While I was researching for today’s Sporcle, I came across a game that caught my eye: July 18, 1969. On the mound for the White Sox was one Tommy John, going against the Kansas City Royals. A rather unremarkable matchup between two 39-54 teams played in front of just 6,257 fans, the Sox starting pitcher went the distance in a 6-1 victory. What I found fun about this game, though, is that John was a groundball machine. None of the White Sox outfielders made a putout: 9 strikeouts, 1 foul popup to second base, and 15 groundouts accounted for all of the outs.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way using the Play Index to search for other games where the outfielders weren’t involved on defense, so the pitching event noted above would have gone unnoticed (except by multiple contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the time). What to do, what to do? What I ultimately settled upon was pitcher wins. Had you asked me if Tommy John recorded 100 wins with the White Sox, I probably would have answered yes, and I’d have been wrong. Despite pitching for the White Sox in an era where going the distance was common, and the run environment was lower (heck, he had a 1.98 ERA in 1968 --Year of the Pitcher-- and led the league in shutouts in both ‘66 and ‘67) he only accumulated 82 of his 288 career wins while with the team. To get to 100, he needed to average just 14 per season, but it wasn’t to be. 14 was the highest total he ever got to while with the White Sox, and so he sits at 82.
So, today’s Sporcle. There aren’t a lot of White Sox pitchers with 100+ wins while playing for the franchise (just 12), so to make today’s list, a pitcher needs to have at least 50 wins. That gives us a list of 48 pitchers: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, you get the pitcher’s years with the team, and the number of wins they recorded.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- Just 11 pitchers on this list also have recorded 1000+ strikeouts while on the Sox, though 3 of these do not have 100 or more wins.
- The highest ERA from the pitchers on this list is 5.04, while the lowest is 1.81. A bonus star for you if you can name one or both.
All data from stathead.com
