The South Siders deal a reliever on the wane for an also-ran ready to blossom
1941
In what turned out to be quite a heist, the White Sox sent pitcher Clint Brown to Cleveland for pitcher Johnny Humphries.
Humphries had been a mediocre reliever for three seasons in Cleveland, amassing nine saves but a 6.37 ERA to boot; the White Sox transitioned him to the rotation, and after a stunning 1941 (get this stat line: 1.84 ERA, 14 games, six starts, seven finishes, FOUR SHUTOUTS, a save … and 2.5 WAR! No White Sox player in history has earned more WAR in so few games) he had a truly miraculous 1942, with a 2.68 ERA in 28 starts, 17 COMPLETE GAMES and 3.9 WAR. Alas, he burned out after that, but still left Chicago in 1945 with 7.3 career WAR.
Brown had been a superb reliever for the White Sox, leading all of baseball in games finished in four of five seasons from 1936-40, appearances (61) in 1939, and saves (18) in 1937. However, after a decent 1941 he was cooked by the next summer, getting his permanent walking papers out of the majors on June 16.
1959
Dorothy Rigney, grandaughter of White Sox founder Charles Comiskey and the majority owner of the club, reached an agreement to sell the team to Bill Veeck. After the sale, Dorothy’s brother Chuck Comiskey becomes the largest single stockholder in the club, but at just 46%, not enough to control it. Veeck’s takeover for 1959 makes it the first time in club history a member of the Comiskey familty is not in charge.
1994
Michael Jordan signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, officially reporting to spring training later in the month and eventually starting his professional baseball career at Double-A Birmingham.
2005
After one of the more acrimonious disputes in team history, free agent and four-time All-Star Magglio Ordoñez signed with the Detroit Tigers for five years and $75 million.
Ordoñez engaged Sox management in a war of words over how he was treated, the contract offered to him, and his health status. Magglio’s agent, Scott Boras, refused to turn over medical information, which infuriated GM Ken Williams and basically sealed Ordoñez’s fate. Additionally, manager Ozzie Guillén publicly called out Ordoñez in no uncertain terms over the contract situation.
Considering the severity of Ordoñez’s knee injury — which required a secret trip to Austria for experimental surgery — it was hard to blame the Sox for their stance.
Ordoñez, who was almost traded to the Red Sox at the 2003 Winter Meetings for Nomar Garciaparra, played with the team for six full seasons and parts of two others, with 187 home runs and 702 RBIs. In his full seasons, Ordoñez never hit worse than .282, and in five of those years he hit better than .300.