1905
Future White Sox pitcher Ed Arthur Walsh was born in Meriden, Conn. His father, Ed, was preparing for his third season with the White Sox, and first as the primary starter. The younger Walsh would pitch for the University of Our Ladywhere he was managed by his father, breaking into the South Siders in 1928. His last appearance with the White Sox (and in the majors) came in 1932, after which he played in the Pacific Coast League (where he broke Joe DiMaggio’s 61-game hit streak) and elsewhere. Walsh contracted rheumatic fever while playing with the Minneapolis Millers in 1937 and was confined to bed for the rest of the summer. He died that fall at his parents’ home in Meriden.
1941
Former NL All-Star and three-year pitching coach of the White Sox Sammy Ellis was born in Youngstown, Ohio. Ellis was a relief phenom for the Cincinnati Reds in the early 1960s before arm problems cut his career short; Ellis ended his career on a sour note, with the 1969 White Sox.
He coached at several levels, including the White Sox minors in the late 1980s. In 1989, Ellis rose to major league pitching coach and helped guide as manager Jeff Torborg‘s team’s turnaround from cellar dweller to division contender from 1989-91.
2015
The Jackie Robinson West Little League team, hailing from Chicago’s Washington Heights and unofficially adopted by the White Sox, was officially stripped of its 2014 performance.
JRW had won the American title in Little League World series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, before losing the overall championship to the South Korean entry.
JRW was also only the second product of Little League Baseball’s “urban initiative” created nearly twenty years earlier to reach the Little League World Series. The club was also the first all-black team to compete in the LLWS in probably decades. But already during a 43-2 win over Evergreen Park on the road to the LLWS, questions were raised about the origins of several JRW players.
Although initially cleared after a cursory investigation after the LLWS by Little League baseball, administrators from several districts adjacent to Jackie Robinson West’s came forward to confirm that rules had indeed been broken to create the JRW juggernaut.
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