White Sox pitchers' greatest hitting performances before universal DH

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The universal designated hitter is coming in 2020. Of course, the White Sox have had the DH since 1973, but when interleague play was introduced in 1997, there were still a handful of games where the pitchers hit. Now we won’t have even that.

And that’s fine. White Sox pitchers from 1997-present have hit a collective .104/.137/.144 with three home runs, 17 walks and 205 strikeouts in 516 plate appearances. That’s hard to watch. But there have been some fine moments by White Sox pitchers at the plate throughout history.

On April 29, 1901, Frank Shugart hit the first major league home run in White Sox history. He was a shortstop, but the second home run was by pitcher John Skopec the following day. So, believe it or not, there was a time where the White Sox had an equal number of home runs by position players and pitchers. One apiece — after the game on April 30, 1901.

In 1908, Big Ed Walsh had a season for the ages. He went 40-15 while tossing 464 innings, striking out 269 (a White Sox record until Chris Sale broke it) with 42 complete games and 11 shutouts. He even made 17 relief appearances; what more could you ask for?

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Well, on July 4, he hit a home run — one of only three home runs the Sox hit ALL SEASON! Walsh’s round tripper was the team’s first of the season — in Game 68. So, Ed Walsh won 40 games and hit 33.3 percent of the team’s home runs in 1908. That won’t happen again.

On Aug. 31, 1935, the White Sox beat the Indians 5-0. Three of those runs were on a bases-loaded triple by Vern Kennedy in the sixth inning. Of course, that wasn’t the big story. The big story of the game was that Kennedy tossed a no-hitter.

Tommy Byrne had notorious control issues, but he had talent, so the White Sox traded for the 33-year old lefty for 1953 trying to catch lightning in a bottle. The White Sox ended up trading Byrne to Washington in June, but not before he put up one of the stranger statlines in franchise history. Byrne made six starts but only pitched 16 innings. In four of his starts, he failed to make it out of the second inning. He walked 26 in 16 innings and struck out only four. His ERA was a nightmarish 10.13 but he was 2-0!

But that’s not it. He made twice as many appearances as a pinch hitter (12) than he did on the mound (6). And on May 16, 1953 at Yankee Stadium, he dug in to pinch hit in the ninth inning against Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell with the bases loaded and the White Sox trailing 3-1. You probably know where this is going. Yes, Byrne hit the most improbable pinch hit grand slam, one of only eleven in White Sox history, and the only one by a pitcher.

Jack Harshman holds the White Sox record with 16 strikeouts on July 25, 1954, which you may already know. What you may not know is that Harshman was the New York Giants Opening Day starter in 1950 — at first base. With 12 home runs for the White Sox, he’s one of only two pitchers in franchise history with at least 10. And on June 16, 1957, Harshman started against the Washington Senators and was knocked out of the box after allowing six runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Harshman didn't hit a home run but was relieved by Dixie Howell, who hit two of them. It’s the only multi-homer effort by a White Sox pitcher — and it was a reliever. Howell had one other home run in 1957, and it was a walkoff — the only White Sox walk-off homer by a pitcher (excluding pinch hit appearances) — on Sept. 6. The year before, Howell homered in consecutive relief appearances for the White Sox — June 27 vs. Boston and July 1 at Cleveland. Not bad.

Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Early Wynn finished 1-2-3 in AL MVP voting in 1959, as the Go-Go Sox went on to the World Series. Fox won the MVP, hitting two home runs and posting a .389 slugging percentage. Meanwhile,  Wynn was third in MVP voting, won the Cy Young Award, matched Fox’s two home runs and .389 slugging percentage.

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His masterpiece was on May 1, when he tossed a complete game, one-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts. But he also homered for the lone run in the 1-0 victory! And that June 14, he went 4-for-5 with three runs, two doubles and an RBI in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Baltimore. It remains the last four-hit game by a White Sox starting pitcher (Adam LaRoche had four hits in a game where he pitched the ninth inning. It doesn’t really count, but it’s fun to mention).

There have been four pinch hit home runs by White Sox pitchers — Byrne’s grand slam (mentioned earlier), Charlie Barnabe on May 1, 1928, and two by Gary Peters. Peters hit a remarkable 15 home runs for the White Sox, a record 13 as a pitcher and two as a pinch hitter. One of those two was a walk-off blast on July 19, 1964 in the first game of a doubleheader against the Kansas City A’s. Peters also hit one of two grand slams by a White Sox pitcher — three, if you count Byrne’s pinch hit blast. Peters hit his grand salami on Cinco de Mayo in 1968 off the Yankees’ Al Downing.

The other grand slam by a Sox moundsman was by Monty Stratton on June 10, 1938. Tragically, later that year Stratton suffered an accidental gunshot wound which required his leg to be amputated. Monty never made it back to the majors, but made it back to the minors in 1946 and pitched for several more years on a prosthetic. The 1949 movie "The Stratton Story" tells his inspirational tale.

The best single-season batting average in White Sox history (minimum 15 at-bats) is .526 by Terry Forster, a pitcher. Years before David Letterman referred to the big lefty as a “Fat Tub of Goo,” he went 10-for-19 for the White Sox in 1972 — 10 hits and 29 saves in the same season And then of course, the following season, the American League adopted the designated hitter.

What about those three home runs hit by White Sox pitchers in the DH era?

The first was by Jon Garland in Cincinnati on June 18, 2006 off Esteban Yan, who allowed two of the more unlikely home runs in White Sox history. It was Yan who allowed Paul Konerko’s epic inside-the-park homer at Tropicana Field on April 11, 2000.

Next was Mark Buehrle, who homered off Milwaukee’s Braden Looper on June 14, 2009. Of course, Buehrle later tossed a perfect game on July 23 that year. Buehrle in 2009 became the second pitcher in White Sox history to homer and toss a no-hitter in the same season, along with Frank “Piano Mover” Smith in 1905. Smith had two hits, three runs and a walk in his Sept. 6, 1905 no-no.

The most recent home run by a White Sox pitcher was Anthony Ranaudo on July 27, 2016. It was Ranaudo’s first game in a White Sox uniform; he is one of only two pitchers to homer in their White Sox debut, joining Jack Salveson on June 14, 1935. The 6-foot-7 righty is also one of only two AL pitchers ever to homer at Wrigley Field, joining the Tigers’ Daniel Norris on Aug. 19, 2015. Ranaudo was the first White Sox starting pitcher to homer before allowing a hit in a game since Peters on July 14, 1965.

But of course, Ranaudo’s blast was not the greatest moment by a White Sox pitcher in 2016. That of course would be on June 1 at Citi Field in Queens, when Matt Albers doubled to lead off the 13th inning, scored what would be the game-winning run and got the win over the Mets. The moment was immortalized with its own Topps Now card.

If you take 119 years of history, you’re bound to find a few rays of sunshine. Such is the case with White Sox pitchers at the plate. Fortunately, the designated hitter has allowed generations of White Sox fans to enjoy the fine hitting of Harold Baines, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome, just to name a few. So, if Major League Baseball wants to implement a universal DH, that’s fine by us.

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