Son of a legend, lost too soon, is born
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 a primary starter. The younger Walsh would pitch for the University of Notre Dame, where he was managed by his father, and broke in with the South Siders in 1928. His last appearance with the White Sox (and in the majors) came in 1932, thereafter playing in the Pacific Coast League (where he snapped Joe DiMaggio’s 61-game hit streak) and elsewhere. Walsh caught rheumatic fever while playing with the Minneapolis Millers in 1937 and was confined to his bed for the rest of the summer. He died in his childhood home in Meriden that fall.
2015
The Jackie Robinson West Little League team, out of Washington Heights in Chicago and unofficially adopted by the White Sox, was officially stripped of its 2014 accomplishments.
JRW had won the U.S. title at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., before losing the overall championship to the South Korea entry.
JRW was also just the second product of Little League Baseball’s “urban initiative” made almost two decades earlier to reach the Little League World Series. The club was also the first all-Black team to compete in the LLWS in what was believed to be several decades. But as early as a 43-2 win over Evergreen Park on its way to the LLWS, questions were being raised about the origin of several JRW players.
Although initially exonerated on a cursory investigation after the LLWS by Little League baseball, administrators from several districts bordering Jackie Robinson West’s came forward to confirm that, yes, rules were broken to created the JRW juggernaut.