1921
The future of the best-of-nine World Series is decided at the major league meetings: The AL votes to return to the best-of-seven, while the NL prefers the status quo. Commission Landis casts the deciding vote to return the World Series to a best-of-seven, and the World Series has remained so ever since.
1958
Bill Veeck got a court ruling in his favor, which allowed him to assume majority control of the White Sox. Members of the squabbling Comiskey family had gone to court in an effort to stop the sale of the franchise. There would be more court rulings before the sale was made final in March 1959.
2005
While the Jim Thome–Aaron Rowand trade after the World Series win gets a lot of a attention, this later, worse swap seems to escape scrutiny. The White Sox fortified its prodigious rotation with Javier Vázquez and $4 million from the Diamondbacks, shipping Arizona back pitcher Orlando Hernández, reliever Luis Vizcaino and minor league outfielder Chris Young.
It was the latter name that would haunt the White Sox, as Young finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2007, crushing 32 home runs. In 2010 and 2011, while the White Sox were dumping the likes of Alex Rios and Alejandro De Aza in center field, Young produced 10.0 WAR. While his career tailed from there, Vaáquez never really meshed with the White Sox or manager Ozzie Guillén; more than half of the 12.1 WAR Vázquez earned in Chicago came in the lost season of 2007, furthering the righty’s reputation as a player who ran up stats when the lights were most dim.
2010
In a bit of a coup that worked on more than one level, the White Sox signed reliever Jesse Crain away from division rival Minnesota, to a three-year, $13 million contract. Crain was stellar with the White Sox, accumulating a 6.0 WAR and 2.10 ERA, and filing away his two best and three of the four top seasons of his career.
In his final year (2013, which due to injury ended up as his final major league season) was a unique one in White Sox annals: With a 0.74 ERA over 38 games, Crain remains the only pitcher in franchise history to throw 30 or more games with an ERA of less than 1.00. It became the lone All-Star season of Crain’s career, as well.
Oh, and Jesse also delivered this delightful interview on the toys he traveled with on the road, even serving as spontaneous wildcat cameraman for a young journalist who you might occasionally read on this site: