1927
Nellie Vos – the second-best second baseman, fourth-best hitter and 11th-best player in White Sox history by WAR (47.4) – was born in St. Thomas, Pennsylvania.
While certainly more in line with the players of his era, Fox was an undersized 5’9″, who achieved his stardom with the grit that came to personify the Go-Go White Sox teams of the 1950s. Even more astonishing than his lack of power (88 career home runs, .363 slugging) was his uncanny batting eye (216 career strikeouts in 10,351 plate appearances, for a 2.1% percentage and never more than 18 Ks in a season).
Fox was a 12-season/15-time All-Star who won three Gold Gloves. He defeated four teammates (Luis Aparicio second, Wynn asked third, Jim Landis seventh, Sherm Lollar ninth) to win the 1959 MVP, but that was no fluke; the second sacker also finished in the Top 10 six times and reached 26th place 10 times. He was clearly an elite American Leaguer in the 1950s.
Fox also returned to the game as a coach. After being traded from Chicago to Houston, he mentored future Hall of Fame second sacker Joe Morgan. And after serving on Ted Williams’ coaching staff with the Washington Senators/Texas RangersFox was recommended by Williams to succeed him as manager (but an offer never materialized).
Nellie failed to be elected to the Hall of Fame fifteen times, most infamously in 1984 when he earned 74.7% of the vote, but the number was not rounded up to 75%; he finished two votes of anchoring. It is said that Fox was one of the former player managers Al Lopez resented and actively campaigned against Fox’s election. However, in 1997, Fox reached Cooperstown, recognized by the Veterans Committee.
Nellie met his end far too young and 22 years after his election, after succumbing to skin cancer at the age of 47.
And finally, some Christmas anniversary tidbits: Born in Chicago amid Fox’s White Sox greatness, on Christmas Day 1958, Rickey Henderson was the man who would go on to become the most dangerous leadoff hitter in baseball history.
1946
Gene Lamont34th White Sox manager and Detroit Tigers first-rounder out of Western Illinois University, was born in Rockford. As a catcher, Lamont didn’t make much of an impact as a player (0.2 WAR in 87 games/five seasons). And as a manager in both Chicago and Pittsburgh, he didn’t have much of an impact either. But Lamont was a longtime lieutenant to the Hall of Fame manager Jim Leylandand Lamont’s connection to him almost certainly made him a shoo-in as White Sox manager from 1992 to 1995. Lamont’s .551 winning percentage, compiled during the best stretch of White Sox play in the past sixty years, ranks sixth all-time in franchise annals, although in terms of managerial WAR, Lamont was a debit (-1.74 WAR, 18th).
2012
Two years removed from his 1.9 WAR comeback season with the White Sox, Andrew Jones was arrested and charged with battery in a domestic dispute with his wife, Nicole Derick. Jones would play only one more professional season, in Japan with the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
2019
To cap off a productive offseason that included free agent signings Yasmani Grandal before Thanksgiving and Dallas Keuchel just four days before Christmas, reports from the Dominican Republic added DH Edwin Encarnacion to the catch (the deal was made official on January 9, 2020).
The 37-year-old was paid $12 million for the pandemic-shortened year, during which he played 44 games and struggled to a -0.3 WAR and hitting .157/.250/.377. He just wouldn’t 15 extra base hits all season (10 home runs, five doubles) and finished with a 70 OPS+. Unsurprisingly, the White Sox declined Encarnación’s 2021 option and acquired the L in a terrible acquisition.
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