By Woodrow Carroll
The no-hitter turned in by the Chicago White Sox’ Carlos Rodon last week over the Cleveland Indians was most welcome to a team that has been trying to get its footing early in the season. Pegged as a team on its way up after last season’s 35-25 regular-season run, the White Sox have struggled out of the gate in 2021.
Rodon’s 8-0 victory over Cleveland came as it did on the heels of Indians’ ace Shane Biebers’ 2-0 (10 inning) victory over Chicago the night before. The still smallish crowd for a Major League Baseball game was treated to pitching mastery both nights.
Rodon entered the ninth inning with a perfect game. With one out in the top of the ninth, Rodon plunked the Indians’ Roberto Perez on the foot on an 0-2 count. So long perfect game! Not to worry. Two hitters later Rodon had a no-hitter if not a perfecto.
Not blessed to view Rodon’s masterpiece, this writer has viewed three no-hitters by White Sox pitching on Chicago’s southside down through the years.
As a freshman in high school, yours truly got to see Bob Keegan no-hit the Washington Senators in August of 1957. Keegan’s no-hitter was part of a midweek doubleheader brought on by an earlier rainout.
Keegan and White Sox beat the Senators 6-0 after losing the opener of the doubleheader. Keegan was a respectable pitcher who didn’t reach the Majors until he was in his 30’s. Keegan did make the 1954 American League All-Star squad. However, by the late-1950s, Keegan was pitching on borrowed time.
The 1957 Senators were an opposing pitchers’ dream. Washington ended up 55-99 and last in the American League. Chuck Stobbs, best known for giving up a 565 foot homer to Mickey Mantle in a game against the Yankees, was Keegan’s mound opponent that evening.
The 1957 White Sox finished 90-64 in second place eight games back of the Yankees in the AL. That second-place finish was the best showing for the franchise since the remnants of the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ finished second to Cleveland in 1920.
Keegan finished 10-8 in 1957. By the following campaign, Keegan, who was 40-36 overall in the Majors, was in the minors.
Ten years passed by. Another doubleheader. The time was Sept. 10, 1967 and the White Sox were hosting the Detroit Tigers. Game 1 of the doubleheader found Chicago’s Joel Horlen on the mound. Another no-hit 6-0 victory for the good guys.
Eddie Stanky was the White Sox Manager in 1967. A good pitching with little offensive punch team. The takeaway memory from the game was Stanky putting Charles “Cotton” Nash in at first base for defensive purposes in the top of the ninth.
Nash was a great athlete who played pro baseball and basketball. The first Tigers’ out in the top of the ninth was a slow grounder that Nash, who stood 6’6”, extended himself at first and got the call. The final two outs were also infield grounders that presented less of a problem. Three putouts for Nash and a no-hitter for Horlen.
Sadly, from the Sox standpoint, the Sox run at the American League crown fell short. Chicago was shutout in three of its final four games in 1967 and finished three games back of the league champion Boston Red Sox.
Third no-hitter came as a member of the media April 18, 2007. The Texas Rangers were the Sox foe. Another 6-0 Sox victory as it turned out.
Mark Buehrle was on the mound that night and he retired the first 13 batters he faced. Then Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa. Then, to the delight of Sox fans the world over, Buehrle picked off Sosa at first. From that point on, Buehrle mowed the Rangers down. Not a perfect game! But, by picking Sosa off, Buehrle did face the the minimum 27 batters.
Despite two impressive victories early on in 2021, Rodon stands only 31-33 in seven seasons in the Majors. Was the no-hitter a sign of good things to come on a steady basis? Or, a statistical outlier?