is well, my first time posting.

A couple random games from 2006 come to mind for me and one was actually a loss. First on June 20th vs the Cards where we scored 20 runs. I became a baseball and a sox fan in 2003 so that was very exciting for me to see that many runs scored. The other game was 5 days later when we lost to the Astros in extra innings but i remember Tadahito Iguchi hit a 3 run homer and a grand slam in the 8th and 9th innings to pull us even. Would love to see the highlights of both those games, especially the two Iguchi homers.

roke1960

The grand slam was off Brad Lidge. He must have nightmares of pitching in U.S. Cellular!

lil jimmy

I always get confused. Which door is for loading, and which door is for unloading?

welcome-to-the-machine

Haha I thought it would be clever to use my favorite pink Floyd song as my user name as it actually works in this case.

TCBullfrog

I was at the Iguchi game in the right field bleachers! And I swear he hit one later on that I thought was a game winner, but it must have gone foul or something. The box score disagrees with me, though.

soxfan1974

One of the most memorable games for me was August 10, 1990. The twin power hitters Craig Grebeck and Ozzie Guillen hit back to back homers off a little known pitcher named Nolan Ryan. One of the few White Sox games I hsd the pleasure to attend with my dad.

ThisReallySox

June 25, 2006 was one that popped in my head. It was an extra inning loss in 13. But Sox were down to the Astros 9-1 going into the bottom of the seventh Konerko hit a solo. Iguchi hit a 3 run homer in the 8th and a grand slam off Lidge to tie it in the 9th. Jon Miller on the call that night was great.

welcome-to-the-machine

That’s the game I choose too! I cannot find highlights of that game anywhere though, it’s so frustrating.

soxexile

I’d second the desire to see the 1983 clincher. I bought the last three tickets at the box office that morning, and remember the joy of the Sox’ first “championship” of any sort during my lifetime, but have few distinct memories of the game, other than the fact that my seat was behind a post. (I was pretty preoccupied with my date, as I recall.)

snoopy369

For me the two games I’ll always remember, and could watch on repeat, are the Blackout game (163), and opening day 2010:

(https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA201004050.shtml).

Watching that flip live from about 524, it seemed like it had no chance… and then all of a sudden the ump calls “Out”, and I look at my friends and just high five and groan in amazement at the display of fielding awareness.

Big Hurt Beer

I can’t remember what game or even what year it was offhand (I think the Sox were in Tampa?), but I’d love to see a replay of the game where Hawk just lambasted Mark Wegner. I remember him just getting madder and madder as the game went on until he went on that tirade.

ParisSox

September 10,1983. I was there. White Sox over Angels in 12 on a Baines walkoff. But that wasn’t even the most exciting part. The Sox came back from 5 down in the bottom of the 9th including a rain delay in the middle of the rally. There were 2 outs and 2 on when the delay started and I thought this couldn’t come at a worse time. When play resumed, Marc Hill pinch hits for Mike Squires. Marc Hill. He doubles in two to tie the game! Never saw my dad ever literally jump for joy in his life until that moment. Then a Baines walk off in the bottom of the 12th. Wow.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA198309100.shtml

asinwreck

Ed Farmer died last night. I had been thinking about him the past couple of weeks. He lived almost thirty years after his kidney transplant and the reason I am positing this sad news in this thread is I have a request.

I don’t know the rights situation, exactly, but if the White Sox or WGN or WMVP or somebody could stream or broadcast the Rooney-Farmer call of Game 4 of the 2005 World Series (including the lengthy postgame show), that would be a fitting tribute to the man. He sounded so happy that night.

TCBullfrog

Jim, on the podcast you mentioned the Tyler Flower game. Was that in St. Louis?

I hope so because if so, that means I was present for both the Iguchi Game AND the Flower Game.