1950
In just the fourth transaction ever between the two crosstown teams, the White Sox acquired Herman Reich from the Cubs. Reich was coming off what looked like a very solid season on paper for the Ivy Bumblers, slashing .280/.305/.360 over 108 games. However, in an offensive season of 1949, those numbers were actually sub-par.
Reich put up similar numbers in 1950, spending the entire season at Triple-A Sacramento, then dropped out of there during another full season in 1951. From there, he bounced around the Pacific Coast League and eventually B-ball before hanging up his spikes for good in 1957, at age 39 — never again to the majors.
1964
Red Faberwho pitched all his twenty seasons with the White Sox, was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.
Amazingly, Faber, whose 67.7 pitching WAR ranked 11th at the time of his retirement (and 90 seasons later still ranks 38th all-time), has never received more than 30.9% BBWAA voting support across 16 (!) different votes – and 10 times he failed to get as much as 5% voting support.
Faber won 254 games in his career and completed 273, with a 3.15 ERA (119 ERA+) and 3.34 FIP. He pitched more than 4,000 innings and even saved 27 (including an AL-leading four in his rookie season, 1914).
He also went 3-1 in 1917 World seriespitching more than half (27 of 52) of the innings in the Series and finishing with the second-most Championship WPA (20.94) of any White Sox player – second, get this, Chick Gandil‘s 21.22. If not for the flu that sidelined him, but for one game after August 19, the South Siders might have won the 1919 World Series with or without the Black Sox fix.
1982
One of the concessions players made in settling the 1981 strike was creating a free agent compensation draft (the modern equivalent is a team giving up a high amateur draft pick when signing a free agent).
Of Ede Boer sign with the Philadelphia Phillies that offseason, the White Sox made the first such “Type A” draft pick in history, selecting Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Joel Skinner from the compensation pot after Farmer’s loss.
In 131 career games on the South Side over four seasons, Skinner was the definition of a reliever, with 0.0 WAR. He was traded to the New York Yankees during the 1986 season after a disastrous decision by GM Ken Harrelson move Carlton Vis Unpleasant left field to create more playing time for Skinner behind the plate.
Skinner returned to the White Sox and managed their minor league system from 2012 to 2016.
(As an aside, the White Sox did not originally select Skinner at all, but former farmhand Rudy May, by then a 14-year veteran, just one season removed from a career-best 4.9 WAR and 1980 AL-best 2.46 ERA. However, the commissioner’s office ruled that May had been unfairly exposed to the free agent draft and intended to be protected by his current club, the Yankees.)
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