August 21 has produced a little bit of everything in White Sox history: ugly chaos, masterpiece pitching, marathon drama and a few big swings that changed games in a hurry.
The wildest entry dates all the way back to 1901, when the White Sox were still in their first major league season and somehow already deep in controversy. In an 8-0 loss at Washington, two Sox players were suspended after going after umpire Jack Haskell in the fourth inning.
The trouble started when Senators third baseman Bill Coughlin drew a walk to load the bases on a disputed ball-four call. White Sox shortstop Frank Shugart punched Haskell, and starter Jack Katoll hit Haskell in the leg with a beanball during the fight.
Haskell was the only umpire on the field, and after he ejected both players, Washington, D.C. police stepped in and arrested them.
Clark Griffith had to come in for emergency relief - White Sox starters finished 110 of 137 games in 1901, so the bullpen was still barely a thing - and immediately gave up a bases-clearing triple to Billy Clingman. Katoll was suspended 11 games and Shugart 23.
Katoll came back in September and pitched well, posting a 2.49 ERA in six games. Shugart returned in mid-September, hit only .171 the rest of the way, and was blacklisted from MLB after the season.
Another major White Sox name entered the picture in 1915, when the club landed Shoeless Joe Jackson from Cleveland for $31,500, along with pitcher Ed Klepfer, outfielder Braggo Roth and a player to be named later. It was the first trade the White Sox ever made with Cleveland, and it turned into one of the franchise’s defining deals.
Klepfer had only brief action with Chicago that year, but he pitched to a 2.84 ERA in three games, then got even better in Cleveland with a 2.09 ERA despite a 1-6 record in eight outings. Roth, just 22, had already shown promise for the Sox in left field and at third base with a .734 OPS and 117 OPS+ in his first full season, then took off after the move to Cleveland, where he posted a .906 OPS and shifted exclusively to center field.
Even though he hit only seven home runs, Roth led the AL in homers in 1915.
The real centerpiece, though, was Jackson. He had already built a Hall of Fame foundation in four full seasons with Cleveland, finishing no lower than ninth in MVP voting in any of them.
He would play only four full seasons for the White Sox as well, losing almost all of 1918 to World War I, but still piled up 27.8 WAR on the South Side while performing like a superstar. Then came the Black Sox scandal, and after the 1920 season Jackson was banned for life from MLB at age 33.
Even with that stain, he remains one of the game’s great hitters. Babe Ruth said he modeled his swing after Jackson’s, Ty Cobb called him the best hitter he ever saw, and Jackson finished his major league career at .356.
If 1901 was chaos, 1926 was control. Ted Lyons threw a no-hitter in a 6-0 win over Boston at Fenway Park, and the Red Sox managed just two baserunners all afternoon - one on a walk, the other on an error by shortstop Bill Hunnefield, who muffed a ground ball and then threw high to first.
Lyons needed only 81 pitches and 67 minutes to finish the job. He went on to win 260 games in a 21-year career, all with the White Sox, and the club retired his No. 16 in 1987.
August 21 also produced a classic slog in 1933, when the White Sox, sitting sixth in the AL and far out of the race, still fought the Yankees to a 3-3 tie over 18 innings. New York broke through first when Lou Gehrig singled home a run in the ninth, but Red Kress answered with a sacrifice fly to even it up.
The game stayed deadlocked until the 12th, when the Yankees scored twice. Chicago refused to fold, getting two runs back on a one-out Evar Swanson single, but New York escaped with an inning-ending double play and nobody scored again.
Herb Pennock worked 10 innings in relief for the Yankees, while Red Faber threw seven innings out of the bullpen for the Sox after Milt Gaston handled the first 11 and faced 43 batters.
That tie still sits in a tie for the 10th-longest game in White Sox history, and it wasn’t even the club’s longest deadlock. The Sox tied at Baltimore, 1-1, in 1959 and drew 6-6 against the same Yankees franchise, then known as the Highlanders, in 1903.
In 1959, the White Sox celebrated Nellie Fox Night at Comiskey Park while they were in the middle of a pennant race. Fox, the future Hall-of-Famer and eventual American League MVP, was honored with a new boat, a shotgun and other gifts, and he got emotional speaking to the crowd.
He would go on to hit .306 with 70 RBIs that season. On the night itself, though, he went 0-for-3 with a run scored in a 5-4 win over Washington before almost 37,986 fans.
Six years later, Moose Skowron reached a major milestone in a wild 7-6 White Sox win at Kansas City. He launched his 200th career home run to lead off the sixth inning, putting Chicago ahead 4-2.
The game kept careening after that. Even when the Sox built a 6-3 lead in the ninth, the Athletics scored three times to tie it, getting there through a bizarre chain of events that included two hit batsmen, a ground out, two wild pitches, two advances by defensive indifference, a single, a stolen base, a walk and a passed ball.
Chicago finally pulled back in front in the 11th on three straight singles, with Al Weis delivering the go-ahead GWRBI. Skowron finished 2-for-3 with a homer and a triple.
In 1973, Stan Bahnsen came within one out of a no-hitter against Cleveland before former Sox outfielder Walt Williams beat it out with a ground-ball single to left. Bill Melton was playing in at third, apparently expecting a bunt, and Williams later said he would never try to break up a no-hitter by bunting that late.
Then in 2005, the White Sox matched a club record by hitting four home runs in one inning, doing it in the fourth against Randy Johnson in a 6-2 win over the Yankees at U.S. Cellular Field. Tadahito Iguchi, Aaron Rowand, Paul Konerko and Chris Widger all went deep, with Iguchi, Rowand and Konerko going back-to-back-to-back.
In Other News...
White Sox Fans Finally Have A New Way To Judge Vaughn
Andrew Vaughn has spent enough time around the White Sox to know that first base defense is often judged by feel as much as by hard evidence, but Statcast has finally given fans a fresher way to look at it. The new receiving leaderboard breaks down the job into specific skills like scoops and handling different kinds of throws, adding some needed clarity to a position where the little plays can blend together from one game to the next.
For Vaughn, the early read is encouraging. Statcast had him as a net positive defender, with particular strength on bounced throws and balls arriving high, even if his catch radius still leaves room for improvement. It is a more nuanced picture than a simple good-or-bad label, and one White Sox followers can use as the season develops. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Put Two Key Infield Prospects On Hold At Once
The White Sox have put the brakes on two of their most closely watched infield prospects at the same time, with Roch Cholowsky and Billy Carlson both shut down for the rest of the 2026 season. Cholowsky is dealing with a right wrist issue, while Carlson is working back from a skin infection and the treatment that came with it, leaving Chicago to take the cautious route with two players it views as important pieces for the future.
For a farm system trying to build real depth up the middle, the timing is a frustrating one, even if the long view matters more than any one summer. Both prospects are now focused on recovery and on getting ready for the 2027 season, which means the organization will spend the coming months waiting to see how each one responds before the next step in their development comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]
Kyle Teels Return Gives White Sox One More Catcher Question Down The Stretch
Kyle Teel is finally on the move again, and the White Sox are hoping the latest step gets him back on the field for good. After a season interrupted by a right hamstring strain, a sprained lateral collateral ligament in his right knee and a left ankle sprain, Teel has been cleared for game action and is set to begin a rehab assignment with Charlotte, giving the organization a chance to see how his body holds up in real action.
For a White Sox club trying to sort out the catcher spot over the final stretch, Teels return to the lineup picture carries obvious significance. Getting him back to full health would give the team a steadier option behind the plate, but the rehab assignment is the first checkpoint, and the bigger question is whether he can stay healthy long enough to matter in the seasons last weeks. [Read more 🡒]